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WorldFest Houston Wraps Up 2001 Festival

Houston, TX - The 34TH Annual WorldFest-The Houston International Film Festival concluded with an good upturn in box office figures (despite being "plagued" with beautiful weather), several bona-fide hit movies, Lifetime and Career Achievement Awards presented to two screen vets and more than four hundred up-and-coming attending filmmakers. Attendance at the 10-day fest was almost 24,000, an increase of 5% from the 2000 box office figures.

The overflowing, sold-out Awards Dinner on Saturday night also saw a Lifetime Achievement Award go to legendary cinematographer Andrew Laszlo (Shogun, Newsies, Startrek V-Final Frontier, You're a Big Boy Now, etc) and a Career Achievement Award going to actor Sam Bottoms (27 feature films, including Apocalypse Now), both on hand to receive their honors.

WorldFest's top honors- The Remi Grand Awards went to the following productions: Best Feature Film, "The Bread, My Sweet" a dramatic original story directed by Melissa Martin; Best Film & Video Production, "A Biography of America" WGBH Boston; Best Television & Cable Production, "Napoleon" 2 part mini-series, David Grubin Productions; Best Short Subject "Pate" Blue Water Productions, Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo; Best Television Commercial, Zellers "Baby Shower", Avion Film Productions, Canada; Best Experimental Film "Homo Erectus" Ema Kugler, ZANK Productions, Slovenia; Best Student Film, "Lector" Greg Marcks, Director, Florida State University Film School; and Best Music Video, "Cherokee Maiden ~ Asleep at the Wheel" Dan Karlock, Eugene Chrysler Films, Monclair, NJ; Best Unproduced Screenplay, "Kokopelli" Kevin Coleman, Houston, Texas.

In addition to Grand Awards, WorldFest presented seven major cash and equipment/service Awards: The Compaq Independent Vision Award, $5,000 cash, to "The Bread, My Sweet," the Eastman Kodak Cinematography Award, $2500 in raw stock to "Pâté," the Perry Ellis International Independent Spirit Award, $2,500 cash, to "The Rising Place," the Panavision Award, $2,000 in equipment rental, to "The Last Dream," the Alex Georges Memorial Award, $2,000 cash, to "5 Minutes," the PlayStream Award for Features, $2,000 in web hosting, to the feature film "Looking Through Lillian," & the short video: "The Wedding."

Other major awards in the feature categories went to "Jericho" directed by Merlin Miller, Platinum in action/adventure; "Dinner & A Movie" (USA) Lisa Kors, Platinum in comedy; "Total Love" (Israel) Gur Bentwich, Special Jury in comedy; "Looking Through Lillian" (USA) Jake Torem, Platinum in original drama; "Kill Me Later" (USA) Dana Lustig, Platinum in suspense/thriller; "The Testimony of Taliesin Jones" (Wales/UK) Martin Duffy, Platinum in family/children; "Lightmaker" (USA) Dieter Miller, Special Jury in fantasy/horror; "Lakeboat" (USA) Joe Mantegna, Special Jury-first feature; "The Compensation" (Sri Lanka) Bennet Rathnayake, Platinum-first feature; "Peppermint" (Greece) Costas Kapakas, Special Jury-foreign; "Sandstorm" (India) Jagmohan, Special Jury- foreign; "Chen Bao" (China/Japan) Shinichi Nakada, Platinum-foreign; "Varian's War" (USA) Lionel Chetwynd, Special Jury-historical; "The Rising Place" (USA) Tom Rice, Platinum - historical.

Five documentaries, which were accorded full feature screening treatment during the festival, were also acknowledged with awards. They were:"Uncle Saddam" (France/Iraq) Joel Soler, Special Jury Award; "The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Adventure" (UK/Germany) George Butler, Special Jury Award; "Tangier ~ Legend of a City" (France/Germany) Peter Goedel, Special Jury Award, "Unwitnessed Memories" (Cyprus) Athena Xenidou, Special Jury Award; "A Fight to the Finish: Stories of Polio" (USA) Ken Mandel, Platinum in Documentary. Other awards ranged in categories such as short subjects, student films to screenplays & music videos. Altogether, more than 4,300 category entries were received for WorldFest, the largest and oldest film festival in North American operating under the same non-profit management, and the only one totally dedicated to presenting and honoring new independent, undistributed films. Check Website www.worldfest.org for details on next festival, the 35th Annual WorldFest, April 5-14, 2002!

The WorldFest web site was the top hit website during the two-weeks of the festival, with more hits than any other event in the city. DigitalCity.com, which featured the festival for two weeks, ran the tabulation, and the daily hit meter placed WorldFest at the top every day.

Another important first for WorldFest was special digital video projection by Wagner Media and Christie Digital Systems, with the new Wagner/Christie Roadie X10 DLP "Black Chip" digital projector screening more than 100 features and shorts at the festival. Viewers were astounded at the brilliance and clarity of the new Wagner/Christie Digital equipment and the filmmakers made regular pilgrimages up to the projection booth to take a look at the current cinematic state-of-the-art technology for themselves. All came away both impressed and inspired by this look at the future of the movies and theaters.

There were six exceptional seminars, presented by experienced professionals. These included: Cinematography by Andrew Laszlo, Agents & Managers by Andrew Dean, Casting by Rene Haynes, Writing Screenplays by Gregory Goodell, Distribution by Stuart Strutin, and an exciting and informative Producing/Directing panel made up of 12 of the participating filmmakers.

WorldFest-Houston is unique in the festival world, as it is totally dedicated to the Independent feature and short film. WorldFest does not screen any films produced by the major studios or distributors as it feels that the Indie filmmakers are the ones that need support from a film festival. WorldFest offers 8 major areas of competition and awards, including Documentary, Business, TV & Cable production, Experimental, Short Subjects, TV Commercials, Screenplays, Feature Films and Student Films. Both film and video formats are accepted, video for the jury.

For the complete 2002 entry and info package, send your name and address to:

The Entry Director
The 35th Annual WorldFest-Houston
PO Box 56566,
Houston, Texas USA 77256-6566


Or email: worldfest@aol.com

Or visit our website to enter WorldFest at: www.worldfest.org

The NEW entry deadline for 2002 is December 15th, 2001 with a final deadline of January 15, 2002. Entry info will be available September 1st, 2001

Updated: 05/05/2001

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