Santa Cruz Film Festival Award Winners Announced at Closing Night Gala

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Santa Cruz, CA, May 18, 2010: The Santa Cruz Film Festival, an annual celebration of independent cinema and culture in California’s Greater Monterey Bay area, announced on Saturday, May 15 the winners of the Grand Jury Prizes and Audience Awards.

The juries for each of the award sections was comprised of local and industry professionals that reviewed five selections in each category. Winners were chosen based on a weighted average of quantitative results submitted by each juror.

Audience award winners were determined on weighted averages based on ballots completed by the over 4,300 Festival attendees after each screening.

“The Festival congratulates the 16 films that were winners in the Grand Jury and Audience Award competitions. The achievements made by this creative, diverse group is truly remarkable,” said Julian Soler, Director of Programming. “We look forward to contributing their continued success, and to supporting and celebrating the work of all 133 films the Festival presented in 2010. They’re all winners.”

GRAND JURY PRIZE WINNERS
Best Narrative Feature
Do Elephants Pray? (Paul Hills, UK/France)

Emerging Filmmaker Prize
Machotaildrop (Corey Adams & Alex Craig, USA/Canada)

Best Documentary Feature
House of Numbers (Brent W. Leung, USA/UK/Canada/China/South Africa/Germany/France/Switzerland)

Best EarthVision Environmental Film
Burning in the Sun (Cambria Matlow & Morgan Robinson, USA/Mali)

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS
Morton Marcus Memorial Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
Liquor Store Cactus (Eugene Kim, USA)

Best Documentary Feature
La Vie en Verte: The WAMM Movie (Charlie Hall & Bevin Bell-Hall, USA)

Best EarthVision Environmental Film
Paddle to Seattle: Journey through the Inside Passage (J.J. Kelley & Josh Thomas, USA)

Best Narrative Short
Cried Suicide (Lauren Palmigiano, USA)

Best Documentary Short
Ride a Wave (Rocky Romano, USA)

Best Animated Film
Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No (James Blagden, USA)

Best Experimental Work
Plastic and Glass (Tessa Joosse, France)

Best International Film
Garbage Dreams (Mai Iskander, USA/Egypt)

Best Locally Produced Work
Until We Meet Again… Building a School in Tanzania (Peggy Selz, USA/Tanzania)

Best Student Produced Work (University level)
Annie in the Aisle of Irma (Tess Sweet, USA)

Evan Kuhn Memorial Audience Award for Best Youth-Produced Work
Youth Voices ’08 (Sydney Matterson, USA)

SPECIAL MENTION
Given by the Festival to a film that had a unique and special impact and response.
The Westsiders (Joshua Pomer, USA)

Complete details about all of the films can be found at the Festival website: http://www.santacruzfilmfestival.org

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