
Winners Announced for the 2017 LA Film Festival
Well, that was fast! Handed out June 22 by LA Film Festival Director Jennifer Cochis, the awards brunch celebrated jury prize honorees from the Festival’s U.S. Fiction, World Fiction, Documentary, Nightfall and LA Muse categories. Audience Awards were also presented for Fiction Feature, Documentary Feature, Short Film and Web Series.
The U.S. Fiction Award went to Elizabeth Rohrbaugh and Daniel Powell for Becks, which made its World Premiere at the Festival.
The U.S. Fiction Cinematography Award presented by Aputure, which awards $4,000 in lighting equipment to a winning Director of Photography, went to cinematographers Christian Sorensen Hansen and Pete Ohs for Everything Beautiful is Far Away, which made its World Premiere at the Festival. Jury Members: Duncan Birmingham, Riley Stearns and Emily Ting.
The World Fiction Award went to Diego Ros for The Night Guard (El Vigilante) which made its North American Premiere at the Festival. Jury Members included Caroline Graham, Lincoln Jones and Javier Fuentes-León.
The Documentary Award went to Amanda Kopp and Aaron Kopp for Liyana, which made its World Premiere at the Festival. Jury Members included Katherine Fairfax-Wright, Paul Federbush and Matt Holzman.
The LA Muse Documentary Award and Documentary Feature Film went to Mark Hayes for Skid Row Marathon, which made its World Premiere at the Festival. Here is my review with Mark Hayes and Judge Craig Matthews…
The LA Muse Fiction Award went to Savannah Bloch for And Then There Was Eve, which made its World Premiere at the Festival.Jury Members included Susan Burke, Juan Iglesias and Kimrie Lewis-Davis.
The Nightfall Award went to Amanda Evans for Serpent, which made its World Premiere at the Festival. Jury Members included Jimmy Tsai, Clarke Wolfe and Andrew Curry.
Best Short went to A Funeral for Lightning, directed by Emily Kai Bock. The award for Short Documentary went to Black America Again, directed by Bradford Young. Jury Members included Kim Adelman, Jonni Cheatwood and Naomi Ladizinsky.
The Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film went to The Keeping Hours, directed by Karen Moncrieff.
The Audience Award for Short Film went to Swim, directed by Mari Walker. The Audience Award for Web Series went to High & Mighty, directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada.
Additional Special Jury prizes went to actor John Carroll Lynch (Anything), documentarian Billy McMillin (The Classic), actress Kate Nhung (The Housemaid), director Hong Sangsoo (On the Beach Alone at Night), actress Auden Thornton (Beauty Mark) and filmmaker Bruce Thierry Cheung (Don’t Come Back from the Moon).
What a whirlwind and now we are about to go into the beginning throws of…dare I say it…Oscar season!!! See some my highlights below and be sure to check out the 2017 LA Film Festival on this blog and YouTube channel.
Until next year…

