49th San Francisco International Film Festival Announces 58 Golden Gate Award Nominees

Competition Highlights Innovation and Excellence in Documentaries, Shorts, Animation, Experimental, Youth-Produced and Television Works

March 28, 2006

San Francisco, CA—The 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 20–May 4) proudly unveiled its official selection for the Golden Gate Awards (GGA) competition today. The GGAs honor innovation in documentaries, animation, shorts, experimental, television and youth-produced works. This year’s call for entries was met with 1,600 submissions from around the globe, of which the Festival will be showcasing 58 official selections representing 22 countries. The winners will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, May 3 at 6:30 pm at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center. Winners of the Festival’s juried SKYY Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize will also be announced at this ceremony.

Whittling down the 1,600 initial entries to come up with the 58 official selections for the Festival is no simple task. A group of 37 Bay Area prescreeners watched the submissions between November 2005 and January 2006 and passed on their selections to the GGA panelists. Panels consisting of a total of 46 members then made nominations to the Festival, which ultimately decides the official Golden Gate Award nominees. The winners will be chosen by the Festival’s Golden Gate Awards jury. Juries comprised of renowned film professionals will assemble during the Festival to determine who will receive trophies and cash prizes of up to $5,000. The shorts jury is comprised of Christopher Bratton, president of the San Francisco Art Institute; Pamela Cavert, campaign director for Not In Our Town; Dan Krauss, director of The Death of Kevin Carter (winner of a 2005 Golden Gate Award and nominated for an Academy Award); Janis Plotkin, interim executive director for Film Arts Foundation; Caroline Savage, executive director of San Francisco Cinematheque; Chuleenan Svetvilas, film journalist; and Mark Taylor, senior Web producer at KQED. Additional juries to be announced.

“From the prescreeners to the panelists to the programmers—all of whom do a superb job—we strive to ensure that the selection of nominees for the Golden Gate Awards will be exemplary,” said Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society. “It is a great tradition that takes advantage of the talent of Bay Area film and media professionals as they aid our programmers in choosing some of the finest works in the Festival.”

SFIFF 49 features an exceptionally strong selection of documentary features competing for the Golden Gate Awards. Eric Steel’s powerful and moving documentary The Bridge (USA), which shows the dark lure of San Francisco’s famous landmark and notorious suicide spot, will undoubtedly generate a provocative dialogue among filmgoers. In the inspiring Favela Rising (Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary, USA/Brazil) a drug trafficker turned social revolutionary musician from one of the toughest neighborhoods in Brazil leads his community into an art-inspired war against the drug trafficking army holding them captive. In the lovely film Smiling in a War Zone (Simone Aaberg Kaern and Magnus Bejman, Denmark/Sweden), Aaberg, a Danish artist and pilot, takes her plane through various no-fly zones in order to give a flying lesson to a 16-year-old Afghan girl. In the mind-opening Encounter Point (USA), Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha introduce the audience to a number of bilateral groups in the Middle East seeking to end the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through nonviolent means. Patrick Bisschops’s Strangers in the Neighborhood shows a working-class neighborhood in The Hague, where pigeon racing is a shared passion but also a microcosm of the troubled race relations between native Dutch and Turkish immigrants. The tribulations of photojournalism are revealed in Shooting Under Fire (Sacha Mirzoeff and Bettina Borgfeld, Germany/Israel), as Reinhard Krause leads a team of Israelis and Palestinians covering both sides of the conflict. Exposing more dangerous occupations is Workingman’s Death (Austria/Germany), Michael Glawogger’s harrowing and visually striking portrait of five hellish jobs around the world. On the lighter side, The Shutka Book of Records (Aleksander Manic, Czech Republic) features a fascinating cast of characters who display the music, laughter and competitive spirit of the Roma (Gypsies) of Shutka, Macedonia.

The three competitors for the Best Bay Area documentary feature include Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, in which Stanley Nelson documents the story behind Jim Jones and his followers with testimonies by former members of the ill-fated church. The inspiring Runners High (Justine Jacob and Alex da Silva, USA) shows inner-city youth who are training to run in the Los Angeles Marathon, through the organization Students Run Oakland. And Adrian Belic, who previously won a GGA for Genghis Blues (SFIFF 1999), returns to the Festival with Beyond the Call, a Mother-Teresa-meets-Indiana-Jones adventure in which three former soldiers travel the world delivering humanitarian aid directly into the hands of civilians in some of the most dangerous (yet beautiful) places on Earth.

Within the competition’s 13 narrative shorts is Vincent D’Onofrio’s directorial debut, Five Minutes, Mr. Welles, Mark Decena’s (Dopamine, SFIFF 2003) The Light (USA), the hilarious Pretty Boy Project (Karl L. Reid, USA) and Jellybaby (Ronan Burke and Bob Burke, Ireland). Sam Green, a previous Golden Gate Award winner for The Weather Underground, returns with lot 63 grave c (USA), one of four documentary shorts in the competition. Green’s film explores what happened to Meredith Hunter, whose fatal stabbing during a Rolling Stones 1969 concert at Altamont in some ways signaled the end of an era, and how he was ultimately forgotten as an individual. Cheating Death (Eric Geringas, Canada) shows us the world through the eyes of a former crack dealer, and dancer Homer Avila, who lost a leg to cancer, returns triumphantly to the stage in Phoenix Dance (Karina Epperlein, USA). In On the Road (Maciej Adamek, Poland), Jozef and Basia recount their lives, their relationship and their homelessness, as we learn it is not having a home that matters to them, but rather the fact that they are together.

Rounding out the film and video competition are the six entries in Works for Kids and Families, seven Animated Shorts, six New Visions selections and seven Youth Works. The winners of the television competition, the only ones chosen prior to the Festival, are They Chose China (Shui-Bo Wang, Canada/France), Thornton Dial (Celia Carey, USA), Seeds of Doubt (Samir Nasr, Germany) and Bing Can Sing (Elanna Allen, USA). These are the winners of the TV Documentary Long Form, TV Documentary Short Form, TV Narrative Long Form and TV Narrative Short Form competitions, respectively.

“We are delighted with this year’s selection,” said Audrey Chang, coordinator of the Golden Gate Awards. “The films selected for the 2006 Golden Gate Awards competition share a universal theme: the need for a more humanistic, compassionate approach to dealing with social and political issues facing us all.”

The categories and prizes for the Golden Gate Awards are: Documentary Feature (40 minutes and longer): $5,000; Bay Area Documentary Feature: $2,500; Documentary Short (under 40 minutes): $1,500; Bay Area Documentary Short: $1,500; Animated Short (under 40 minutes): $1,500; Narrative Short: $1,500; New Visions: $1,500; Youth Works: $1,000; Works for Kids and Families: $1,000. Additionally, Apple is providing production suite software, including Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro, to the winner of the Best Documentary Feature. Alpha Cine Seattle labs is providing $2,000 worth of lab services to the winner of the Best Bay Area Documentary Feature and Kodak is providing $1,700 gift certificates to the winners of the Best Documentary Short and the Best Bay Area Documentary Short.

Tickets for the Golden Gate Awards Ceremony are $11 for the general public and $9 for San Francisco Film Society members. The ceremony, which takes place at the Cowell Theater in Fort Mason Center on Wednesday, May 3, kicks off with a reception at 6:30 pm.

Stella Artois, Sundance Channel and Comcast are the sponsors of the Golden Gate Awards ceremony.
Sundance Channel and Comcast are the sponsors of the Documentary Features selection.
Stella Artois is the sponsor of the Shorts Program.

GOLDEN GATE AWARD OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

FILM & VIDEO
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

*Beyond the Call, Adrian Belic (USA, 2006)

The Bridge, Eric Steel (USA, 2005)

Encounter Point, Ronit Avni, Julia Bacha (USA, 2006)

Favela Rising, Jeff Zimbalist, Matt Mochary (USA/Brazil, 2005)

*Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, Stanley Nelson (USA, 2006)

*Runners High, Justine Jacob, Alex da Silva (USA, 2006)

Shooting Under Fire, Sacha Mirzoeff, Bettina Borgfeld (Germany, 2005)

The Shutka Book of Records, Aleksandar Manic (Czech Republic, 2005)

Smiling in a War Zone, Simone Aaberg Kaern, Magnus Bejmar (Denmark/Sweden, 2005)

Strangers in the Neighborhood, Patrick Bisschops (Netherlands, 2005)

Workingman's Death, Michael Glawogger (Austria, 2005)

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

Cheating Death, Eric Geringas (Canada, 2005)

*lot 63 grave c, Sam Green (USA, 2006)

On the Road, Maciej Adamek (Poland, 2005)

*Phoenix Dance, Karina Epperlein (USA, 2006)

NARRATIVE SHORTS

Big Girl, Renuka Jeyapalan (Canada, 2005)

Dazed, Anne Pinheiro Guimarães (Brazil, 2005)

February 30th, Sergio Basso (Italy, 2005)

Five Minutes, Mr. Welles, Vincent D'Onofrio (USA, 2005)

Jellybaby, Ronan Burke, Rob Burke (Ireland, 2005)

Kitchen, Alice Winocour (France, 2005)

*The Light, Mark Decena (USA, 2005)

*Lost & Found, Natalija Vekic (USA, 2006)

Love at 4 pm, Sebastián Alfie (Spain, 2005)

Lucky, Avie Luthra (South Africa, 2005)

The Pretty Boy Project, Karl L. Reid (USA, 2005)

Razan, Aslihan Unaldi (USA, 2006)

Remain Upright!!, Kristijan Risteski (Macedonia, 2005)

WORKS FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES

A Bag of Sweets, Matthias Bruhn (Germany, 2005)

Cake, Jennifer Arzt (USA, 2005)

Kylie Goldstein, All American, Eva Saks (USA, 2005)

Roberto the Insect Architect, Galen Fott, Jerry Hunt (USA, 2005)

Rubber Soles, Christine Turner (USA, 2005)

Sirah, Christine Spindler (USA, 2005)

ANIMATED SHORTS

2/14, Xi-Yan Chen (Taiwan, 2005)

At the Quinte Hotel, Bruce Alcock (Canada, 2005)

Home Delivery, Elio Quiroga (Spain, 2005)

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, Anthony Lucas (Australia, 2005)

Never Live Above a Psychic, Steve Gentile (USA, 2005)

A Room Nearby, Paul Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger (USA, 2005)

*Tales of Mere Existence, Lev Yilmaz (USA, 2006)

NEW VISIONS

Benediction, Tess Girard (Canada, 2005)

*Market Street, Tomonari Nishikawa (USA, 2005)

*Open, Katherin McInnis (USA, 2005)

*Relative Distance, Cathy Begien (USA, 2005)

site specific_LAS VEGAS 05, Olivo Barbieri (Canada/Italy, 2005)

*Suspended 2, Amy Hicks (USA, 2005)

YOUTH WORK

*The Boat, Alexandra Hontales-Adams (USA, 2005)

Expectations, Gilberto Francisco (USA, 2005)

*Grand Mal, Danny Bailey (USA, 2005)

Happy Birthday, Justin Reckart (USA, 2005)

*RIP Oakland, Streetside Productions (USA, 2005)

Shoes, Jake Sawyer (USA, 2005)

*Slip of the Tongue, Karen Lum (USA, 2005)

TELEVISION

TV DOCUMENTARY LONG FORM

They Chose China, Shui-Bo Wang (Canada/France, 2005)

TV DOCUMENTARY SHORT FORM

Thornton Dial, Celia Carey (USA, 2005)

TV NARRATIVE LONG FORM

Seeds of Doubt, Samir Nasr (Germany, 2004)

TV NARRATIVE SHORT FORM

Bing Can Sing, Elanna Allen (USA, 2005)

*Bay Area Filmmakers