Festival Awards for VF2 2007

Best of Show, Best Professional:

Forgiven

After 8 years without her son Mrs. Bell is in the depths of depression and is contemplating suicide. She threatens to overdose on her sleep medication. Bobby, her son, died in an auto accident. Bobby's best friend, Daniel, was driving Bobby's car at the time of the accident. Both boys were drinking. Daniel ended up being convicted and going to prison for 8 years. Now he is out and needs to make amends with the people that he hurt. Mainly, Mrs. Bell. His attempts to make amends do not include actually talking to her. Instead he leaves here anonymous gifts and fixes things around her house. Until one night she discovers him in the garage.

Best Youngfilmmaker:

Day on Wheels

Based on Cheryl A. Davis's short memoir about her life as a paraplegic, 'Day on Wheels' follows Chet Davies, a 30 something paraplegic who hates dealing with incompetent jerks who rudely confront him about his disability. During the course of two days, the audience sees how poorly Chet is treated and his struggle to cope with such situations. When a fellow paraplegic named Nick shows Chet that all he has to do is to tell people to 'piss off', Chet begins to use this new strategy. After several tests, the new and improved Chet becomes even more assertive and aggressive to the point where he gets himself in trouble by accidentally telling off a blind woman.

Best Amateur:

The Noble Lie

Many people have an unwritten list of qualifications that they would like to find in a love interest. Karen confesses that she is looking for love, but she has a list of required qualifications so long that it excludes virtually every man on the planet! Then, Will comes along. Will is charming and dashing - a nice guy with blue eyes and a love for obscure authors. Will Karen be able to let her guard down and give Will a chance even if he doesn’t meet every qualification on her list Can Will overcome his own insecurities to open his heart to Karen?

Audience Favorite:

Life on Mars

Sidney Ford (John Pycior-Navy Seals) is a middle-aged man trudging through life. At home, his overbearing wife Barbra (Jil Wilson-Robinson-Evan Almighty) rules him with an iron fist. To make matters worse, his job is not stimulating and his boss views him as a timid introvert to be exploited whenever possible. Everything changes one night when Sidney finds an old telescope in the garage. While staring up at the stars, he begins fantasizing about an alien civilization on Mars. Dreaming of their struggle to survive gives him renewed confidence, drastically changing his outlook on life. What Sidney doesn’t know is that the Martians really do exist and are trying desperately to make contact with another planet before their race dies off completely.

Within the Young Filmmaker Category

Outstanding Storyline, Outstanding Soundtrack:

The Romanov’s Last Photograph

The Romanovs' Last Photograph tells the story of the Romanov sisters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, in the hours leading up to their execution in 1918. The four girls share their hopes, fears, and aspirations, and discuss existential themes, such as the frailty of human existence, as they try to live their normal lives against the constant dread of being on the wrong side of the Russian Revolution.

Outstanding Cinematography:

Day on Wheels

Based on Cheryl A. Davis's short memoir about her life as a paraplegic, 'Day on Wheels' follows Chet Davies, a 30 something paraplegic who hates dealing with incompetent jerks who rudely confront him about his disability. During the course of two days, the audience sees how poorly Chet is treated and his struggle to cope with such situations. When a fellow paraplegic named Nick shows Chet that all he has to do is to tell people to 'piss off', Chet begins to use this new strategy. After several tests, the new and improved Chet becomes even more assertive and aggressive to the point where he gets himself in trouble by accidentally telling off a blind woman.

Within the Amateur Category

Outstanding Storyline:

Holding

The arrival of a special investigator to a murder brings comments of derision from some of the police working a homicide. Though his partners are skeptical, and some...even cynical, the detective is able to unravel specifics in a murder case because of his ability to hold the spirit of the victim to question. He questions the victim, but the questioning of the victim phase is ambiguous.

Outstanding Directing:

Vartan LLP

Sidney Taylor heads up one of the most successful asset management funds on Wall street. He has always escaped the pain and disappointment of life by throwing himself one hundred percent into his work. When Sidney discovers his estranged best friend and former business partner has died of cancer, all the emotional walls he has built to protect him disappear. He is shaken to his core with regret so powerful he can barely stand it.

Outstanding Acting:

These Boots are Made for Walken

Every time Ronnie gets his heart broken, he takes on the the persona of one of his favorite actors. This time it is Christopher Walken. Ronnie's brother Benny has always been the one to snap him out of it. Unfortunately, this time Ronnie has committed himself to a mental institution. When Benny meets a damsel in distress in the hospital waiting room he hatches an idea. One that might not only save his brother and free an innocent pooch, but also lift the spirits of the damsel's dance-deprived grandmother in the process.

Outstanding Cinematography:

The Seed

SUNG (Will Yun Lee) is a homeless veteran losing his mind on the banks of the L.A. River. Pursued by unseen forces, fighting unseen foes, Sung is ostensibly 'just another lunatic.' But as his invisible war continues, under bridges and in tunnels, we are taken deeper and deeper into Sung's nightmare mind. Into a nightmare of conspiracy, cloaking and the government's unseen war. Sung struggles to fight through what is visible to him, yet invisible to the world around him. Ordinarily, someone like this is perceived as 'crazy'. Beyond what we can see, beyond what we don't want to, lies...THE SEED

Outstanding Technical:

Bittersweet Love

Pulling from the Adam and Eve story, a man is created from the earth and his ideal mate is created from a part of him. They immediately fall in love, but after time passes, they find themselves tired of the life they built with each other. Hoping to find himself in a more familiar position, the man repeats tearing his flesh to find happiness.

Outstanding Redemptive Theme:

Silence

Thirteen year old Sarah struggles to deal with a terrifying truth and locks herself away from the outside world. She is forced to look deep within and choose between keeping her vow of silence, and confronting her most debilitating fear - to save the one she loves. Sarah finally comes to terms; to have peace there must be no more hiding.

Outstanding Documentary:

From Fire: An Odyssey of Glass

What makes a petite 5.5 ft girl choose an artistic path in life which is so physically challenging that internationally the art form has become a male-dominated arena? This visually arresting film takes you on a spiritual journey with sculptor Marlene Rose as she materializes her artistic expression. With this personal glimpse into the beauties and dangers facing one of the world's foremost a female cast glass artists, we explore this dramatic technique as it unfolds. The film offers a fascinating insight into Marlene's subjective processes. We catch views of her inspiration and her life that seem to parallel the glass shapes that emerge from the flames.

Outstanding Soundtrack:

Die Flugbegleiterin (The Stewardess)

Where desire ends and addiction begins. A film about the amount of food in a society which has lost its proportions, about the work of people, who don't know anymore, what their calling is.

Within the Professional Category

Outstanding Storyline:

Way

An isolated and lost woman awakens from a state of regression. She seeks out the answers to her predicament within her memories. It is there that she will discover her identity and release. Ultimately, she will find the courage and the strength to break free from her self-imposed prison.

Outstanding Acting:

Son

'Son' tells the story of an underground theatre Director and the possessive grip he holds over his female colleague and her young son James. James' unhappy world unfolds in the confines of the theatre's vaults where soon reality and fiction become indistinguishable.

Outstanding Technical:

Cyn

Cyn is a twisted tale by writer/director Alex Ferrari about Cynthia, a young woman who is taken away by two psychopaths (Mr. Sugar and Otto) in the middle of the night to an old abandoned kindergarten. Cyn quickly turns the tables on them and soon the night becomes a cat and mouse mind game. While this drama is unfolding a lone figure watches from a close circuit monitor. Who is Cynthia and what the hell is going on in this twisted tale?' Cyn was made on a 6 day schedule for under $1000 and boasts one of the craziest end title sequences ever created for a 5 min short film. Think of throwing an atom bomb on a roach, completely over the top .

Outstanding Redemptive Theme:

See Rock City

'See Rock City' is the story of a one-time stage performer who makes a daytrip to Atlanta to give what may possibly be her last performance before an audience. She is accompanied by two friends--Diz, an old friend she's known since childhood, and Charlie, a young 20-something guy who keeps reappearing in Annie's life. Both friends dislike and mistrust each other as much as two people possibly can. Before the day is over, however, Charlie and Diz come to realize that they are both--equally--necessary in Annie's life. The film stars stage actress Susan Jones Mannino, Broadway performer Annie Morrison, and Steven Hill, from MTV's The Real World Las Vegas.