AWARDS/
GOLDEN GATE AWARDS
The Golden Gate Awards were established to augment the San Francisco International Film Festival’s tradition of recognizing and promoting excellence in independent and world cinema. For more than five decades, the competition has introduced Bay Area audiences to illustrious filmmakers who have transformed the medium with their award-winning documentary and narrative features and animated, narrative, documentary, experimental and youth-produced short films.
The Golden Gate Awards are one of many ways in which the San Francisco Film Society fulfills an essential Festival function: to increase attention and resources given to independent filmmakers, and to support the development of international cinema. This year, there will be close to $100,000 awarded in cash prizes, with $75,000 for feature-length documentary and narrative works and $18,500 earmarked specifically for Bay Area filmmakers.
Selected from a wide array of entries, these films truly represent the best of the international filmmaking community. Some past recipients of the Golden Gate Award for feature film include Lixin Fan (Last Train Home), Pedro González-Rubio (Alamar) and Anders Østergaard (Burma VJ), while local luminaries such as Marlon Riggs, Sam Green and Lourdes Portillo have been awarded for their cinematic achievements.
The prestige of the Golden Gate Awards is distinguished in large part due to the participation and expertise of the members of our vital and dedicated Bay Area film and video community. Each year, filmmakers, journalists, exhibitors, curators and academics devote hours of their valuable time to screen hundreds of entries. These individuals evaluate each submission and recommend films for Golden Gate Award competition. International jurors view these works at the Festival and bestow Golden Gate Awards upon narrative and documentary features and short films.
Since 1957, the Golden Gate Awards have recognized and honored filmmakers of the highest caliber, and we are especially proud of this year’s world-class films in competition.
2011 GOLDEN GATE AWARDS OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Better This World (Winner, Best Documentary Feature, Best Bay Area Documentary Feature)
Kelly Duane de la Vega, Katie Galloway, USA
Crime After Crime (Winner: Investigative)
Yoav Potash, USA
Cinema Komunisto
Mila Turajlic, Serbia
Detroit Wild City
Florent Tillon, France/USA
Foreign Parts
Véréna Paravel, J.P. Sniadecki, USA
The Good Life
Eva Mulvad, Denmark
The Green Wave
Ali Samadi Ahadi, Germany/Iran
Marathon Boy
Gemma Atwal, England/USA/India
The Pipe
Risteard Ó Domhnaill, Ireland
Position Among the Stars
Leonard Retel Helmrich, Netherlands
The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion, USA
The Tiniest Place
Tatiana Huezo, Mexico
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Into the Middle of Nowhere (Winner)
Anna Frances Ewert, England
The Home Front
Phie Ambo, Denmark
Library of Dust (Bay Area)
Robert James, Ondi Timoner, USA
NARRATIVE SHORT
Blokes (Winner)
Marialy Rivas, Chile
Aglaée
Rudi Rosenberg, France
Bitch Rabbit
Guerin Van De Vorst, Belgium
God of Love
Luke Matheny, USA
Machines of the Working Class
James Dastoli, Robert Dastoli, USA
Noreen
Domhnall Gleeson, Ireland
The Strange Ones
Christopher Radcliff, Laurent Volkstein, USA/France
Young Dracula (Bay Area)
Alfred Seccombe, USA
ANIMATED SHORT
The External World (Winner)
David O’Reilly, Ireland
Dromosphere
Thorsten Fleisch, Germany
Get with the Program
Jennifer Drummond, USA
Once It Started It Could Not Be Otherwise
Kelly Sears, USA
Pixels
Patrick Jean, France
A Purpleman
Tak Hoon Kim, Yoo Jin-young, Ryu Jin-ho, South Korea
NEW VISIONS
Lost Lake (Winner)
Zackary Drucker, USA
All Flowers in Time
Jonathan Caouette, Canada/USA
Chromatastic (Bay Area)
Kerry Laitala, USA
Coming Attractions
Peter Tscherkassky, Austria
Self Portrait as a PowerPoint Proposal for an Amusement Park Ride (Bay Area)
Jonn Herschend, USA
Tourist Trap (Bay Area)
Skye Thorstenson, USA
YOUTH WORKS
Z-Man (Winner)
Nat Talbot, USA
2 AM
Joseph Procopio, Canada
Escape from Suburbia (Bay Area)
Mayana Bonapart, USA
Flags
Mattan Cohen, USA
India Export (Bay Area)
Raphael Linden, USA
The Math Test (Bay Area)
Sam Rubin, USA
WORKS FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES
Specky Four Eyes (Winner)
Jean-Claude Rozec, France
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg, USA
Play by Play (Bay Area)
Carlos Baena, USA
The Snowman (Bay Area)
Kelly Wilson, Neil Wrischnik, USA
GOLDEN GATE AWARDS JURIES
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE JURY
DAN KRAUSS
Dan Krauss is an Academy Award– and Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker whose work has won awards from the Tribeca Film Festival, IDA and the San Francisco International Film Festival. HBO acquired his first film, The Death of Kevin Carter. He was director of photography for the Academy Award–nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America and Life 2.0 (SFIFF 2010).
MIKE MAGGIORE
Mike Maggiore, with director Karen Cooper, programs the premieres for New York’s Film Forum. He has served on the committees of Film Independent’s Truer than Fiction Award and the Sundance Documentary Fund. Previously he was assistant director of the film and video department of Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and publicity manager for the Museum of the Moving Image.
ESTHER ROBINSON
Esther Robinson is an award-winning filmmaker/producer whose critically acclaimed directorial debut, A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and The Warhol Factory, took top prizes at the Berlin, Tribeca and Chicago film festivals and is available domestically on the Sundance Channel, Netflix and iTunes. Other producing projects include The Canal Street Madam, Home Page and the 1999 digital satellite release of The Last Broadcast.
SHORTS JURY
ANDY GILLET
Andy Gillet is a stage and screen actor. His first film was Nouvelle Chance. He subsequently appeared in Eric Rohmer’s The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (SFIFF 2008), Min Kyu-dong's Antique and Philippe Terrier Hermann’s The Rift. Gillet recently appeared as the Marquis de St. Loup in an adaptation of Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, directed by Nina Companez.
MAX GOLDBERG
Max Goldberg is a film critic for San Francisco Bay Guardian, where he writes primarily about alternative cinemas. His work also appears in Cinema Scope, SF360.org, MUBI Notebook and on his blog, Text of Light. He received his master's degree in Cinema Studies from San Francisco State University.
KIM YUTANI
Kim Yutani is a film programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. She is also the director of programming for Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and oversees Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival and the Outfest Screenwriting Lab. She has served on juries at the Toronto and Berlin international film festivals and the Palm Springs International ShortFest.
YOUTH WORKS JURY
Tyler Galloway
Fifer Garbesi
Theo Rigby
Hailey Scandrette
Works for Kids and Families Jury
Ryan Moore
Danielle O'Hare
Leida Schoggen
