BendFilm has come to a close and the winners are all quite varied and wonderful. Some world class features, documentaries and shorts played this year and, with John Sayles and Maggie Renzi in attendence, it was one for the record books.
Festival Director Todd Looby had this to say about the 2016 BendFilm Festival:
“This fest was the most rewarding of the 3 I’ve been a part of. It started with hosting John Sayles and Maggie Renzi. Not only are they great and pioneering filmmakers, but they are also incredibly easy going and fun people to be around. We also didn’t have a lot of time to plan all the music, but it went off really well. Bend has a lot of talented musicians and it was great to showcase them for our audience. Finally, we had over 100 filmmakers here screening some of the truly best indies currently on the circuit. I met so many audience members who raved about the films and the fest in general. There’s no doubt this festival brings something special to our town and the way our community supports and embraces it is really unique among film fests throughout the country.”
The winners are:
Best in Show:
“To Keep the Light”
Dir. Erica Fae
Best Narrative Feature:
“First Girl I Loved”
Dir. Kerem Sanga
Best Documentary Feature:
“Growing Up Coy”
Dir. Eric Juhola
Best Directing:
“Night School”
Dir. Andrew Cohn
Best Narrative Short:
“A Beautiful Mess”
Dir. Shahir Zag
Best Documentary Short:
“Pickle”
Dir. Amy Nicholson
Best Student Short:
“Spilt Milk”
Dir. James Dunstan
Best Animated Short:
“Trial and Error”
Dir. Antje Heyn
Best of the Northwest:
“The Child and the Dead”
Dir. Marc Ripper and Karina Ripper
Audience Award:
“Finding Oscar”
Dir. Ryan Suffern
Best Cinematography
“If There’s a Hell Below”
Cinematographer: Chris Messina
Special Jury Awards:
Best Actor:
Thomas Pais in “Hunky Dory”
Best Actress:
Jane Ackermann in “Neptune”
Special Award for Visual Effects:
“Icarus”
Dir. Tom Teller
Special Award for Originality of Vision
“The Letter E”
Dir. Mira K. Lippold-Johnson
Special Award for Animation:
“Fulfilament”
Dir. Rhiannon Evans
Congratulations to the winners, the festival and Bend for having a world class film festival in our backyard.
This article appears in Oct 5-12, 2016.
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