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14TH ANNUAL ANGELUS STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS WINNERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Rita Hollingsworth/RMH Media
(323) 934-9248 or rita@rmhmedia.net
14TH ANNUAL ANGELUS STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS WINNERS
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Six Winners Selected from 27 Finalists and More Than 550 Entries Representing 30 Countries Recognized at DGA Ceremony Emceed by Emmy-Winner Chris Balish
HOLLYWOOD – The 14th annual Angelus Student Film Festival presented its 2009 winners and finalists with more than $50,000 in cash awards and industry prizes at its screening and awards ceremony, Saturday, September 19th at the Directors Guild of America.
The event, emceed by Emmy Award-winning network host Chris Balish, honors and showcases future filmmakers as they explore and create works that respect the dignity of the human person. The winning and honorable mentioned films were screened during afternoon and evening screenings.
The top prize, the Patrick Peyton Excellence in Filmmaking Award, was presented to Khen Shalem, of Florida State University Film School, for On The Road To Tel-Aviv, a story of a young Israeli who finds himself in a frightening situation when a suspicious looking woman enters the same bus as his fiancée. The award is the most coveted among Angelus entrants and includes a cash prize of $10,000, believed to be one of the highest among student film festivals. It is sponsored by Family Theater Productions, Hollywood, which created the Angelus Student Film Festival in 1996.
The evening ceremony was followed by a reception held on the rooftop lounge atop The Beverly Center, a Taubman Company retail property and catered by national casual dining chain California Pizza Kitchen, both Angelus sponsors. Among the other returning festival sponsors is Fujifilm USA, The Peter Glenville Foundation, Mole-Richardson Company and Priddy Brothers, an indie film production company. The Peter Glenville Foundation, which provided underwriting for the 2006 and 2007 and 2008 Angelus screening and awards ceremonies, has expanded its commitment to fund other screening events of the Angelus winners. These have included screenings in Park City, Utah, at the Windrider Forum during the Sundance Film Festival; in the Czech Republic, co-sponsored with the Film and TV School of the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU); and in Rome as the part of the NetOne/Focolare-hosted event, and at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Angelus Student Film Festival announces winners Page 2 of 3
The 27 finalists, and thus the six winners, were selected from over 550 submissions representing 185 film schools and 30 countries, including the United States, El Salvador, Russia, Singapore and Tahiti.
Festival juries comprised of industry professionals, including Academy Award-winning documentary film producer Eva Orner, Post Magazine editor and former Imagineering executive Daniel Restuccio, X-Men and Rise of the Silver Surfer producer Ralph Winter, and actor/agent Toochis Morin, along with seasoned screenwriters and producers, convened in August to select the winners from the finalists.
Shalem joins an impressive list of Angelus winners or “alumni” including Reto Caffi whose 2008 Patrick Peyton Excellence in Filmmaking Award recipient On The Line went on to receive a 2009 Academy Award nomination in the Live Action Short category; Hilla Medalia (2004 Outstanding Documentary winner), whose 2007 documentary, To Die in Jerusalem, aired on HBO, was awarded the prestigious Peabody Award and was nominated for three 2008 Emmy Awards; Christof Putzel (2002 Outstanding Documentary winner), who received two 2008 Emmy nominations for his documentaries Mogadishu Madness and From Russia with Hate; and the 2006 grand-prize winner Barbara Stepansky, who has completed her debut feature Hurt from High Treason Productions, starring Melora Walters and William Mapother.
MovieMaker Magazine recently named Angelus one of the “25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” and included it in its previous “Best of” issue. The festival was highlighted for its large cash prizes, low entry fees and also its “commitment to cultural diversity”. (MovieMaker Magazine covers (2) Angelus Student Film Festival creator Family Theater Productions, a Catholic media outlet, has produced more than 900 dramatic and documentary TV and radio programs over the last 61 years to entertain, inspire and educate families.
The 2009 Angelus Student Film Festival winners
Animation
-Winner: Jin Sung Choi – Entering the Mind through the Mouth (Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA)
-Honorable Mention: Isaiah Powers, Stuart Bury and Jeremy Casper – Dried Up (Kansas City Art Institute)
Documentary
-Winner: Oscar Bucher – Waiting for a Train: The Toshio Hirano Story (San Francisco State University)
-Honorable Mention: Timmy Tamisiea – Bob Seger Rocks (Columbia College Chicago)
-Honorable Mention: Emma Cott and Anna Belle Peevey – New American Soldier (University of California at Berkeley)
Live Action
-Patrick Peyton Excellence in Filmmaking Award: Khen Shalem – On the Road to Tel-Aviv (Florida State University, Tel-Aviv University and Jordan Valley College)
-Triumph of the Spirit Award: Gregg Helvey – Kavi (University of Southern California)
-Triumph of the Spirit HM: Marc Brummund – Gaining Ground (Hamburg Media School – Filmwerkstatt)
-Production Excellence Award: Sebastian Davis – Magellan (University of Southern California)
-Production Excellence Award HM: Steven Edell – A Son’s War (University of Southern California and Film & TV Academy of the Performing Arts, Prague, CR)
-Audience Impact Award: Alexandra Fisher – Desert Wedding (University of California, Los Angeles)
-Audience Impact Award HM: Kazik Radwanski – Princess Margaret Blvd. (Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada)
-Director’s Choice Award: Thabo Wolfaardt – Joburg (University of California, Los Angeles)
For more information, please visit the website at www.angelus.org