Fest Announces Its Winners
The Hamptons International Film Festival’s Audience Awards went to Stephen Frears’s “Philomena,” a drama starring Dame Judi Dench, and set in 1950s Ireland, and “Desert Runners,” Jennifer Steinman’s documentary about the 4 Deserts Race Series of 150-mile ultramarathons. Irene Taylor Brodsky’s “One Last Hug (. . . And a Few Smooches): Three Days at Grief Camp” won the Audience Award for best short.
“The Selfish Giant,” directed by Clio Bernard, won the Golden Starfish Narrative Feature Award presented by The Wall Street Journal. Ryan McGarry’s “Code Black” earned the Golden Starfish Award for best documentary, presented by A&E Indie Films. The Golden Starfish Award for best short went to “Whale Valley,” directed by Gudmunder A. Gudmundsson. Conner Chapman won a Special Jury Prize for Extraordinary Performance in “The Selfish Giant,” while the ensemble cast of Shubhashish Bhutiani’s short “Kush” also earned a Special Jury Prize.
“The Square (Al Midan),” Jehane Noujaim’s documentary about the expectations and experiences of a group of protesters from Cairo’s Tahrir Square, won the Victor Rabinowitz and Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice and an honorable mention for the Brizzolara Family Foundation Award for a Film of Conflict & Resolution.
“Plot for Peace,” directed by Carlos Agullo and Mandy Jacobson, was awarded the Brizzolara Family Foundation Award prior to the festival. Also announced in advance of the festival was the 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, which went to “Decoding Annie Parker,” directed by Steven Bernstein.
“Free Ride,” a narrative feature by Shana Betz, won the Tangerine Entertainment Juice Award. The Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award was earned by “Emptying the Skies,” a documentary by Douglas Kass and Roger Kass.
A recent addition to the festival’s awards is Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch. This year’s selections were Dane Dehaan, Scott Haze, Jack Huston, Oscar Isaac, Michael B. Jordan, Brie Larson, Tatiana Maslany, Lupita Nyong’o, David Oyelowo, and Lea Seydoux.
Jurors for the Golden Starfish Award for documentary feature were Daniel Crown, Michael Halsband, and Nancy Gerstman. Karen Durbin, Alex Karpovsky, and Raul Esparza made up the Golden Starfish narrative feature jury.