Cedar City Red Rock Film Festival announces 2019 Audience Awards
By Matt Marxstein
The Cedar City portion of the 13th annual Red Rock Film Festival came to a close Nov. 9 with the announcement of the Audience Awards. The closing film was the Western States premiere of Ton van Zantvoort’s “Sheep Hero,” which seemed like the perfect fit for the shepherding community.
“Each year, the Red Rock Film Festival receives hundreds of submissions across 12 categories,” said program director Stuart Robinson. “Fiction and documentary are the most robust categories, but animation, experimental, music video, young filmmaker, and other specialized categories help to ensure that the festival is inclusive and well rounded. They give the festival breadth alongside depth.”
The international festival this year had two main sections: one in St. George Nov. 1–5 and another in Cedar City Nov. 6–9 with the Grand Jury Winner’s Showcase coming up in the winter.
Both feature winners had several scenes filmed in Utah: “Blenio, UT,” Patrick Botticchio and Alberto Bernad’s documentary feature filmed on the Salt Lake flats, and “Links of Life,” the fiction feature filmed in Canyonlands directed by Marie-Helene.
“We are so very proud for this award as this means so much to us that it has been given by the audience,” said Marie-Helene. “I am so very attached to Links of Life as it is my first feature and even more so as it reveals a place so sacred to me.”
Marie-Helene has previously won at the Red Rock Film Festival in 2015 for her film “A Court D’enfants” (“Shortage of Children”) — the Audience Award for Fiction Feature and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Fiction Featurette. Another returning filmmaker who won was Abraham Joffe ACS; his and Dom West’s film “Yarrow: The Virtues of Monochrome” won the Audience Award for Short-Short, a subcategory for films five minutes and under. Abraham’s previous film “Ghosts of the Arctic” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short in 2017.
The more than 50 films from 19 countries in competition were selected from hundreds submitted from 41 countries, but there was one young filmmaker from Utah who competed with adults. Cade Langsdon competed and won the Audience Award for Experimental Short for the short student film “Sanguine,” which made the film at Salt Lake City’s Spy Hop, a digital media arts center for youth.
The Spirit of the Festival Award was given to three filmmakers from the unexpected comedic documentary film on climate change called “Who Farted?” Directors Nik Sheehan and Albert Nerenberg and their editor Chris Fassbender starred in and edited his father Norm Fassbender’s “Body & Soul,” which was accepted into the festival in 2013.
The festival also announced that it will return to Cedar City in November 2020 and make the St. George section a completely different festival and conference based on its Red Grid market category.
13th Annual Red Rock Film Festival Audience Awards
—Arna Selznick, “The Most Magnificent Thing” (Canada) for Animation Short.
—Kévin Payet, Charlotte Poncin, “Urban Jungle” (France) for Music Video
—Lucas Sachs, “Treasure” (New Zealand, USA) for Collegiate Fiction Short
—Cade Langsdon, “Sanguine” (SLC, UTAH USA) for Experimental Short
—Logan Polish, “Margot” (USA) for Young Filmmaker Short
—George ve Ganaeaard, Horia Cucuta, “America” (USA) for Fiction Short.
—Abraham Joffe ACS, Dom West, “Yarrow: The Virtues of Monochrome” (Australia) for Short-Short.
—Ross Kauffman, “Still Plays with Trains” (USA) for Documentary Short.
—Hiroyuki Miyagawa, “テロルンとルンルン” “Terrolun and Lunlun” (Japan) for Fiction Featurette.
—Patrick Botticchio, Alberto Bernad, “Blenio, UT” (Switzerland) for Documentary Featurette.
—Patrick Botticchio, Alberto Bernad “Blenio, UT” (Switzerland) for Documentary Feature.
—Marie-Helene Roux “Links of Life” (France) for Fiction Feature.
—Spirit of the Festival Award (Canadian filmmakers) Nik Sheehan, Albert Nerenberg, and Chris Fassbender of “Who Farted?”
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