Narrative Features DESERT
CATHEDRAL and FRANK VS. GOD
and the short subject, HELIO,
lead race with 9 nods apiece
On shorts front, SINA FORMA
racked up 8 nominations, followed closely by
BIRTHDAY and ZARI with 6 nods
each!
New York City – May 14, 2015
– VISIONFEST 15: THE OTHER FESTIVAL
(VF15), which runs May 13 thru May 17, 2015, at Tribeca Cinemas (corner of
Laight and Varick Streets in New York City), officially announced its 2015 Independent Vision Award (The IVAs)
nominations last night. Festival
co-director, Bruno Derlin, revealed the contenders for this year’s IVAs during
the after-party that followed the “Opening Night Selection” screening. The announcements were greeted with cheers
and applause by many of the participating filmmakers and their supporters
present for the kick-off celebration.
The opening feature, DESERT CATHEDRAL, received a very warm
and enthusiastic reception as the film’s writer-director, Travis Gutiérrez Senger, and its two male leads, Lee Tergesen and Chaske Spencer, went up to talk about their respective experiences
on the film in a very intense Q&A session, which saw nearly every single
attendee stick around way beyond the film’s closing credits. All three
gentlemen were celebrated and singled out for their work just thirty minutes
later, when IVA nominations were announced and the film piled up 9 mentions, including
the festival’s top prize, the Domani Vision Award, named after the festival’s
organizing entity, the Domani Vision Film Society, a 501 (C) (3) non-profit
organization, whose tag line is: “Bringing you tomorrow’s visionaries, today.”
The festival’s “Closing Night
Selection” feature, FRANK VS. GOD,
by Stewart Schill, and the futuristic short, HELIO, by Teddy Cecil, also racked up 9 nominations apiece, with
each director also named as a candidate for the fest’s top prize. The FRANK
VS. GOD nominations mirrored 8 of the DESERT
CATHEDRAL category nods, with the exception of one (DC has a Jack Nance Breakthrough Performance Award mention, while FvG is in the running for a Production
Design Award), making this race a very exciting showdown for the two features. Two other narrative features, ALTO, by Mikki del Monico, and WENDELL
AND THE LEMON, by Lawrence Krauser,
also matched their respective nominations tally, with 4 nods each, but only
mirrored a mention in a single category:
Outstanding Production.
The narrative short subjects
race is also populated by a slew of films with multiple nominations. In addition to the aforementioned HELIO, SINA FORMA, by Garette
Henson, the festival’s opening night short,, landed 8 nods, including
Outstanding Achievement in Short Subject Filmmaking and the Domani Vision
Award. Following close behind, with 6
nominations apiece, were ZARI, by Courtney Marsh, an “Outstanding Short”
contender who has the distinction of being the only filmmaker with two projects
included in this year’s line-up (her experimental, THE TULIP CHAIR, was screened during last night’s program), and
2015 film festival circuit darling, BIRTHDAY,
by Chris King, who happens to be the
one VF alum who already has several IVA statuettes on his mantle and has now been
given a chance to double his “Outstanding Short” score. Rounding out the Outstanding Short category
are DOUBLE NEGATIVE, by Brian Dilg, which collected 5
nominations, and PINKY, by Dylan Paffe, with 4 nods.
The feature documentary, LORDS OF BSV, by Maria Soccor, landed a nomination for its editor, Barry Rubinow, and one for Outstanding
Documentary, which will see the sparring competition of THE WHISKEY TREATY ROADSHOW, by Timothy Bradley.
Winners will be announced on
Sunday, May 17, 2015, during the IVA Ceremony, which will kick off at
approximately 8:45 pm. The full list of
IVA nominations follows:
Domani Vision Award – Filmmaker
of the Year
Travis
Gutiérrez Senger DESERT CATHEDRAL
Stewart
Schill FRANK VS. GOD
Teddy
Cecil HELIO
Garette
Henson SINA FORMA
Courtney
Marsh ZARI
Production
Toni
D’Antonio, Ellora DeCarlo, Mikki del Monico, Annabella Sciorra ALTO
Travis
Gutiérrez Senger, Michael J Mouncer, Chip Hourihan DESERT CATHEDRAL
Alan
Pruzin - Scott Schill FRANK VS. GOD
Teddy Cecil
- David Kenneth HELIO
Josh
Wick WENDELL AND THE LEMON
Directing
Chris
King BIRTHDAY
Travis
Gutiérrez Senger DESERT CATHEDRAL
Stewart
Schill FRANK VS. GOD
Garette
Henson SINA FORMA
Lawrence
Krauser WENDELL AND THE LEMON
Writing
Travis
Gutiérrez Senger DESERT CATHEDRAL
Stewart
Schill FRANK VS. GOD
Garette
Henson & Laurie Rose Savage SINA FORMA
Lawrence
Krauser WENDELL AND THE LEMON
Courtney
Marsh ZARI
The Jack Nance Breakthrough
Performance Award
Diana
DeGarmo ALTO
Ashley
Carvalho BROKEN JAM
Chaske
Spencer DESERT CATHEDRAL
Maximus
Britton DOUBLE NEGATIVE
Alison
Lani PINKY
Acting Male – Long Form
Lee
Tergesen DESERT CATHEDRAL
Henry
Ian Cusick FRANK VS. GOD
Todd
D’Amour WENDELL & THE LEMON
Acting Female – Long Form
Natalie
Knepp ALTO
Petra
Wright DESERT CATHEDRAL
Ever
Carradine FRANK VS. GOD
The Abe Shrager Award for
Cinematography
Adam
Newport-Berra THE CRUMB OF IT
Michael
Ragen DESERT CATHEDRAL
Stephen
F. Campbell FRANK VS. GOD
Byron
Werner HELIO
Julian
Amaru Estrada PINKY
Editing
Chris
King BIRTHDAY
Marc
Vives DESERT CATHEDRAL
Stewart
Schill FRANK VS. GOD
Carlos
David Rivera HELIO
Barry
Rubinow LORDS OF BSV
Documentary
LORDS OF
BSV
THE
WHISKEY TREATY ROADSHOW
Production Design
Marilyn
D’Amato ALTO
Natasha
Liegel THE CRUMB OF IT
Holley
D. Morgan & Matthew S. Naumann FRANK VS. GOD
Aprile
Lanza Boettcher THE HAIRCUT
Kurt
Braun HELIO
SHORT FORM
Outstanding Short Subject
BIRTHDAY
(Chris King, Producer)
DOUBLE
NEGATIVE (Miguel Parga,Eckhard Stiller, Producers)
PINKY
(Celina Hyojong Kim, Producer)
SINA
FORMA (Nicole Delaney, Producer)
ZARI
(Jerry Franck & Kristof Ruzics, Producers)
DVFS Visionary Award
Jeff
Meyers THE BLOOD OF LOVE
Teddy
Cecil HELIO
A.J.
Schmitz PERIPLANET
Garette
Henson SINA FORMA
Courtney
Marsh ZARI
Acting Male (Short)
Chris
Gouchoe BIRTHDAY
George
R. Golden THE EXAM
Franco
Pulice INFINITE
Rick
Kincaid LULLABY
Stephen
Plunkett SINA FORMA
Acting Female (Short)
Mandy
Moody BIRTHDAY
Mali
Elfman THE BLOOD OF LOVE
JoAnna
Rhinehart DOUBLE NEGATIVE
Bailey
Noble THE HAIRCUT
Sofiya
Akilova SINA FORMA
Short Form Screenplay
Jeff
Meyers THE BLOOD OF LOVE
Brian
Dilg DOUBLE NEGATIVE
William
Speruzzi THE EXAM
A.J.
Schmitz PERIPLANET
Dylan
Paffe PINKY
Jury Prize – Technical/Artistic
Achievement
CHEESE
DOG: THE MOVIE
HELIO
INFINITE
PERIPLANET
ZARI
Social Consciousness
BIRTHDAY
BROKEN
JAM
DOUBLE
NEGATIVE
THE
HAIRCUT
SINA
FORMA
Sound Design
Brandon
Kim CLOSE THE DOOR
P.
Daniel Newman HELIO
Ray
Chung LULLABY
Roman
Chimienti THE MINIONS
Courtney
Marsh ZARI
Score (Short Form)
David
Gregory Byrne THE BLOOD OF LOVE
White
Widow CHEESE DOG: THE MOVIE
Milosz
Jeziorski CLOSE THE DOOR
Ryan
Stratton INFINITE
P.
Daniel Newman HELIO
FEATURE SCREENWRITING COMPETITION
FINALISTS
GALAPAGOS
by Lukas Hassel
OUTSIDE
MERIDIAN by Martin Ponferrada
SILENCE
by Dylan Phillips
SOLE
CAPTAIN by Wernher Ovalle
SPOOKED
by Scott Ruane