SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES AUDIENCE & COMPETITION AWARDS

SIFF 2015 GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AUDIENCE AWARDS

SIFF celebrates its films and filmmakers with the Golden Space Needle Audience Awards. Selected by Festival audiences, awards are given in five categories: Best Film, Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Short Film. This year, nearly 90,000 ballots were submitted.

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD - BEST FILM 

The Dark Horse, directed by James Napier Robertson (New Zealand 2014)

First runner-up: Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter (USA 2015)

Second runner-up: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (USA 2015)

Third runner-up: Shaun the Sheep, directed by Richard Starzak, Mark Burton (UK 2015)

Fourth runner-up: Good Ol' Boy, directed by Frank Lotito (USA 2015)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD - BEST DOCUMENTARY 

Romeo is Bleeding, directed by Jason Zeldes (USA 2015)

First runner-up: Paper Tigers, directed by James Redford (USA 2015)

Second runner-up: The Glamour & The Squalor, directed by Marq Evans (USA 2015)

Third runner-up: The Great Alone, directed by Greg Kohs (USA 2015)

Fourth runner-up: Frame by Frame, directed by Mo Scarpelli, Alexandria Bombach (Afghanistan 2014)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD - BEST DIRECTOR 

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (USA 2015)

 First runner-up: George Ovashvili, Corn Island (Georgia 2014) 

Second runner-up: Peter Greenaway, Eisenstein in Guanajuato (Netherlands 2015) 

Third runner-up: Susanne Bier, ASecond Chance (Denmark 2014)

Fourth runner-up: Ross Partridge, Lamb (USA 2015)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD - BEST ACTOR 

Cliff Curtis, The Dark Horse (New Zealand 2014)

First runner-up: Ian McKellen, Mr. Holmes (UK 2015)

Second runner-up: Jason Segel, End of the Tour (USA 2014) 

Third runner-up: Victor Andrés Trelles Turgeon, Henri Henri (Canada (Québec) 2014)

Fourth runner-up: Jacir Eid, Theeb (Jordan 2014)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD - BEST ACTRESS 

Nina Hoss, Phoenix (Germany 2014)

First runner-up: Kalki Koechlin, Margarita, with a Straw (India 2014)

Second runner-up: Rebecka Josephson, My Skinny Sister (Sweden 2015) 

Third runner-up: Regina Case, The Second Mother (Brazil 2015)

Fourth runner-up: Ghita Nørby, Key House Mirror (Denmark 2015)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD - BEST SHORT FILM 

Even the Walls, directed by Sarah Kuck, Saman Maydáni (USA 2015)

First runner-up: Submarine Sandwich, directed by PES (USA 2014)

Second runner-up: Stealth, directed by Bennett Lasseter (USA 2014)

Third runner-up: Personal Development, directed by Tom Sullivan (Ireland 2015)

Fourth runner-up: Bihttoš, directed by Elie-Máijá Tailfeathers (Canada 2014)

LENA SHARPE AWARD FOR PERSISTENCE OF VISION

Frame by Frame, directed by Mo Scarpelli, Alexandria Bombach (Afghanistan 2014)

This award is given to the female director's film that receives the most votes in public balloting at the Festival. Lena Sharpe was co-founder and managing director of Seattle's Festival of Films by Women Directors and a KCTS-TV associate who died in a plane crash while on assignment. As a tribute to her efforts in bringing the work of women filmmakers to prominence, SIFF created this special award and asked Women in Film Seattle to bestow it.

SIFF 2015 FUTUREWAVE AND YOUTH JURY AWARDS

YOUTH JURY AWARD FOR BEST FUTUREWAVE FEATURE

Seoul Searching (USA/South Korea 2015), directed by Benson Lee

JURY STATEMENT: For its diverse and relatable characters, quality mix of emotion and comedy, and accurate and respectful representation of teens, the 2015 FutureWave Youth Jury Prize goes to Seoul Searching.

YOUTH JURY AWARD FOR BEST FILMS4FAMILIES FEATURE

When Marnie Was There (Japan 2014), directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi

JURY STATEMENT: For its beautiful and detailed animation, realistic sound design, and original, bittersweet tale of mystery the Films4Families Jury awards When Marnie Was There.

WAVEMAKER AWARD (GRAND PRIZE)

In recognition of superior artistic and technical achievement.

Audio Input(USA), directed by Sho Schrock-Manabe

JURY STATEMENT: For its insightful and engaging portrait of podcasting, an audio art form, through a collage of interviews and images.

FUTUREWAVE AUDIENCE AWARD

Minimum Max (USA), directed by Josh Ovalle

PRODIGY CAMP SCHOLARSHIPS

Each winner will be awarded a $1000 scholarship to the Prodigy Camp.

I'm Not Here (South Africa), directed by Jack Markovitz

Minimum Max (USA), directed by Josh Ovalle

 SIFF 2015 SHORT FILM JURY AWARDS

All short films shown at the Festival are eligible for both the Golden Space Needle Audience Award and Jury Award. Jurors will choose winners in the Narrative, Animation, and Documentary categories. Each jury winner will receive $1,000 and winners in any of the three categories may also qualify to enter their respective films in the Short Film category of the Academy Awards®.

LIVE ACTION

GRAND JURY PRIZE 

The Chicken (Croatia, Germany), directed by Una Gunjak 

JURY STATEMENT: An expertly crafted narrative that explores life and death through the eyes of a young girl. With a film full of authentic performances, Iman Alibalic is extraordinary as the six-year-old protagonist who receives a live chicken from her father for her birthday, and soon realizes it's meant for dinner. This is an emotional film with a production quality that continues to move the story along and underscore the realities of life in a war zone.

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Hole (Canada), directed by Martin Edralin

JURY STATEMENT: Hole is a brave exploration of human sexuality and yearning for intimacy through the eyes of a lonely, forgotten, disabled man in the heart of Toronto. Ken Harrower delivers a captivating performance that transcends any labels or limitations and speaks to the need for human connection.

DOCUMENTARY

GRAND JURY PRIZE  

Bihttos (Canada), directed by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers  

JURY STATEMENT: For its ambitious approaches to visual storytelling and imaginative recounting of an exceptional family history.

ANIMATION 

GRAND JURY PRIZE

The Mill at Calder's End (USA), directed by Kevin McTurk 

JURY STATEMENT: There exists a tendency to laud the new-new stories, new techniques, new talent. With the animation award, the jury is pleased to celebrate a film that is decidedly old-school, breathing life into a bygone style, iterating in a story tradition that is centuries old. For this fusion of the modern and classic, we are happy to award Kevin McTurk for The Mill at Calder's End.

Short Film Juries 2015:

Live Action: Stefanie Malone (NFFTY), Bobby McHugh (World Famous), and Tracy Rector (Longhouse Media).

Documentary and Animation: Courtney Sheehan (Northwest Film Forum), Jason Sondhi (Vimeo curator), Alex Stonehill (Seattle Globalist). 

 FESTIVAL 2015 HIGHLIGHTS

Kevin Bacon was this year's Tribute honoree, receiving SIFF's Career Achievement in Acting Award. The Festival screened his films Footloose, Diner, and the upcoming release of Focus World's Cop Car directed by Jon Watts. Jason Schwartzman attended the Festival to talk about his body of work before a screening of 7 Chinese Brothers directed by Bob Byington and also appeared with the Closing Night film The Overnight. A tribute was also held for the late Stewart Stern, screenwriter of Rebel Without a Cause and an active member of the Seattle film community. Stern's mentee, writer/director Ryan Piers Williams (X/Y, SIFF 2014), presented a live screenplay reading of Rebel Without a Cause featuring Raúl Castillo (HBO's "Looking") and America Ferrera along with members of Seattle's extraordinary acting community.

The Festival also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation with 12 restoration titles - eight screened during the 2015 Festival and four in partnership with STG and their Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays at the Paramount in June. The selection included the North American premieres of two restored films: 1966's Black Girl (La Noire de...) from "the father of African cinema" Ousmane Sembène and 1978's Alyam, Alyam from Moroccan master Ahmed El Maanoui.

SIFF 2015 also presented popular recurring programs of films like African Pictures (made possible by a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), Face the Music, Northwest Connections, and Catalyst - as well as launching a new section, Culinary Cinema. The program featured a selection of 11 extraordinary films related to food, drink, restaurants; seven guests (including chefs!); and six "Dinner and a Movie" events in partnership with top Seattle restaurants including Poppy, The Dunbar Room, Loulay, Manhattan, Bookstore Bar & Cafe and Vude.

This year, SIFF had the incredible opportunity to present films for one final year at the historic Harvard Exit on Capitol Hill - a Festival venue for 27 years -  before it closes as a movie theatre for good. The 2015 Festival gave Seattle and its film community a chance to celebrate its charm one last time with a "24-day celebratory wake" of screenings. Fittingly, an encore screening of Colin Hank's All Things Must Pass (a documentary about the rise and fall of Tower Records) was the final show at the theatre.

Additional celebrities at SIFF this year included director Paul Feig for the Opening Night Gala film Spy; 1950s heartthrob Tab Hunter, subject of Tab Hunter Confidential; Pat Mills, director and star of Guidance; Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, director of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl; Jason Zeldes, director of Romeo is Bleeding; director Brett Haley and actor Sam Elliott of I'll See You in My Dreams; director Erika Frankel and chefs Georges Perrier and Nicholas Elmi of King Georges; Kris Swanberg, director of Unexpected; Jemaine Clement, star of People, Places, Things; Kiki Alvarez, SIFF's first visiting director from Cuba with his film Venice; Pete Carroll, Seattle Seahawks coach and executive producer of License to Operate; Cliff Curtis, star of The Dark Horse; James Redford, director of Paper Tigers; Mark Christopher, director of 54: The Director's Cut; actor Hiroyuki Sanada of Mr. Holmes; actor Stephen Tobolowsky, subject of the documentary The Primary Instinct; Colin Hanks, director of All Things Must Pass; Serge Bromberg, director of Saved From the Flames; director Marq Evans and subject Marco Collins of The Glamour & The Squalor; Michael Almereyda of Experimenter; director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera of Pixar's Inside Out; comedian Tig Notaro of the doc Tig, Leslye Headland, director of Sleeping With Other People; director Greg Kohs and subjects Lance Mackey and sled dog Amp of The Great Alone; Bob Byington, director of 7 Chinese Brothers; and actors Jason Schwartzman, Judith Godrèche and director Patrick Brice of Closing Night Gala film The Overnight.

About SIFF

Founded in 1976, SIFF creates experiences that bring people together to discover extraordinary films from around the world with the Seattle International Film Festival, SIFF Cinema, and SIFF Education. Recognized as one of the top film festivals in North America, the Seattle International Film Festival is the largest, most highly attended film festival in the United States, reaching more than 150,000 annually. The 25-day festival is renowned for its wide-ranging and eclectic programming, presenting over 450 features, short films, and documentaries from over 80 countries each year. SIFF Cinema exhibits premiere theatrical engagements, repertory, classic, and revival film showings 365 days a year on five screens at the SIFF Cinema Uptown, SIFF Cinema Egyptian, and SIFF Film Center, reaching more than 150,000 attendees annually. SIFF Education offers educational programs for all audiences serving more than 13,000 students and youth in the community with free programs each year. 

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