ARTIST PIPER O'NEILL CREATES GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD FOR THIRD YEAR

SEATTLE -- June 2, 2015 -- The Seattle International Film Festival, the largest and most highly attended festival in the United States, announced today that Seattle artist Piper O'Neill has been commissioned to create the Golden Space Needle Awards statue for the third year. 

A Seattle-based artist, O'Neill boasts an impressive and diverse body of work ranging from neon installations to large inflatable public sculptures.

For the past 30 years, SIFF has celebrated its most popular films and filmmakers with the Golden Space Needle Audience Award. Created to recognize the audience's favorite films, awards are given to the Festival's Best Feature Film, Documentary, Actor, Actress, and Short Film. Following every SIFF screening, audience members submit their votes in applicable categories.

SIFF Managing Director Mary Bacarella said, "For the third year, SIFF is grateful to be able to present our audience award winners with this stunning work from Piper O'Neill. Collaborating with a local artist of her caliber has been a wonderful experience for us. We think it's only fitting to honor exceptional work in film with a piece of art that reaches that same height."

Piper O'Neill's work addresses the concept of inherited histories and memory. An NEA recipient, her work is in many notable private and public collections and has been reviewed by Art in America, Art Ltd, and featured on the cover of The Stranger. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and Experimental Animation from Parsons School of Design in New York and a Masters of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington. O'Neill is represented by Winston Wächter Fine Art of Seattle and Friesen Gallery in Sun Valley, Idaho. She is currently preparing for an August artist residency at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and a solo exhibition at Friesen Gallery in September 2015.

O'Neill's inspiration for the Golden Space Needle Award came from the DeJur Electra 8mm camera lens, an iconographic silhouette that is symbolic of Seattle's love of film.

For more information on Piper O'Neill, please visit her website. 

The 2015 Golden Space Needle Awards will be announced on the morning of June 7 on location at the Seattle Space Needle. Below is a complete list of last year's award winners:

SIFF 2014 GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AUDIENCE AWARDS

Best Film Golden Space Needle Award

Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater (USA 2014)

Best Documentary Golden Space Needle Award

Keep On Keepin' On, directed by Alan Hicks (USA 2014)

Best Director Golden Space Needle Award

Richard Linklater, Boyhood (USA 2014)

Best Actor Golden Space Needle Award

Dawid Ogrodnik, Life Feels Good (Poland 2013)

Best Actress Golden Space Needle Award

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood (USA 2014)

Best Short Film Golden Space Needle Award

Fool's Day, directed by Cody Blue Snider (USA 2013)