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From www.filmmakers.com Film Festivals
SEDONA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 1st Georgia Frontiere, Bill Muller Memorial Awards Presented Sedona, AZ -- Ripple Effect, Forrest Whitaker’s new film of forgiveness and enlightenment, and The Flyboys, a coming-of-age film about two boys who foil a multi-million heist high above the Arizona desert, earned Director’s Choice and Audience Choice awards, respectively, for Best Feature at the 14th annual Sedona International Film Festival and Workshop. The five-day event screened 150 movies in a variety of categories and attracted sell-out crowds throughout the final weekend, which also featured a Women in Film panel moderated by Turner Classic Movies’ host Robert Osborne and panelists Mary Stuart Masterson, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Diane Ladd. Sedona International Film Festival Executive Director Patrick Schweiss also presented the inaugural Georgia Frontiere Memorial Scholarship to The Music In Me, a moving Australian documentary about The Merry Makers, a group of mentally challenged performers ranging in age from 6 to 56. The film also won the Director’s Choice Award for Most Inspiring Documentary. Frontiere, a longtime supporter of the Sedona International Film Festival and owner of the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams, recently passed away. Schweiss also presented the first Arizona Republic Bill Muller Award for Excellence in Screenwriting to Fields of Fuels, a riveting documentary by Josh Tickell about America’s addiction to oil and the rise of the petrochemical industry. The film also won the Director’s Choice Award for Most Compelling Documentary. Muller, the former Arizona Republic film critic, passed away in late 2007 at 42 of liver cancer. “It is both fitting and ironic that we recognized two individuals in the same year who had such tremendous influence on this festival in particular and the movie experience in general,” Schweiss said. “They both would have been proud of the films that were honored in their memory.” Roger Donaldson was named Best Director for The Bank Job and Papiroflexia (Origami) captured Best Animation in both the Director’s Choice and the Audience Choice Awards. The Most Requested Film in the Audience Choice Awards was Dalai Lama Renaissance, documentary which recorded an exploration of the future of mankind by 40 of the West’s leading, most innovative thinkers at the The Dalai Lama’s Northern India residence. Harrison Ford narrated the film. More than 7,000 people attended the film festival and workshop, which added an additional screening venue this year to meet the overwhelming demand. Presenting Sponsors for the 2008 event included: Harkins Theatres, City of Sedona, US Airways, Southern Wine & Spirits, Cambria Vineyards, Budweiser Select, Southwest Airlines, the City of Sedona, Sedona Chamber of Commerce, The Arizona Republic, Bella Terra on Oak Creek, Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa.
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