Sarasota Film Festival: A Juror's Journal

As film festivals go, Sarasota Film Festival is hard to beat, for films, parties, and people.
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As film festivals go, Sarasota Film Festival is hard to beat, for films, parties, and people. In addition to the awards listed below, Jane Seymour spoke about her career in film with me, representing her latest, Bereave, directed by Evangelos and George Giovanis. Rachel Weisz, spoke with David Edelstein about her work producing Radiator, directed by Tom Browne, and Blythe Danner, star of the festival's closing night film, I'll See You in My Dreams, directed by Brett Haley, received the festival's Impact Award at a ceremony at the Sarasota Opera House. Blythe Danner noted that this festival screened over 100 films by women. Then guests moved onto the stage for Sarasota Film Festival President Mark Famiglio's closing night dinner, where, in an informal tribute, legendary documentarian Albert Maysles was remembered.

Here is a listing of the awards:

The 2015 Sarasota Film Festival announced this year's jury and audience award winners at a ceremony at the historic Sarasota Opera House. Kornel Mundruczo's Cannes award-winning White God took home this year's Narrative Feature Jury prize. Walking Under Water, directed by Eliza Kubarska, was the Documentary Jury Prize winner.

Four special jury prizes were awarded; in the Narrative Feature Competition category, Radiator directed by Tom Browne took home two Special Jury Prizes, one for Excellence in Acting to Gemma Jones and one for Excellence in Production Design to Sarah Kane. In the Documentary Feature Competition category, a Special Jury Prize was awarded to Almost There, directed by Dan Rybicky and Aaron Wickenden, for complex hands-on storytelling. A second Special Jury Prize for Artistic Portraiture was awarded to Scott Teems' Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey.

The festival's Independent Visions Award, presented by FACTORY 25, went to Lamb, directed by Ross Partridge. In addition, the jury gave a Best Ensemble Cast Award to Uncertain Terms, directed by Nathan Silver, and an Excellence in Cinematography Award to Adam Ginsberg for Tired Moonlight.

The festival's Shorts Jury awarded Angel Kristi Williams' Charlotte for their Narrative Competition, Meg Smaker's Boxeadora for Meg Smaker, Boxeadora, for their Documentary Competition, and Don Hertzfeldt's World of Tomorrow their Animation Competition.

The Terry Porter Visionary Award went to Khalik Allah for Field Niggas, and the Tangerine Juice Award went to Maya Vitkova for Viktoria.

This year's Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature was The End of the Tour, directed by James Ponsoldt.

A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.

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