Austin Film Festival Announces 2009 Audience Awards
Austin Film Festival (AFF) has announced the 2009 Audience Award winners, and I'm happy to report that among the winners were a few Texas films as well as some of our favorites from the fest. AFF also announced the dates for next year's film festival and conference: October 21-28, 2010.
Throughout the week of the festival, audience members were invited to rate films by ballot after each screening. Check out Jenn Brown's review of Happy Ending, which was written and directed by Atsuriho Yamada, and which won the AFF Narrative Feature Competition audience award.
Another favorite film that won was Herpes Boy, in the Comedy Vanguard Audience Award category. I caught up with writer Byron Lane and director Nathaniel Atcheson at their second screening after-party, and they expressed gratitude to AFF for allowing them to premiere their film in Austin.
Texas writer/filmmaker Tisha Blood also scored a win in the Documentary Feature category for Torey's Distraction, which made its world premiere at AFF 2009. Torey's Distraction is the first in a slate from Dallas' M3 Films filManthropy division, which uses traditional and philanthropic business practices to produce and distribute movies with a message, and in turn, generate awareness and funding for nonprofit, philanthropic ventures. Their next project will document the efforts of Forgotten Diamonds, an organization that focuses on improving the literacy of people impacted by civil war in Sierra Leone.
Finally, congrats to Austin filmmaker Kat Candler (Jumping Off Bridges), whose short Love Bug won the Narrative Short Audience Award. A complete list of audience award winners is after the jump.
Out of Competition Audience Award Winner
Up in the Air
Writers: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner
Director: Jason Reitman
Comedy Vanguard Audience Award Winner
Herpes Boy
Writer: Byron Lane
Director: Nathaniel Atcheson
Narrative Feature Competition Audience Award Winner
Happy Ending
Writer/Director: Atsuhiro Yamada
Documentary Feature Competition Audience Award Co-Winners
My Run
Director: Tim VandeSteeg
Torey's Distraction
Director: Tisha Blood
Narrative Short Audience Award Winner
Love Bug
Writer/Director: Kat Candler
Narrative Student Short Audience Award Winner
Adelaide
Writer/Director: Liliana Greenfield-Sanders
Documentary Short Audience Award Winner
Mr. Okra
Director: T.G. Herrington
Animated Short Audience Award Winner
The Incident at Tower 37
Director: Chris Perry
Illustration credit: Debbie Cerda
Editor's Note: Press were not permitted to take photos during AFF panels or Q&As this year, and photos of the above-mentioned filmmakers from AFF were not available on the AFF photo site for press.