Winners honor Sarasota at the SFF Filmmaker Awards

The Sarasota Film Festival put on an enjoyable show Saturday night with the Filmmakers Awards and Closing Night Film. The ceremony moved along at a good pace as presenters and members of SFF saluted the filmmakers and artists whose work inspired and provoked us throughout this year's festival. Actress, comedienne, producer and director Cheryl Hines hosted the evening, and she was charming and personable as she led the audience through the winning categories.

In addition to bantering about comedy and fashion straight from LA (apparently men can't go wrong in sneakers), the visiting presenters and winners all made apparent their notable experiences while in Sarasota.

There was lots of love on the stage for the SFF board of directors and staff, including Director Tom Hall, as many filmmakers shared their admiration and respect for the “rock star”.

Ms. Hines was full of praise for Sarasota. She even took a moment between categories to remark that despite the mature age of many of Sarasota’s film-going audiences, she was impressed with how open and engaged they were with often-controversial subject matter. She also joked that as she received her itinerary upon arrival, she’d never been to a film festival where there was so much “mandatory partying."

After Tiller director Martha Shane was equally impressed with Sarasota’s audience when she accepted the award for the Documentary Feature Competition. Her provocative film documents the lives of four American physicians, the only remaining doctors who provide late-term abortions after the 2009 assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. Ms. Shane acknowledged that though many audience members are not in favor of the issue at hand, their willingness to confront it and have empathy for the real-life characters in the film was both touching and inspiring.

Andrew Mudge, director of Forgotten Kingdom, paused before his acceptance speech to take a photograph of the Sarasota audience from the stage. Upon winning the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, he was aglow with thanks for the recognition his film received after he spent two years in South Africa among the Basotho people.

Even Eva Alexandra Countess Kendeffy, Consul General of the Federal republic of Germany, had glowing remarks about Sarasota and the prominence of its film festival throughout the entire film community.

A list of all the evening’s winners:

Narrative Feature Competition Winner:
 LAURENCE ANYWAYS,
 Director - Xavier Dolan

Narrative Feature Competition, 
Special Jury Prize for Creative Achievement: 
IT FELT LIKE LOVE, 
Director - Eliza Hittman

Documentary Feature Competition: 
AFTER TILLER,
 Director - Martha Shane and Lana Wilson

Documentary Feature Competition
, Special Jury Prize For Direction:
 SURVIVAL PRAYER, Director - Benjamin Greené

Independent Vision Prize Winners

Independent Vision Prize: THE DIRTIES,
 Director - Matthew Johnson

The On Golden Pond Award for Artistic Accomplishment:
 THIS IS MARTIN BONNER,
 Director - Chad Hartigan

Audience Awards 
Best Narrative Feature:
 THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM,
 Director - Andrew Mudge

Best Documentary Feature:
 RUNNING WILD: THE LIFE OF DAYTON O. HYDE,
 Director - Suzanne Mitchell

Audience Award 
Best Short Film: 
THIS IS NORMAL,
 Director - Derek Watson

Audience Award
, Best In World Cinema:
 THE ANGEL'S SHARE, 
Director - Ken Loach

After the ceremony, the audience was treated to the closing night film Frances Ha, which was presented by one of the film’s stars, actress Mickey Sumner, who received the festival's Breakthrough Performer Award for her role as Sophie.

Then, as the audience got up to leave, and filmmakers and stars hobnobbed with each other in their tight pants and sneakers, Sarasota was once again the star as this backstage blogger went for a night out on the town.