Over a thousand filmmakers, guests and festival-goers filled the California Theatre in downtown San Jose for the Cinequest 16 closing night gala on Sunday, March 12. Cinequest co-founder Kathleen Powell introduced the jury members to present the awards.

Film critic Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews announced the winners of the feature competition, including Sören Senn’s KUSSKUSS (Maverick Spirit Winner) and Jan Martin Scharf and Arne Nolting’s WAHRHEIT ODER PFLICHT/TRUTH OR DARE (Best First Feature). Fellow juror Alison Mckee, Film Studies professor in the Department of Television, Radio, Film and Theatre at San José State University, accompanied Rhodes on stage.

Writer Tony Levelle, whose upcoming books on digital cinematography and documentary filmmaking will be published by Michael Wiese Productions, bestowed the documentary and short film honors. Ian Inaba’s AMERICAN BLACKOUT won for Best Documentary Feature. The other jury member was award–winning documentary filmmaker Jan Krawitz (BIG ENOUGH, LITTLE PEOPLE, IN HARM’S WAY), a professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University.

Powell presented the rest of the award winners, including Sara Johnsen’s VINTERKYSS/KISSED BY WINTER (Global Vision Award) and Nigel Roffe-Barker’s ASYLUM (New Visions Award: Feature). Angeliki Giannakopoulos’ MY CHILD: MOTHERS OF WAR won the Director’s Award, which is not given out each year.

The complete Cinequest 16 awards list follows:

March 12, 2006

Global Vision Award
VINTERKYSS / KISSED BY WINTER (Sara Johnsen, Norway, 35mm)

New Visions Award: Feature
ASYLUM (Nigel Roffe-Barker, UK, 35mm)

New Visions Award: Short
DIRTY MARY (Stuart Rogers)

Special Jury Prize: Narrative Short
BEFORE DAWN (Balint Kenyeres)

Best Short Documentary
RADIO GRITO (Michael Seely)

Best Animated Short
JOHN AND MICHAEL (Shira Avni)

Best Short Narrative
LUCKY (Avie Luthra)

Best Feature Documentary
AMERICAN BLACKOUT (Ian Inaba, USA, HD-CAM)

Director’s Award
MY CHILD: MOTHERS OF WAR (Angeliki Giannakopoulos, USA, DVCAM)

Special Jury Prize: Vision of Production Design Award
VOM SUCHEN UND FINDEN DER LIEBE / ABOUT THE LOOKING FOR AND THE FINDING OF LOVE (Helmut Dietl, Germany, 35mm)

Special Jury Prize: Ensemble Cast Award
THE WEST WITTERING AFFAIR (David Scheinmann, UK, 35mm)

Best First Feature
WAHRHEIT ODER PFLICHT / TRUTH OR DARE (Jan Martin Scharf and Arne Nolting, Germany, 35mm)

Maverick Spirit Winner
KUSSKUSS (Sören Senn, Switzerland/Germany, 35mm)

Best Student Short Film
SON UP (Andrew Shearer, Chapman University, USA)


CINEQUEST 16 AUDIENCE AWARDS

Best Animated Short
FUMI AND THE BAD LUCK FOOT (David Chai)

Best Feature Documentary
ANDREW JENKS, ROOM 335 (Andrew Jenks, USA, MiniDV)

Best Feature Comedy
CHALK (Mike Akel, USA, HD-CAM)

Best Feature Drama (tie)
Á COLOMBIA (Ryan Byrne, USA/Colombia, DigiBeta)
THE GOLD BRACELET (Ravi Raz, USA/India, 35mm)

Images:
Maverick Spirit Winner: KUSSKUSS
Best First Feature: WAHRHEIT ODER PFLICHT / TRUTH OR DARE
Global Vision Award: VINTERKYSS / KISSED BY WINTER
New Visions Award, Feature: ASYLUM
Director’s Award: MY CHILD: MOTHERS OF WAR