The 2009 Independent Film Festival of Boston (IFFBoston) came to a close on Tuesday night after enjoying record attendance of over 25,000 people. Roughly 100 guest filmmakers and celebrities were in attendance at the festival including directors Rian Johnson, Doug Pray, Ondi Timoner, Robert Siegel, Cory McAbee, Bobcat Goldthwait, Armando Iannucci and actors Brian Cox, Kevin Corrigan, Hal Holbrook, Dixie Carter, Chris Cooper, as well as other luminaries such as Bobby Farrelly and Red Sox pitching legend Luis Tiant.
Films were shown in Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville over a total of 8 screens.
The jury and audience award prizes have been announced and are as follows:
Narrative Feature:
Grand Jury Prize Winner: CHILDREN OF INVENTION directed by Tze Chun
Special Jury Prize Winner: BEESWAX directed by Andrew Bujalski
Audience Award Winner: STILL WALKING directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Documentary Feature:
Grand Jury Prize Winner: CRUDE directed by Joe Berlinger
Special Jury Prize Winner: UNMISTAKEN CHILD directed by Nati Baratz
Audience Award Winner: SHOOTING BEAUTY directed by George Kachadorian
Honorable Mention: THE WAY WE GET BY directed by Aron Gaudet
Short Film:
Grand Jury Prize Winner: INSTEAD OF ABRACADABRA directed by Patrik Eklund
Special Jury Prize Winner: I AM SO PROUD OF YOU directed by Don Hertzfeldt
Audience Award Winner: SHORT TERM 12 directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
The Narrative Feature Jury was comprised of actor Tom Noonan, the Starz Denver Film Festivals’ Britta Erickson, and Variety/Indiewire film critic Michael Jones. The Documentary Feature Jury was comprised of Seth Gordon (The King of Kong), Susannah Ludwig (Stolen), and Josh Koury (We Are Wizards). The Short Film Jury was comprised of James Strouse (Grace Is Gone), Tom Quinn (The New Year Parade), and actress Alison Folland (To Die For, All Over Me).
Prizes included a year’s worth of free travel courtesy of JetBlue Airways (presented to Tze Chun, Children of Invention), 5 days free rental of the Red Camera (presented to Joe Berlinger, Crude) courtesy of FilmStar Rentals, and $3000 worth of color correction courtesy of National Boston (presented to Aron Gaudet, The Way We Get By).
A Best Marketing Award was also presented for the third year in a row at the festival. The 2009 award was a tie between Michael Axelgaard for the short film LOLLIPOP MAN and George Kachadorian for the documentary SHOOTING BEAUTY. Michael Axelgaard was presented with a set of Rock Band 2 courtesy of Harmonix, while George Kachadorian was presented with an iPod Nano courtesy of Tech Superpowers.
More information on the festival will be available shortly on the festival website at http://www.iffboston.org .
