2010 PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL SHORTFEST ANNOUNCES FESTIVAL WINNERS

The Gold Mine receives 3 awards including Best of Festival Award;
Off Season receives Panavision Grand Jury Award;
The Story of My Life receives Future Filmmaker Award

The 2010 Palm Springs International ShortFest & Short Film Market, the largest short film festival and market in North America, announced its Festival award winners on Sunday, June 27, 2010. 314 short films screened throughout the Festival along with more than 3,000 filmmaker submissions available in the film market. Held from June 22-28, 2010, the Festival saw a large rise in attendance this year on all fronts, including ticket buyers, filmmakers and film industry delegates.

A total of 27 festival awards were announced Sunday evening at the Awards Presentation held at the Camelot Theatre in Palm Springs, CA, followed by the Closing Night Party at Tropicale. A total of $90,000 in cash and production prizes was awarded, including $14,000 in cash prizes, $7,500 in Kodak film stock, $6,000 in software prizes and a $60,000 Panavision camera package. Award winners receiving a first place prize in four categories are for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Academy Award® consideration. First place winners of this award become eligible for Academy Awards consideration. Over the past 15 years, the Festival has presented 68 films that have gone on to receive Academy Award nominations.

Festival Director Darryl Macdonald said, "It's been a hugely successful year for ShortFest on all fronts, with record attendance, a rapturous response to the film line-up from audiences and a significant jump in Film Market activity. The sheer quality and diversity of the work on view at this year's Festival provided vivid testament to the extraordinary number of gifted new talents currently emerging in the filmmaking field worldwide."

Darryl Macdonald

Festival Curator Kathleen McInnis said, "We couldn't be more thrilled with the focus and attention paid to both the filmmakers and films this year by the visiting industry, many of whom shared their experiences during the ShortFest Forums. The caliber of talent on both sides of the panels was extraordinary, and shines a spotlight on the dynamic convergence of emerging film talent and the innovators in today's film industry."

The 2010 Palm Springs International ShortFest award winners are:

JURY AWARDS:

BEST OF FESTIVAL AWARD - $2,000 cash, Software Package courtesy of The Showbiz Software Store. The winner of this award becomes eligible for Academy Awards consideration.
The Gold Mine (La Mina de Oro) (Mexico), Jacques Bonnavent
Betina, a lonely spinster, meets what appears to be the man of her dreams online, and in the course of time he proposes to her. After quitting her job and selling her apartment, she makes the arduous trip to be with him, but what awaits her is a wholly unexpected fate.

FUTURE FILMMAKER AWARD - $2,000 cash, Software Package courtesy of The Showbiz Software Store, Ultimate Stock Footage Collection courtesy of Footagefilm.com, Final Cut Studio provided by Apple.
Pierre Ferrière, The Story of My Life (Toute ma Vie) (France)
After calling her husband to tell him the good news (they're having twins!) a woman heads for home on foot, when a stranger accosts her on the street claiming to know everything about her.

PANAVISION GRAND JURY AWARD - Panavision Camera Package valued at $60,000.
Off Season (Canada/USA), Jonathan van Tulleken
Stealing from summer cottages during the brutal off-season winter months, a transient and his faithful dog make a tragic discovery.

JURY SPECIAL CITATION - The jury presented a special mention to Flawed (Canada) directed by Andrea Dorfman "for the originality of its artistic expression, its genre-defying aesthetic and its emotional resonance." Artist/filmmaker Andrea Dorfman's drawings burst colorfully into life as she animates the story of her long distance relationship with a man whose profession (plastic surgeon) gives her (and us) plenty of fodder.

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

AUDIENCE FAVORITE LIVE ACTION SHORT
Wish 143 (UK), Ian Barnes
A young man, desperate to come of age before time runs out, has nothing to lose but his virginity.

Runner-up: The Butterfly Circus (USA), Joshua Weigel

AUDIENCE FAVORITE DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Born Sweet (Cambodia), Cynthia Wade
Gorgeously photographed in Cambodia, Born Sweet tells the courageous and inspirational story of Vinh, a 15-year-old boy stricken with arsenic poisoning. Directed by Cynthia Wade, whose Freeheld won the 2007 ShortFest Audience Award and Jury Awards and an Academy Award in 2008.

Runner-up: Flawed (Canada), Andrea Dorfman

AUDIENCE FAVORITE ANIMATION SHORT
Ormie (Canada), Rob Silvestri
Ormie the Pig has a simple, obsessive goal, to get the cookies just out of reach on top of the refrigerator.

Runner-up: The Gruffalo (UK), Jakob Shuh and Max Lang

JURY CATEGORY AWARDS:

All first place winners in these categories received a cash award of $2,000 and Software Package courtesy of The Showbiz Software Store. First place winners in the Animated and Live Action categories become eligible for Academy Awards consideration. Second Place recipients received a $500 cash prize.

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT 15 MINUTES AND UNDER
First Place ($2,000) - The Gold Mine (La Mina de Oro) (Mexico), Jacques Bonnavent
Betina, a lonely spinster, meets what appears to be the man of her dreams online, and in the course of time he proposes to her. After quitting her job and selling her apartment, she makes the arduous trip to be with him, but what awaits her is a wholly unexpected fate.

Second Place ($500) - Pretty Little Doggie (USA), E. Ivan Infante

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT OVER 15 MINUTES
First Place ($2,000) - Hermann (Germany/UK), Hana Geissendorfer
Hermann is 67 years old and lonely. He does have his Budgie, Gloria. He distracts himself from his solitude with his love for Ornithology and rigidly structured days, yet he is still full of desire -- until he meets Jorge.

Second Place ($500) - Aquarium (Norway), Bard Rossevold

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
First Place ($2,000) - Angry Man (Sinna Mann) (Norway), Anita Killi
The film portrays the fable of a young boy who enlists the help of the King to deal with his father's anger management problems.

Second Place ($500) - The Lost Thing (Australia/UK), Andrew Ruhemann & Shaun Tan

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
First Place ($2,000) - The Shutdown (Scotland), Adam Stafford
An explosion at a BP plant leaves dead and injured -- including writer Alan Bissett's father. This is not the Gulf but Falkirk, Scotland.

Second Place ($500) - Cohen on the Bridge: Rescue at Entebbe (Israel/UK), Andrew Wainrib

Jury Special Citation - The jury presented a special mention to The Lucky Ones (Szczesciarze) (Poland), directed by Tomasz Wolski "for transforming a routine look at bureaucratic procedures into a wry, poignant and subversive exploration of the human experience."

STUDENT CATEGORIES:

All first place winners in these categories will receive $1,000 in Kodak film stock and Movie Outline software. Second Place recipients receive $500 in Kodak film stock. All student filmmakers in Festival competition are eligible for these awards.

BEST STUDENT LIVE ACTION SHORT 15 MINUTES AND UNDER
First Place ($2,000) - Daughters (China/USA), Chloé Zhao
Pregnant with her third child - a boy - a Chinese woman must get rid of one of her two daughters when her impoverished sister can no longer afford to raise one of them.

Second Place ($500) - Side by Side (Nebeneinander) (Germany), Christoph Englert

BEST STUDENT LIVE ACTION SHORT OVER 15 MINUTES
First Place ($2,000) - The Road Home (India/USA), Rahul Gandotra
Sent by his parents in England to an international boarding school in the Himalayas, Pico grapples with his Indian heritage in this engrossing tale of a young boy in search of the road home.

Second Place ($500) - God of Love (USA), Luke Matheny

BEST STUDENT ANIMATED SHORT
First Place - Prayers for Peace (USA), Dustin Grella
An introspective journey through the heart and soul of his brother's death by an IED outside of Fallujah, the artist finds memory indelible as well as fleeting.

Second Place - Urs (Germany), Moritz Mayerhofer

BEST STUDENT DOCUMENTARY SHORT
First Place - The Little Snow Animal (Lumikko) (Finland), Miia Tervo
This fascinating and hauntingly beautiful film pushes the boundary of documentary, animation and live action to create an impressionistic picture of a 16-year-old girl's troubled state of mind.

Second Place - A Moth in Spring (Canada/USA), Yu Gu

KODAK AWARD FOR BEST STUDENT CINEMATOGRAPHY
First Place ($1,000 in Kodak film stock)
Jaron Henrie-McCrea (cinematographer), Sinkhole (USA)
A smarmy little broker finds himself in the middle of nowhere, in a strange and dangerous land riddled with smoke-spewing sinkholes, and for what? Why, to make the deal, of course.

Second Place ($500 in Kodak film stock)
Ilyeon Kim (cinematographer), A Scene at the Sea (Gu Yeo-Rum-Eui Ba-da) (South Korea/USA)

The Alexis Award for Best Emerging Student Filmmaker went to Some Boys Don't Leave (USA), directed by Maggie Kiley. The recipient will receive Final Cut Studio provided by Apple Computer. Special citation went to A Wink of the Eye (France/USA), directed by Ambarish Manepalli. The Alexis Award was created in honor of Alexis Echavarria, a young filmmaker, whose talent as a budding filmmaker and gift for inspiring excellence among his fellow students were cut short suddenly in 2005 at age 16.

The Cinema Without Borders Best International Film Award went to War (Uerra) (Italy), directed by Paolo Sassanelli. Set in Italy in 1949, this delightful comedy revolves around a father and his three sons, who take dad's war stories a little too much to heart. The Gold Mine (La Mina de Oro) (Mexico) received second place.

This year's jury members were Dan Ireland, director; Lael Lowenstein, President Los Angeles Film Critics Association; and Guinevere Turner, writer, director and actor.

Designated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an award-qualifying Festival and accredited by the International Short Film Conference, the Palm Springs International ShortFest and its Short Film Market, are the largest and most prominent short film showcase in North America. The Festival and its concurrent 3,000-film Film Market continues to serve as a scouting ground for new filmmaking talent and is well attended by those in the business of buying and selling short films.

The Palm Springs International ShortFest is supported by an ever-growing number of new and longtime sponsors with local, national and international prominence. The Title Sponsor is the City of Palm Springs with Presenting Sponsors The Desert Sun, Spencer's and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Major Sponsors include MAKE, Panavision, The BottomLine, Kodak, KPSP Local 2, the Kaiser Restaurant Group, Australian Consulate General in Los Angeles and the Ace Hotel. The official host hotel and media center is the Hilton Palm Springs Resort.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival will be held January 6-17, 2011.