The 18th Annual Stony Brook Film Festival wrapped up on July 27 with a Closing Night Reception hosted by John Anderson, film critic and master of ceremonies at an awards presentation held at Staller Center. Alan Inkles, founder and director of the Festival, greeted European filmmakers Gert Embrechts from Belgium, Ate de Jong from the Netherlands, and Georg Maas from Germany as well as American director John Burgess. Maas, director of Closing Night’s Two Lives, attended the screening, which was an East Coast premiere.
The winners were:
2013 Jury Award-Best Feature: My Beautiful Country
Written and directed by Michaela Kezele; East Coast premiere from Serbia/Croatia/Germany
2013 Audience Choice-Best Feature (tie): Allez, Eddy!
Written and directed by Gert Embrechts; East Coast premiere from Belgium
2013 Audience Choice-Best Feature (tie): The Blitz
Directed and co-written by Ate de Jong; U.S. premiere from the Netherlands
2013 Achievement in Directing: John Burgess, One Small Hitch
2013 Audience Choice-Best Short: My Right Eye (The Apple of My Eye)
A film from Spain by Josecho de Linares, New York premiere
2013 Jury Award-Best Short: Fallen
A film from Germany by Christoph Schuler, New York premiere
Career Achievement Award: Christine Vachon, Killer Films
On July 26 a Career Achievement Award was presented to Christine Vachon of Killer Films, one of the nation’s most esteemed and influential independent film producers. Director Mo Ogrodnik and Pamela Koffler, co-founder of Killer Films, attended the screening of Deep Powder. Vachon’s extraordinary career as a producer includes 70 movies during 20 years (Boys Don’t Cry, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Happiness, One-Hour Photo, Kids, I Shot Andy Warhol, At Any Price, and virtually all of Todd Haynes’ films). She is on the faculty of Stony Brook Southampton and spearheaded 20/20/20, which granted full scholarships to 20 students to make 20 short films in 20 days (July 8 to July 28). The entire class and staff of 20/20/20 students attended the screening of Deep Powder.
Opening and Closing Night Films Recognized
John Anderson presented trophies for the powerful opening and closing night films. Zaytoun (Israel/UK/France), which opened the Festival on July 18, had director Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree) and actor Stephen Dorff (Blade, Somewhere) at the screening, where they fielded questions at a Q&A. Georg Maas, the director of the closing night film, Two Lives (Norway/Germany) attended the closing night’s screening, with a full house of nearly 1,000 filmgoers in attendance.
Presenting sponsors generously supporting the Stony Brook Film Festival are HBO, Suffolk County, Teachers Federal Credit Union, The Village Voice and WALK 97.5 Radio. As in past years, there was no entry fee to submit a film for consideration in 2013 thanks to sponsor support of the Festival.
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