2018 Ridgefield Independent Film Festival Announces Festival Award Nominees
All films in the festival are eligible for Awards consideration. The competition sections include 18 feature documentaries, 13 narratives and 72 shorts that are making their Connecticut debut over the course of the 4-day festival. The films in competition will compete for cash prizes totaling $7,500. One of the first awards to honor excellence in in the craft of moviemaking, the Romer Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, presented by Catherine and Edward Romer, will award a $2500 prize.
On October 18 during the festival’s Opening Night festivities, the prize for the previously announced Joe Consentino Emerging Filmmaker Award was awarded to director Noor Gharzeddine, for her narrative film Are You Glad I’m Here. Sandra Consentino, the widow of Joe Consentino presented the award. In Are You Glad I’m Here a millennial American girl befriends a Lebanese housewife and disrupts her ordered life; one night they become accidental partners-in-crime. The film plays Saturday, October 20 at 6:00pm at the Ridgefield Playhouse. After the film, Ms. Gharzeddine will participate in a Q&A. The “Joe Consentino Emerging Filmmaker Award” was sponsored by the Consentino Family.
Below is the list of Juried Film Nominees. All winners will be announced at the RIFF Awards, Saturday, October 20 at 10:15pm taking place at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.
RIFF "Best of Fest" sponsored by Animus Studios: 2030, For The Birds, The Devil We Know, Purple Dreams, SAY HER NAME: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland, and This is Home: A Refugee Story
Best Narrative Feature sponsored by Janice and Mike Hess: Beauty Mark, California No, The Divine Order, Mary Goes Round, and Wake.
Best Documentary Feature, sponsored by Ellen & Scott Lewis: 2030, Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise, Concerto, Danseur, The Devil We Know, For The Birds, Purple Dreams, Rise of the Warrior Apes, SAY HER NAME: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland, This is Home: A Refugee Story and Tre Maison Dasan.
Best Environmental Film, sponsored by Woodson & Tina Duncan: The Devil We Know,From Seed to Seed,Rise of the Warrior Apes, The Guardians and Vermont Fancy.
Most Original Film, sponsored by John Reznikoff and University Archives: 2030, Driver is Red, Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise, Intimity,Agua Viva and High Resolution.
Best Narrative Short, sponsored by TownVibe Media: The Cameraman, Knuckles, Like Glass, Rake, She Came Knockings and The Things You Think I'm Thinking.
Best Documentary Short, sponsored by: Sacred Heart University: The Driver is Red, Empire on Main Street, Family Rewritten, Orchard House: Home of Little Women, Super 8 Daze, Unstuck: an OCD kids film, and Unwelcome.
Best Animated Short, sponsored by Passion Pictures (Shannon Lewis,) Two Balloons, Corky, Soggy Flakes, Intimity, Agua Viva, Garden Party, Late Afternoon and Labyrinth.
Best Sci-Fi/Horror Short, sponsored by: The Replacement, Real Artists, Gotas, The Merciless Beauty, Milk and Taste the Spider.
B