By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Nashville Film Fest Announces Winners

NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FEATURE FILM AWARDS FOR 2016 NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL

Top Prizes Go to Magallanes, SEED: The Untold Story, The Seer: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, Transpecos, Syl Johnson: Any Way the Wind Blows, The Lure, Josephine

Honorable mentions include 
Free in Deed, The Bandit, The Fits, Colin Hay – Waiting for My Real Life, Curtain

Nashville, TN – Nashville Film Festival announced the prizes in feature filmmaking at the 2016 Nashville Film Festival, with top awards going toMagallanes, SEED: The Untold Story, The Seer: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, Transpecos, Syl Johnson: Any Way the Wind Blows, The Lureand Josephine. 

Several winning films will return for encore screenings on Saturday April 23 at Regal Green Hills Cinema in Nashville, TN at the Nashville Film Festival.

The ceremony is the culimation of the 2016 festival, which represented 58 films selected for competition out of over 1,200 submissions.
Narrative Feature

For telling a contemporary story about the abuse of power, the struggle for gender equality, the price of silence and the grace of redemption, theBridgestone Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature was presented to, Magallanes, directed by Salvador del Solar.

Honorable Mention: Free in Deed, directed by Jake Mahaffy

Special Jury Prize – Actor: David Harewood in Free in Deed
Special Jury Prize – Actress: Dorka Gryllus in Demimonde
Special Jury Prize for Acting Ensemble: Magallanes
Special Jury Prize for Screenplay: Eva Neymann for Song of Songs
Special Jury Prize for Music: The Lure

Documentary Feature

For illuminating the beauty of our connection to the land the Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize was presented to, SEED: The Untold Story, directed by Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz.

Grand Jury Prize (tie): The Seer: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, directed by Laura Dunn

Honorable Mention: The Bandit, directed by Jesse Moss

Special Jury Prize for Badass Filmmaking: Hooligan Sparrow, directed by Nanfu Wang

New Director Feature

For its complex characters, use of landscape and the intensity of its ethical conflicts, the New Directors Grand Jury Prize was presented to,Transpecos, directed by Greg Kwedar.

Honorable Mention: The Fits, directed by Anna Rose Holmer

Special Jury Prize – Actor: Gabriel Luna in Transpecos
Special Jury Prize – Actress: Brogan Ellis and Lauren McQueen in The Violators
Special Jury Prize for Production Design: The Arbalest

Gibson Music Films/Music City Feature

For chronicling the rise, fall and renaissance of an R&B artist entrepreneur who never quit the hustle and finally got the recognition he deserved, the Gibson Music Films/Music City Grand Jury Prize was presented to,  Syl Johnson: Any Way the Wind Blows, directed by Rob Hatch-Miller.

Honorable Mention: Colin Hay – Waiting for My Real Life, directed by Nate Gowtham and Aaron Faulls

Special Jury Prize for Best Underdog Story: Sidemen: Long Road to Glory, directed by Scott Rosenbaum

Graveyard Shift Feature

For being everything from a cutting edge musical, to an emotionally faithful Hans Christian Anderson adaptation that would delight Fosse and Fassbinder equally, the Graveyard Shift Grand Jury Prize was presented to The Lure, directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska.

Honorable Mention: Curtain, directed by Jaron Henrie-McCrea

Special Jury Prize – Actor: Adrian Tofei in Be My Cat: A Film for Anne
Special Jury Prize – Actress: Marta Mazurek in The Lure
Special Jury Prize for Originality and Exceptional Editing: Curtain, directed by Jaron Henrie-McCrea

Tennessee First Feature

For presenting a concise, powerful portrayal of a woman in her last-ditch efforts to find her husband in the bleak final days of war, featuring incredible performances and production values, the Tennessee First Grand Jury Prizewas presented to, Josephine, directed by Rory Feek

Best Original Song

Winner: “Drive It Like You Stole It,” from Sing Street.

Sponsored Awards

Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Award: Magallanes, directed by Salvador del Solar
Lipscomb Prize of the Ecumenical Jury:
Best LGBT Film: Hunky Dory, directed by Michael Curtis Johnson
Steven Goldmann Visionary Award: The Lure, directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska

Southwest Airlines Audience Awards Winners
Special Presentations: Sing Street, directed by John Carney
Bridgestone Narrative Competition: (three way tie) Demimonde, directed by Attila Szász, Hunky Dory, directed by Michael Curtis Johnson andMagallanes, directed by Salvador del Solar
New Directors Competition: Transpecos, directed by Greg Kwedar
Gibson Music Films/Music City: Colin Hay – Waiting for My Real Life, directed by Nate Gowtham and Aaron Faulls
Tennessee First: Josephine, directed by Rory Feek
Tennessee Horizon Audience Awards for Best Short:
First Place: The Saurus, directed by Drew Maynard
Second Place: The Unbeliever, directed by Will M. Holland
Third Place: Three Finger, directed by Paul D. Hart and Everyday Yeti, directed by Motke Dapp
Fifth Place: The Van, directed by John McAmis

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon