Red Rock Film Festival Awards Night At Frontier Homestead
On June 14, the Festival will have encore screenings of some of the winning films at its Awards Night event. Oscar® nominees, movie distributors, actors, dancers, and award-winning filmmakers formed the Grand Jury for the 17th Annual event, and for its Utah (Red) Film Market, both held last October. The jury consisted of 22 judges from around the world and 39 previewers.
This awards ceremony will begin with a Dinner reception followed by the screenings, ending with Fiona Cochrane’s Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize Winner “Patou: In Black & White” about Jamaican singer Pat Powell (Patou), one of Australia’s most accomplished vocal artists who sings with 15 bands, including the Melbourne Ska Orchestra.
The music biopic contrasts with the Audience Award Winner Randy Martin’s “Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection.” Michael Moshe Dahan’s dramatic feature “Yes Repeat No” came out ahead, winning both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Fiction Feature, as well as Utah Film Market’s Best Hook and Best Trailer. Though both features are not part of the encore screenings, there was a short that will as it took home five awards.
Chris Capel’s “Fishers of Men” won both the Grand Jury and Audience Award for Fiction Short, Special Jury Award for its lead Dawson Mullen for Best Acting in a Fiction Short, Best Editing, a Special Achievement Award for Screenplay plus nominations for Cinematography and for UFM’s Best Hook category. Based on Capel’s real-life experiences as a former LDS missionary, the short is a dark comedy that Jury member and Oscar® Nominee Christian Norlyk said “has a great premise of a trainee and his glass-half-full mentor.” This brutally honest film with themes of domestic abuse is currently being developed into a feature.
Other shorts being presented at Red Rock Film Fest’s Awards Night include Festival alums Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, who teamed up with Oscar® nominee Daniel Sousa for their new animated fantasy “Aikāne,” Humbi Entress’s Swiss ScreenDance “Demons” and Young Filmmaker CJ Santo’s animated sci-fi “Mirror Me.” Documentary short winners are in the mix with Tran Hoang Calvin’s “A Clean Slate” and Chapman University students Emilie Haskell, Connor Wesson, and Quincy Eggert’s “The Long Shadow”.
The icebreaker shorts that screen with the dinner reception include Cem Terbiyeli’s micro-cinema Aglet Award Winner “Breath” plus local screenwriter and Spirit of the Festival Winner Natalie Lynch, who co-produced the comedy “Social AnnXiety” with co-star Tara Jayn.
Red Rock Film Festival’s Awards Night shines Friday, June 14, at the Frontier Homestead Museum at 635 N. Main in Cedar City. Tickets for the dinner reception are $30 in advance or $50 on June 14. It starts at 6 PM and is followed by the winning film screenings at 7 PM. with $10 tickets in advance or $15 on June 14. Tickets are sold online at redrockfilmfestival.eventive.org or at the door at the Frontier Homestead.
