Movies
SLIFF 2019: And the Winners Are…….
The 28th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival announces award winners and attendance results
The 28th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF), which kicked off on Nov. 7, concluded on Nov. 17. Total attendance was 26,329, including approximately 10,000 St. Louis-area students (some schools participating in our Cinema for Students program have not yet reported numbers).
SLIFF screened 389 films in 214 public programs: 81 narrative features, 63 documentary features, 227 shorts, and 18 film programs exclusive to Cinema for Students. The fest also featured 12 special-event programs, including four master classes and our closing-night awards presentation. This year’s festival had 63 countries represented.
The festival honored a trio of significant film figures with our annual awards. St. Louis natives Josh Aronson, an Oscar-nominated documentary director for “Sound and Fury,” and Brad Schiff, the animation supervisor for LAIKA Studios and Oscar nominee for “Kubo and the Two Strings,” each received our Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award, and Oscar-nominated director/producer Lisa Cortés (“Precious,” “The Remix,” “The Apollo”) received our Women in Film Award. SLIFF also presented longtime donor and SLIFF supporter Marcia K. Harris with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
SLIFF announced the winners of its juried and audience-award competitions at the closing-night party at Tivoli on the evening of Nov. 17. The following awards were presented:
Shorts Awards
Juries choose the winners of seven awards from among the shorts in competition. The SLIFF shorts competition is officially sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, making the winners in the Best of Fest, Best Animated, Best Live Action, and Best Documentary categories eligible to submit for Oscar® consideration. The 2019 winners:
- Best Documentary Short: “Charon” directed by Cullen Parr
- Best Local Short: “St. Louis Superman” directed by Sami Khan & Smriti Mundhra
- Best Short Short: “Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad” directed by Camrus Johnson & Pedro Piccinini
- Best International Short: “Winter in the Rainforest” directed by Anu-Laura Tuttelberg
- Best Animated Short: “Two” directed by Emre Okten
- Best Live-Action Short: “Miller & Son” directed by Asher Jelinsky
- Best of Fest: “The Neighbor’s Window” directed by Marshall Curry
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Interfaith Awards
Juries give Interfaith Awards to both a documentary and a narrative, choosing from among 16 competition films (eight in each category), which were selected for their artistic merit; contribution to the understanding of the human condition; and recognition of ethical, social, and spiritual values. The 2019 winners:
- Best Documentary Feature: “Objector” directed by Molly Stuart
- Best Narrative Feature: “Cold November” directed by Ismet Sijarina
St. Louis Film Critics Association Joe Pollack and Joe Williams Awards
In conjunction with the St. Louis Film Critics organization, SLIFF holds juried competitions for documentary and narrative features. The awards are named in honor of the late St. Louis Post-Dispatch critics Joe Pollack (narrative) and Joe Williams (documentary). The winners are picked by two juries composed of St. Louis film critics. SLIFF chose eight films to compete in each category. The 2019 winners:
- Best Documentary Feature: “We Believe in Dinosaurs” directed by Clayton Brown & Monica Long Ross
- Best Narrative Feature: “Sorry We Missed You” directed by Ken Loach
New Filmmakers Forum Emerging Director Award (The Bobbie)
The New Filmmakers Forum (NFF) annually presents the Emerging Director Award. Since its inception, NFF was co-curated by Bobbie Lautenschlager. Bobbie died in the summer of 2012, and SLIFF honors her memory by nicknaming the NFF Emerging Director Award as the Bobbie. Five works by first-time feature filmmakers competed for the prize, which includes a $500 cash award. The 2019 winner:
- “Princess of the Row” directed by Van Maximilian Carlson
Spotlight on Inspiration Documentary Award
This juried competition — now in its second year — awards a $5,000 prize to a feature documentary that focuses on people working to make the world a better place and that inspires audience members and leaves them with a sense of hope for the future. The 2019 winner:
- “My Name Is Pedro” directed by Lillian LaSalle
Best of Fest Audience Choice Awards
Audience voting determines the winner of three awards from among the films in competition.
The 2019 winners:
- Leon Award for Best Documentary Film: “Objector” directed by Molly Stuart
- TV5MONDE Award for Best International Film: “Balloon” directed by Michael Herbig
- Best Film: “Just Mercy” directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
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