NIFF History
Award Winners Through the Years
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2007
JURY AWARDS
NARRATIVE FEATURE
Narrative Feature Jury: David Wike, Rachel Dratch,
John Pierson
- Best Narrative Feature: Eagle vs. Shark, directed by Taika Cohen
- Best Director: Shane Meadows (This is England)
- Best Actress: Loren Horseley (Eagle vs. Shark)
- Best Actor: Kene Holiday (Great World of Sound)
DOCUMENTARY
Documentary Jury: Sarie Horowitz, Kristi Jacobsen, David Sterritt
- Best Documentary: Taxi to the Darkside, directed by Alex Gibney
- Jury Prize: King of Kong
SHORTS
Shorts Jury: Katie Brown, Sascha Paladino
- Best Short: The Guarantee, directed by Jesse Epstein
- Jury Prize: Checkpoint
STUDENT JURY AWARDS
- Student Jury Award: Shotgun Stories, directed by Jeff Nichols
- Honorable Mention: War/Dance
CHILDREN'S PROGRAM Student Jury awards:
- Shorts for All Ages: Agricultural Report (dir. Melina Padua)
- Shorts for 10+: My Backyard Was A Mountain (dir. Adam Schlachter)
- Shorts for 14+: Alice or Life in Black and White (dir. Sophie Schoukens)
SPECIAL AWARDS
The Senator Claiborne Pell Award For Artistic Vision:
- NIFF Co-Founders Chris Schomer and Nancy Donahoe
The Mercury’s Anne Franklin Award:
- Sasha Alpert
Newport County Convention & Visitors Bureau Ambassador Awards:
- Chris Schomer
- Nancy Donahoe
- Maude Chilton
- Julie Snyder
- Nina Streich
AUDIENCE AWARDS
- Best Feature: Vitus
- Best Documentary: Autism: The Musical
- Best Short: The Strange Case of Marie France
Children's Program:
- Shorts for All Ages: First Flight (dirs. Cameron Hood + Kyle Jefferson)
- Shorts for 10+: Big Girl (dir. Renuka Jeyapalan)
- Shorts for 14+: Fried Rice (dir. Nils Mooij)
- Feature Film: Quill (dir. Yoichi Sai)
2006
JURY AWARDS
NARRATIVE FEATURE
- Best Narrative Feature: The Road to Guantanamo, directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross.
- Best Narrative Director: Kelly Reichardt for Old Joy.
- Best Narrative Actress: Emily Rios for Quinceañera.
- Best Narrative Ensemble Acting: the cast of The Road to Guantanamo.
DOCUMENTARY
- Best Documentary: Black Sun, directed by Gary Tarn.
- Documentary Jury Prize: Thin, directed by Lauren Greenfield, and The Trials of Daryl Hunt, directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg.
SHORT FILMS
- Best Short Film: Breached, directed by Laura Richard.
- Short Film Jury Prize: Antonio’s Breakfast, directed by Daniel Mulloy.
- Short Film Honorable Mention: Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot directed by David Chai, and The Aluminum Fowl directed by James Clauer.
STUDENT JURY AWARDS
The Student Jury Award was chosen by a panel of local high school students, mentored by Film Critic and NIFF Juror Elvis Mitchell, and coordinated by Middletown HS alumnus Maggie Drayton
- Best Film: What Remains, directed by Steven Cantor.
CHILDREN'S PROGRAM AWARDS
Children’s Program, coordinated, and announced, by Andrea Van Beuren, presented the following awards:
- Children’s Award for Best Feature (with a $600 cash prize): Misa Mi, directed by Linus Torell.
- Shorts For All Ages ($300): One Man Band, directed by Mark Andrews and Andrew Jimenez.
- Shorts For 10+ ($300): Celamy, directed by Julie Anne Meerschwam.
- Shorts For Teens ($300): Queen of Cactus Cove, directed by Anna Christopher.
AUDIENCE AWARDS
- Best Narrative Feature: Quinceañera, directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland.
- Best Documentary: The Trials of Daryl Hunt, directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg.
SPECIAL AWARDS
- Claiborne Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement: Brian Dennehy and Dianne Ladd, actors
2005
JURY AWARDS
NARRATIVE FEATURE
- Best Feature: The Forest for the Trees (Germany), Directed by Maren Ade.
- Best Actor: Nicolas Cazalé for his work in Le Grand Voyage.
- Best Actress: Eva Löbau for The Forest for the Trees.
- Best Director: Miranda July for her Me and You and Everyone We Know.
- Best Screenplay: Mutual Appreciation written by Andrew Bujalski (who also directed and edited).
DOCUMENTARY
- Best Documentary: The Boys of Baraka (USA), Directed by Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady.
- Documentary Jury Prize was a tie, and was awarded to Abel Raises Cain (USA), Directed by Jenny Abel & Jeff Hockett; and The Real Dirt on Farmer John (USA), Directed by Taggart Siegel.
SHORT FILMS
- Best Short Film: I’d Rather Be Dead Then Alive In This World, director Andrew Semans.
- Short Film Jury Prize: Ryan, director Chris Landreth’s animated film.
STUDENT JURY AWARDS
- Best Film: Four-Eyed Monsters (USA), Directed by Susan Buice & Arin Crumley.
AUDIENCE AWARDS
- Best Feature: Miranda July for her Me and You and Everyone We Know (USA).
- Best Documentary: Press On (USA), Directed by Gillian Grisman.
- Best Short: Positively Naked by Arlene Donnelly Nelson.
CHILDREN'S PROGRAM AWARDS
- Best Feature: The Color of Milk, directed by Torun Lian.
- Kids Shorts For All Ages Audience Award: Blue Dog Blues, Directed by Mair Doyle.
- Shorts For Kids (ages 8 and up) Audience Award: Girl Power, Directed by Per Carleson.
- Shorts For Teens Audience Award: Let's Love Hate, Directed by Shia Labeouf & Lorenzo Edwardo.
SPECIAL AWARDS
- Claiborne Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement: Michael McKean, actor
2004
JURY AWARDS
BEST FILM
MARIA FULL OF GRACE, from director Joshua
Marston, focuses on the plight of
a young Colombian woman desperate to better her economic circumstances, but
instead she is plunged into the underworld of drug smuggling. The film's star,
Catalina Sandino Moreno, also received the festival's best actress award.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
CHECKPOINT, the Israeli-produced documentary, directed by Yoav
Shamir, is set
in the many contentious border areas separating the occupied territories
of the West Bank and Gaza from the Palestinians.
JURY PRIZES
Hilary Clarke's BAD BEHAVIOR, about a family that turns to a behavior specialist
for help with their seven-year-old daughter.
Nina Davenport's PARALLEL LINES, which takes place over a six-week period in which she traveled across the U.S. to document reactions to 9/11.
Best short went to Jeremy Saulnier's CRABWALK, with jury prizes going to Taika Waititi's TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT, (which also won the Clairborne Pell award for original vision) and Martin Bell's TWINS.
AUDIENCE AWARDS
BEST DOCUMENTARY
LAST OF THE FIRST, directed by Anja Baron
BEST FEATURE
WHEN ZACHARY BEAVER CAME TO TOWN,
directed by John
Schultz
BEST SHORT
OBSTINATO: MAKING MUSIC FOR TWO, Sascha
Paladino's look at banjo player Bela
Fleck and double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer.
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
GONE NUTTY, directed by Carlos Saldanha
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
DIVE, directed by Sirin Eide
STUDENT JURY AWARD
DANDELION, directed by Mark Milgard
SPECIAL AWARDS
- Claiborne Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement: Phillip Noyce, director
2003
BEST FEATURE FILM
THE MAGDALENE SISTERS (Ireland), from director Peter
Mullan, is set in 1964
and based on the true story of four young Irish women fighting authority at
the Magdalene Sisterhood convent where they have been confined by their families
to atone for their sins.
BEST FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR
Amy Hobby for CONEY ISLAND BABY (USA), in it she spins a down-to-earth love
story set in Coney Island, Ireland. The Best Actor Award was presented to
young actor Rodrigo Noya for his performance in Valentin. Feature Film Jury
member Alexis Alexanian presented the awards.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Rostslav Aalto's CLEANING UP (Finland
- US Premiere) follows the East European tour of 'Cleaning Women," a cult
Finnish rock phenomenon comprised of three earnest sympathetic country boys
clad in women's suits and glamour make-up playing instruments made from drying
racks.
DOCUMENTARY JURY PRIZE
SPEEDO, director Jesse
Moss' lovestory set against the uniquely American phenomenon
of demolition derby.
BEST SHORT FILM
ACORDAR (Waking Up) (Portugal - US Premiere), director Tiago
Guedes and Frederico
Serra's story of the moment of, and just before, waking up is given a life
of its own again, and again, and again ".
SHORT FILM JURY PRIZE
THE TOLL COLLECTOR (US), Rachel
Johnson's film of a toll collector with an
eccentric deformity who dreams of becoming a ballerina; and director Paul
Gutrecht's THE VEST (US), an altruistic third grader must deal with the consequences
of wearing a homemade vest to school.
Special Recognition was presented to Royston Tan's 15 (Singapore - US Premiere) which charts the misadventures of teenagers on the fringe of Singaporean society.
CLAIBORNE PELL AWARD FOR ORIGINAL VISION
For One More Hour With You (Un'Ora Sola ti Vorrei) (Italy - US Premiere), director
Alina Marazzi's personal quest to give life back to the mother she didn't
really ever know, if only through old films shot by her grandfather.
2002
JURY AWARDS
BEST FEATURE FILM
Secret Ballot, directed by Babak Payami was named Best Feature Film. An absurdist
comedy that looks at the election process in Iran, Secret Ballot follows a
soldier who is assigned to work with a female pollster as she moves through
a remote area on a determined mission to rally everyone to vote. Incredulous
at first that a woman has been to supervise the election, the soldier is soon
swept up in her idealistic mission, and their experiences ultimately challenge
their assumptions both about democracy and about each other.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
My Father the Genius, directed by Lucia
Small, was named Best Documentary.
Asked by her father, legendary architect Glen Small, to write his biography,
Ms. Small instead spent 10 years making this unflinching but irreverent account
of his vision and the dismantling effect his career and personality had on
their family life. My Father the Genius is Ms. Small's full-length directorial
debut.
BEST SHORT FILM
I Am Ali, director Dream Hampton's dark comedy about a schizophrenic young
man who believes that he is Muhammad Ali, was named Best Short Film.
BEST DIRECTOR
Jacques Audiard was named Best Director for his work on Read
My Lips (Sur mes levres), a thriller about a deaf secretary and the ex-con who uses her to
pull off a heist. By allowing the audience to experience his heroine's silent
world, Audiard simultaneously develops compelling portraits of his characters
while building suspense in Read My Lips, which he co-scripted. Audiard's
other work includes See How They Fall and Self-Made Hero.
New York Times Claiborne Pell Award for Original Vision
Nothing So Strange, was named recipient of the Festival's New York Times Claiborne
Pell Award for Original Vision. Conceived by Los Angeles-based director/producer/playwright
Brian Flemming, the film is a "documentary" from an alternative
reality in which Bill Gates is assassinated and a group of independent investigators
are the only ones looking for the truth. The Claiborne Pell Award was presented
by Peter Antone of The New York Times.
BEST ACTOR
Claudio Santamaria was named Best Actor for his performance as Paolo in Gabriele
Muccino's The Last Kiss (L'Ultimo bacio). A powerful story of four friends
whose personal lives are at their breaking points, The Last Kiss features
Mr. Santamaria as a character who falls into turmoil when he is named successor
to his family business after his father becomes deathly ill.
BEST ACTRESS
Emmanuelle Devos was named Best Actress for her performance as Carla, the hearing-impaired
secretary who is drawn into a world of crime in Jacques Audiard's Read
My Lips. Ms. Devos' performance captures her character's metamorphosis from
awkward observer to confident participant in a role that won her the Best
Actress Cesar, the French Oscar Award.
JURY AWARDS
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Sister Helen, director by Rebecca Cammissa
and Rob Fruchtman, won the Jury
Prize for Best Documentary. The film is an inspiring portrait of Sister Helen
Travis, a former alcoholic herself, who aggressively and disarmingly helps
recovering addicts to regain control of their lives.
BEST SHORT FILM
Kid Protocol, a how-to look at sneaking into parties from the self-proclaimed
Harry Houdini of gate-crashers, won the Jury Award in the Short Film Competition.
Directed by Amir Bar-Lev (whose film Fighter won Best Documentary at Newport
2000) and Alex Mamlet.
HUMANITARIAN CINEMA AWARD
The Last Just Man, directed by Steven
Silver, won the Humanitarian Cinema Award.
The film is a shocking expose of the events surrounding the 1994 Rwandan
massacres and the head of the UN Peacekeeping Mission, Brigadier General
Romeo Dallaire, whose calls for help went unheeded.
STUDENT JURY AWARDS
BREAKING THE MOLD AWARD
Daddy and Papa, a documentary by Johnny
Symons about gay couples adopting children
won the second annual Breaking the Mold Award, as judged by the Newport Film
Festival student jury. A first for an American film festival, eight Middletown,
RI, high-school students interested in filmmaking were selected to form a
jury panel led by Boston Phoenix film critic Gerald Peary.
AUDIENCE AWARDS
JOE JARVIS AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE
Fast Runner (Atanarjuat), directed by Zacharias
Kunuk, won the Joe Jarvis Audience
Choice Award for Best Feature. The first all-Inuit feature, Fast Runner is
based on an ancient legend of the indigenous people of the Arctic regions
of Canada. Kunuk worked with a cast of mostly novice actors to tell the story
of Atanarjuat, the fastest runner in his village, who whisks away the bride
of his rival and then must find a way to face the consequences.
JOE JARVIS AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
Rising Low, directed by Mike Gordon, and Uncle
Frank, directed by Matthew Ginsburg,
shared the Joe Jarvis Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary, the first
tie in the Festival's Audience Awards. Rising Low is a musical tribute to
Allen Woody, the late bassist of the band Government Mule. Director Mike
Gordon, himself the bassist for the band Phish, followed 25 of the world's
greatest bass players as they convened to record an album in honor of Allen
Woody's extraordinary talent. Uncle Frank is the story of Frank Pour, a dynamic
80-year-old ladies' man and self-taught musician, who is on a mission to
bring joy to the lives of the 90-somethings in the nursing homes around his
hometown of Rome, New York, through his music.
LUCY AUDIENCE AWARD
No Dumb Questions, directed by Melissa
Regan, won the Lucy Audience Choice
Award for Best Short. The 24-minute film features three sisters, aged six,
nine and eleven, as they struggle to understand why and how their Uncle Bill
is undergoing surgery to become a woman. The girls love their uncle, but
wonder how to keep loving him when he's a she.
2001
JURY AWARDS
BEST FEATURE FILM
Inugami, directed by Masato Harada, was named Best Feature Film. Set the rural
town of Omine in the cedar forests of Japan's Shikoku Island, Inugami is a
hauntingly beautiful adaptation of the novel by Masako Bando. The women of
the Bonomiya clan are doubly cursed: Every generation must keep a constant
vigil on the urns that contain the spirits of the Inugami, wild dog gods who
terrorize the countryside, but this terrible burden makes the women outcasts
in their own town. When a new school teacher arrives in Omine and falls in
love with the eldest Bonomiya daughter, their romance sets in motion a series
of events that changes the town forever.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Avant de Partir, directed by Marie
de Laubier, was named Best Documentary.
Rather than offering a detached look at the elderly residents of a nursing
home outside of Paris, de Laubier gets deeply involved with her subjects
to take a tender and honest look at the beauty of life, no matter what one's
age.
BEST SHORT FILM
Rejected, an animated film by American Don
Herzfeld was named Best Short Film.
In an uproariously twisted collection of animations rejected from an imaginary
advertising campaign, Herzfeld uses simple, mostly black-and-white, line
drawings to create a surreal universe of black humor.
BEST DIRECTOR
Bille Eltringham and Simon Beaufoy shared the award for Best Director for their
work on The Darkest Light. The Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of The
Full Monty, Mr. Beaufoy collaborated with Ms. Eltringham to tell the story
of a small English farming village set into turmoil when two young girls-one
English by birth, the other a recent immigrant from India-witness an inexplicable
flash of blinding light. As the town is overrun by true believers looking
for a miracle, the villagers must come to terms with their notions of faith
and reason, and community and outsiders.
NEW YORK TIMES CLAIBORNE PELL AWARD FOR ORIGINAL VISION
Hybrid was named recipient of the Festival's New York Times Claiborne Pell
Award for Original Vision. Director Montieth McCollum's highly compelling
first film chronicles the life and career of his grandfather, Iowa farmer
Milford Beeghly. Beeghly's lifelong obsession with breeding corn serves a
metaphor for larger questions of life itself in this witty, tender and hugely
poetic film. The Claiborne Pell Award was presented by Janet Robinson, president
of The New York Times.
2001 Jury Awards
BEST FEATURE FILM
Together won the Jury Award for Best Feature Film. As their commune spirals
out of control, a group of dreamers in 1970's Stockholm learn what it means
to be a family in this touching and optimistic film. Writer and director Lukas
Moodysson drew wonderful performances out of his large ensemble cast, including
Lisa Lindgren, Michael Nyqvist, Gustaf Hammarsten, Anja Lundqvist, Jessica
Liedberg and Ola Norell.
HONORABLE MENTION — NARRATIVE COMPETITION
Girls Can't Swim won Honorable Mention in the Narrative Competition. A wonderful
first feature from director Anne-Sophie Birot, this film captures one of
the most ephemeral of relationships: the friendships between young girls.
Girls Can't Swim chronicles the bond between a teenage girl in coastal Brittany
and her best friend, a city girl who returns each summer. With deep understanding
of the tensions pulling at the young girls, Birot and writing partner Christophe
Honoré give their audience an insightful look at what it means to
be a friend-and to grow up.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Buffalo War won the Jury Award in the Documentary Competition. Director
Matthew Testa documents the clash between Native Americans, ranchers and
radical environmentalists over the killing of America's last wild buffalo
herd, following the 500-mile spiritual march across Montana undertaken by
Lakota Sioux Indians as they protest the government-sanctioned slaughter.
This is Testa's first feature-length documentary.
BEST IN SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Chicken won the Jury Award in the Short Film Competition. Barry
Dingham shows
us a game of chicken between a bully and his prey in this three-minute short
from Ireland.
SHORT FILM COMPETITION — HONORABLE MENTION
The Sunshine won Honorable Mention in the Short Film Competition. This documentary
short by Phil Bertelsen offers a glimpse into the real-life drama of the
residents of a derelict hotel in lower Manhattan and how gentrification is
changing their neighborhood.
STUDENT JURY AWARD
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog, an enchanting and acerbic comedy starring Kenneth Brannagh as a cynical British playwright in Los Angeles, written and directed by Michael Kalesniko, won the Newport Film Festival Student Award. A first for an American film festival, eight Middletown, RI, high-school students interested in filmmaking were selected to form a jury panel led by Boston Phoenix film critic Gerald Peary. The Holland and Knight Charitable Foundation generously supported this program.
2000
JURY AWARDS
BEST DRAMATIC FILM:
George Washington, directed by David
Gordon Green. Shot entirely in Cinemascope
in rural North Carolina, the film is a delicately told and deceptively simple
story of a group of children in a depressed small town who band together to
cover up a tragic mistake.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM:
Fighter, directed by Amir
Bar-Lev. Concerned with the intertwined stories of
two Czech emigrés who fled their homeland during World War II, Fighter
follows Arnost Lustig and Jan Weiner as they travel through Europe to revisit
stops on their epic six-year journey to freedom.
BEST SHORT FILMS:
Bait, by English director Tom Shankland, is a striking vignette of a caring,
but unemployed, father who snaps when his son lets a homeless man eat their
carefully prepared lunch.
Ice Fishing, by American director Alexandra Kondracke, deals with a boy who longs for a father figure in a landscape barren of likely candidates.
BEST DIRECTOR:
David Gordon Green; for George Washington. Born in Texas in 1975, Mr. Green
studied filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts and has worked
in the film industry in New York and Los Angeles, both for studios and independent
companies. George Washington is his first feature-length film.
BEST ACTOR:
The cast of George Washington, for their ensemble performance. Young actors
Candace Evanofski, Donald Holden, Curtis Cotton, Eddie
Rouse and Rachel Handy brought subtlety and depth to their portrayals of children thrown into confusion
as they try to come to terms with their own responsibilities in the tragic
accident at the core of this year's Best Dramatic Film.
NEW YORK TIMES CLAIBORNE PELL AWARD FOR ORIGINAL VISION:
La Bonne Conduite, subtitled Five
Stories from Driving School, by director
Jean Stéphane Bron. This documentary follows unlikely pairings of
instructor and student as a metaphor for the changing way of life in his
native Switzerland.
JURY AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR:
Léon Desclozeaux, for his work on Chittagong:
Last Stopover. Desclozeaux
tells the story of a ship captain on mission to ground his command at a ships'
graveyard in Bengal, only to find that he has much more to accomplish as he
becomes more involved with a young boy and his pregnant mother.
JURY AWARD IN THE DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION:
Long Night's Journey into Day, by director Frances
Reid. A powerful and unflinching
account of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
HONORABLE MENTION — DOCUMENTARY:
The Eyes of Tammy Faye, directed and produced by Fenton
Bailey and Randy Barbatowas.
A sympathetic and lighthearted documentary about the life of former wife
of disgraced televangelist Jim Baker.
LUCY AWARDS — Awarded by Audience Vote
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE:
What Happened to Tully, directed by Hilary
Birmingham.
BEST DOCUMENTARY (tie):
Long Day's Journey Into Night, directed by Frances
Reid and Deborah Hoffman
The Eyes of Tammy Faye, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.
BEST SHORT:
The Transformation, directed by Barry
Strugatz.
1999
JURY AWARDS
BEST DRAMATIC FILM:
The Last Big Attraction (1999) - Hopwood
DePree, director
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM:
American Hollow (1999) - Rory
Kennedy, director
BEST SHORT FILM:
Fishbelly White (1998) - Michael
Burke, director
BEST DIRECTOR:
Christopher Nolan for Following (1998)
BEST ACTOR:
The Big Brass Ring (1999) - William Hurt
SHORT COMPETITION:
Come Unto Me: The Faces of Tyree Guyton (1998) - Nicole
Cattell, director
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION:
Rabbit in the Moon (1999) - Emiko Omori, director, and Speaking
in Strings (1999) - Paola di Florio, director
ORIGINAL VISION:
The Last Big Attraction (1999) - Hopwood
DePree, director
LUCY AWARDS — Awarded by Audience Vote
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE:
Chutney Popcorn (1999) - Nisha Ganatra, director
BEST DOCUMENTARY:
One Girl Against the Mafia (1997) - Marco
Amenta, director
BEST SHORT:
Confessions of a Sushi Addict (1999) - Kimberly
Harwood, director
1998
JURY AWARDS
BEST AMERICAN FEATURE:
Anima (1997) - Craig Richardson, director
BEST DIRECTOR:
Craig Richardson, for Anima (1997)
BEST FEATURE:
Children of Heaven (1997) - Majid
Majidi, director
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION:
The Hunt (1997) - Niek Koppen, director
ORIGINAL VISION:
Anima (1997) - Craig Richardson, director
LUCY AWARDS — Awarded by Audience Vote
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE:
That Was You (1998) - Ron
Lazeretti, Reno Liberatore,
directors
BEST DOCUMENTARY:
The Cruise (1997) - Bennet
Miller, director