The University of Virginia Presents the 27th Annual Virginia Film Festival
AT-AGLANCE
A record-shattering Festival of over 28,000 attendances and 41 sold-out screenings, breaking last year’s box office record by a remarkable 45.6% and smashing all-time sales records.
AWARD WINNERS
This year’s Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to What We Do in the Shadows, directed by and starring Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement. Other Audience Award winners included Best Narrative Short: Waking Marshall Walker, Best Documentary Feature: How I Got Over, and Best Documentary Short: 28ft Deep. The Programmer’s Award for Best Narrative Feature went to the directorial feature debut of Collin Schiffli’s Animals, the sobering addiction drama about two young heroin addicts. The screening of Animals was followed by a Q&A with Schiffli, actor David Dastmalchian, and producer Jennifer Farmer. Other Programmer’s Award winners include: Best Narrative Short: Sure Thing, Best Documentary Feature: Big Moccasin, and Best Documentary Short: Field Notes.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH& EDUCATION
The Outreach and Education Program soared to new heights this year with free events, screenings, workshops, and activities for local children, students, families, and teachers as well as opportunities for local filmmakers of all ages to refine their craft and exhibit their skill.
ACTION! The VFF’s High School Director Competition welcomed an outstanding number of film submissions this year from rising 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders from throughout the Commonwealth, rewarding three young filmmakers a total of $2,000 in prizes and showcasing their films with special screenings during the festival. Our winners included: Jack McCaffrey for Magic Marker (Grand Prize); Saunder Boyle, Ryan Beard, Sam Crowell for Lemonade Standoff (Runner Up); and Jacob Chang-Rascle for Time Flies (Runner Up). Bringing together 1,100 students and educators to special school screenings of significant and topical films every year, the Festival featured Freedom Summer by Stanley Nelson this year. A post-film discussion with social activist and civil rights leader Julian Bond and director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and Africa Studies at U.Va. Deborah McDowell provided a unique opportunity to engage and educate students outside the classroom.
The Festival invited community members and families to join Family Day, a fun-filled day of film, cinematic-related workshops, entertainment, and activities. The VFF’s Family Day featured an array of free opportunities and experiences for children of all ages. This year celebrated the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz, a musical instrument petting zoo, an interactive arts festival on U.Va. Arts Grounds, a Charlottesville kids’ take on Gordon Parks, ared carpet experience, and arts workshops ranging anywhere from auditioning to make-up effects. As a part of Family Day, the 2014 Young Filmmakers Academy (YFA) celebrated and screened short films written, produced, and edited by over 600 students representing 11 local elementary and middle schools. With the guidance of VFF mentors and their classroom teachers, students create and develop their own films and are honored with a red carpet premiere and public screening of their movies during the VFF’s Family Day.
The Adrenaline Film Project (AFP), our highly-caffeinated, can’t-miss 72-hour filmmaking competition, returned for its 11th year and culminated on Saturday night with a sold out public screening at Culbreth. This year’s AFP was led by Adrenaline founder and Charlottesville native Jeff Wadlow (director/writer of Kick-Ass 2), director Derek Sieg, whose own film Swedish Auto opened the 2006 VFF, and acting coach Leigh Kilton-Smith, who most recently worked with Wadlow on Kick-Ass 2. The Digital Media Gallery, partnership with Second Street Gallery, showcased the works of U.Va. intermediate and advanced cinematography students, local youth filmmakers from Light House Studio, and featured a film by celebrated cinematographer and U.Va professor Kevin Everson. The students’ works were carefully curated and presented in Second Street Gallery, a professional gallery on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. With over 700 visitors throughout the month of November, the gallery opened with a First Friday reception during the Festival weekend and was host to community outreach events, an artist talk, a special screening, and a community yoga night.
OPENING NIGHT FILM
The Festival kicked off with a world premiere screening of our Opening Night Film, Big Stone Gap, which broke even more records for the Festival—selling out less than an hour after tickets were released to the public. The star-studded, Virginia-made film featured an introduction by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and was followed by a Q&A with writer and director Adriana Trigiani and actors Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, Jasmine Guy, and Jenna Elfman.
CENTERPIECE FILM
The Festival’s Centerpiece Film featured the highly anticipated, sold-out screening of 5 to 7 by director Victor Levin, known for his award-winning writing on Mad Men. Renowned actor Frank Langella, director Victor Levin, and producers Julie Lynn and Bonnie Curtis were on hand for a post-screening discussion.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
The Festival closed with a moving celebration of the 25th anniversary of Dead Poets Society, starring the late Robin Williams in an Academy Award速-nominated performance as Professor John Keating. Oscar速-winning screenwriter Tom Schulman and Academy Award-nominated producer and U.Va. alum Paul Junger Witt joined the Festival to speak about the critically acclaimed film and the remarkable life and work of Williams.
BERLIN WALL FILM SERIES
The Festival marked the 25th Anniversary of the world-changing fall of the Berlin Wall with The Berlin Wall Symposium: The Fall of A Symbol, The Will of A People. This series included screenings, live performances, and discussions to cap off a year’s worth of activities across U.Va. Grounds. Audiences received an in-depth view of President George H. W. Bush in 41on41; reveled in the widely acclaimed, visually captivating film Wings of Desire by German director Wim Wenders; relived Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War masterpiece Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; and witnessed the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s hockey team in Red Army.
SPOTLIGHT ON VIRGINIA FILMMAKING
Virginia’s profile on the national and international film scenes is growing each year, and the Festival is proud to continue shining a spotlight on the Commonwealth’s films and filmmakers. Kicking off the Festival with Virginia love and pride was the Opening Night Film, Big Stone Gap. Best-selling Virginia author David Baldacci was on hand to discuss Wish You Well, his novel adapted to the big screen. The Programmer’s Award for Best Documentary Feature Big Moccasin, Big Significant Things, Fishing Without Nets, Goodish, Led Zeppelin Played Here, From Grain to Growler, The Winding Stream, and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Short Waking Marshall Walker also featured Virginia filmmaking.
FESTIVAL OF THE GUESTS
This year’s Festival featured more special guests than any previous year, allowing audiences to experience so much more through discussions with local, national, and international guests. The legendary screen and theater actor Hal Holbrook came to the Festival this year for not one, but two events. On Friday, Holbrook stepped into the shoes of Mark Twain once again as a part of his long-running one man show Mark Twain Tonight!, followed by a Saturday screening and discussion with director Scott Teems for their new documentary, Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey, an inside look at one of the longest-running shows in American theater history.
Academy Award winning director, writer, and producer Barry Levinson, attended the Festival to present two of his films, the classic baseball favorite The Natural and the newly released The Humbling, starring Al Pacino. U.Va. alum Katie Couric attended the Festival to present a special screening of her documentary Fed Up. Couric was an executive producer and narrator of Fed Up, a documentary about the alarming spread of childhood obesity. The Opening Night Film, Big Stone Gap, featured writer and director Adriana Trigiani, actors Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, Jasmine Guy, Paul Wilson, Jenna Elfman, Bridget Gabbe, Erika Coleman, and producer Jean Morrissey.
Low Down writer Amy Albany, Virginia bestselling author David
Baldacci, the versatile stage and film actor turned producer Frank Langella, VFF’s favorite young filmmaker Joel Potrykus, the remarkable Shaft actor Richard Roundtree, Academy Award winning screenwriter Tom Schulman, and Emmy Award winning U.Va. alum Paul Junger Witt among many others were also all in attendance for the Festival.
ENGAGING THE UNIVERSITY
The Virginia Film Festival encourages members of the University of Virginia faculty to participate in relevant discussions to their areas of study. This year featured over 30 discussants from the University, participating in a wide range of discussion topics from the historical to the current. Highlights include two Pulitzer PrizeŽ winners in Rita Dove and Douglas Blackmon along with Civil Rights activist and leader Julian Bond for An Afternoon with Rita Dove and Julian Bond . Additionally, for the political documentary 41on41 , the Festival featured a discussion with executive producer Mary Kate Cary, former George W. Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card, former White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, and U.S. Supreme Court and presidency expert Barbara Perry, a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
...AND THAT’S A WRAP!