Denver Film Festival

The Denver Film Festival is held in November, primarily at the Denver Film Center/Colfax, in Denver, Colorado, now the Anna and John J. Sie FilmCenter (Sie FilmCenter).[1] Premiere events are held in the Buell Theatre and Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Before 2012, It was held in the Tivoli Union on the Auraria Campus.

Denver Film Festival
TypeIncentive
IndustryFilm Festival
Founded1978
United States
HeadquartersUnited States
Number of locations
Denver, Colorado

Information

The festival features a diverse selection of films, ranging from independent to commercial from all over the world and is well attended by filmmakers. The festival is currently managed by the Denver Film Society and sponsored by Starz.

History

The first festival was held on May 4, 1978, and featured such films as Annie Hall, The Fury, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Hills Have Eyes and Pretty Baby. The festival kicked off with a 90-minute clip compilation from Warner Bros. titled ‘The Movies That Made Us.’ The festival was originally conceived and founded by Peter Warren, Ph.D., then a professor of mathematics at the University of Denver and by Irene Clurman, then the art critic for the Rocky Mountain News. The first artistic director was Ron Hecht, the manager of the Vogue theatre.

In the early years, Ron Henderson served as marketing director and subsequently as artistic director. Henderson recalls "There were no red carpets and no television cameras out front. We did a ribbon cutting with Dick Lamm (then governor). When we got inside it was a full house at the Old Centre theater, which was demolished before the next year's festival. (The Centre sat 1,200.).

"Most notably, the weather was ominous - cloudy and cool. The opening-night party was at a private house and it was an invitational affair. When we got there, a cold rain was falling. We woke up the next morning, and there was a foot of wet snow on the ground, but it was springtime and by the end of the day, it was beautiful.

"The first festival obviously was very successful, so we decided to take it to a second year. It was really three years before we finally said, 'OK, this is a real thing, let's hire staff and incorporate as a nonprofit.' " Denerstein, Robert (2007-04-28). "Making up a mind-set". Rocky Mountain News.

28th Denver Film Festival

The 28th Starz Denver Film Festival was held November 10–20, 2005.

Award Winner
John Cassavetes Award Philip Baker Hall
Mayor's Career Achievement Award Ang Lee
Stan Brakhage Vision Award Robert Breer

Special tributes were given to Claude Lelouch and Ryuichi Hiroki. The festival also included a focus on Japanese Cinema.

29th Denver Film Festival

The 29th Starz Denver Film Festival was held November 9–19, 2006 and featured 194 titles from 29 countries. 15 films were premiered. The festival was attended by 38,881 film goers and more than 180 filmmakers. The opening night film was 'Breaking and Entering' and the closing night film was Rescue Dawn. "29th Starz Denver Film Festival Jury and Audience Award Winners" (Press release). Denver Film Society. 2006-11-20. Retrieved 2007-10-02.

Award Winner
People's Choice for Best Feature The Lives of Others
People's Choice for Best Documentary The Trials of Darryl Hunt
People's Choice for Best Short tie: Painful Glimpse Into My Writing Process (In Less Than 60 Seconds) & Big Girl
Emerging Filmmaker Award The Last Romantic
The Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Kurt Cobain About A Son
Krzysztof Kieślowski Award for Best Feature Film Beauty in Trouble
John Cassavetes Award Tim Robbins
Mayor's Career Achievement Award Anthony Minghella
Stan Brakhage Vision Award George Kuchar

Special tributes were given to Vilmos Zsigmond, Wu Tian Ming, Scott Wilson and Allan King. The festival also included a focus on Canadian Cinema.

30th Denver Film Festival

The 30th Starz Denver Film Festival was held November 8 – 18, 2007. The official line-up was announced October 22.

31st Denver Film Festival

The 31st Starz Denver Film Festival was held November 13–23, 2008. The featured Red Carpet events were screenings of The Brothers Bloom, Slumdog Millionaire and Last Chance Harvey.

Award Winner
Starz People's Choice Award for Narrative Feature Katyń
Starz People's Choice Award for Documentary Feature They Killed Sister Dorothy
Starz People's Choice Award for Short Film Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award Multiple Choice
Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Another Planet
Krzysztof Kieślowski Award for Best Feature Film Moscow, Belgium
Excellence in Acting Award Richard Jenkins

32nd Denver Film Festival

The 32nd Denver Film Festival was held November 12–22, 2009. The featured Red Carpet films included Precious, The Last Station and The Young Victoria.

Award Winner
John Cassavetes Award J. K. Simmons
Excellence in Acting Award Hal Holbrook
Mayor's Career Achievement Award Ed Harris

33rd Denver Film Festival

Festival was held November 3–14, 2010. It screened over 200 films and included a Focus on Iranian Cinema. Red Carpet Events including a screening of Morning, Rabbit Hole, Casino Jack, 127 Hours and Black Swan. The festival was dedicated to director George Hickenlooper who died in Denver just days before his film Casino Jack screened at the Festival.

Award Winner
John Cassavetes Award Elliott Gould
Excellence in Acting Award Aaron Eckhart
Mayor's Career Achievement Award Danny Boyle
Stan Brakhage Vision Award P. Adams Sitney
Rising Star Award Kerry Bishé
Starz People's Choice Award for Feature Film happythankyoumoreplease
Starz People's Choice Award for Documentary Grace Paley: Collected Shorts
Starz People's Choice Award for Short Film Keep Dancing
Krzysztof Kieślowski Award for Best Feature The White Meadows
Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Secrets of the Tribe
Emerging Filmmaker Award Fanny, Annie & Danny
Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award Dreams Awake
ASIFA-Colorado Award for the Best Animated Short The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger

34th Denver Film Festival

The 2011 Festival was held November 2–13, with 247 Films programmed, including a Focus on South Korean Cinema. Red Carpet screenings included Like Crazy, The Descendants, and The Artist. This was the last year the festival held screenings at the Starz Film Center on the Auraria Campus. The 2011 Award Winners are listed below.[2]

Award Winner
John Cassavetes Award Judy Greer
Excellence in Acting Award Alan Cumming
Mayor's Career Achievement Award James Cromwell
Stan Brakhage Vision Award Abigail Child
Rising Star Award Adepero Oduye
Starz People's Choice Award for Feature Film Kinyarwanda
Starz People's Choice Award for Documentary TBA
Starz People's Choice Award for Short Film TBA
Krzysztof Kieślowski Award for Best Feature Volcano
Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary You've Been Trumped
New Directors Award Sophia Takal (Green)
Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award Huay-Bing Law's Benny
Liberty Global International Student Filmmaker Award Ariel Kleiman's Deeper Than Yesterday
ASIFA-Colorado Award for the Best Animated Short Patrick Doyon's Sunday

35th Denver Film Festival

The 2012 festival was held November 1–11. It included a Focus on the Cinema of Argentina with 13 Argentine films in the program. Red Carpet events included the opening night film A Late Quartet, Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut, Quartet and the closing night film, Silver Linings Playbook. Special events at the festival included tributes to Dutch filmmaker Mijke de Jong, Argentine filmmaker Daniel Burman, Boulder, Colorado, filmmaker Stacey Steers, and the Colorado filmmaking collective, Milkhaus. Celebrity guests who were present to receive festival awards or for special presentations included, Tippi Hedren, George Romero, Andy Garcia, Vince Vaughn and Jason Ritter. Additional screenings were held at the Denver Pavilions off of 16th Street Mall. The 2012 award winners are below.[3]

36th Denver Film Festival

The 2013 festival was held November 6–17, with a focus on Dutch Cinema. Red carpet screenings included, Labor Day, Nebraska and August: Osage County. The 2013 award winners are below.[4]

Award Winner
John Cassavetes Award Harry Dean Stanton
Excellence in Acting Award
Mayor's Career Achievement Award
Stan Brakhage Vision Award
Rising Star Award
Jack Gilford Award for Comedy
George Hickenlooper Honorary Award
Reel Social Club Indie Voice Award Leo Fitzpatrick
Starz People's Choice Award for Feature Film One Chance
Starz People's Choice Award for Documentary Code Black
Starz People's Choice Award for Short Film What Do We Have In Our Pockets?
Krzysztof Kieślowski Award for Best Feature A Touch of Sin
Special Jury Award The Fifth Season
Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary The Search For Emak Bakia
New Directors Award Daniel Patrick Carbone for Hide Your Smiling Faces
ASIFA-Colorado Award for the Best Animated Short Thomas Stellmach for Virtuoso Virtual
Best Actor - Domestic Short Luzer Twesky for Where is Joel Baum?

37th Denver Film Festival

The 2014 Starz Denver Film Festival was held November 12–23. The 2014 award winners are below.[5][6]

Award Winner
Starz People's Choice Award for Narrative Feature Viva la libertà directed by Roberto Andò
Starz People's Choice Award for Documentary Feature Capturing Grace directed by Dave Iverson
Starz People's Choice Award for Music Video Irma, Save Me directed by Xavier Maingon
Starz People's Choice Award for Short Film The Bravest, The Boldest directed by Moon Molson
Krzysztof Kieślowski Award for Best Foreign Feature Film The Tribe (“Plemya”), directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky (Ukraine)
Special Jury Award August Winds directed by Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil)
Stations of the Cross directed by Dietrich Brüggemann (Germany)
Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary The Look of Silence directed by Joshua Oppenheimer (USA)
The American Independent Award for Best Feature Film The Midnight Swim directed by Sarah Adina Smith (USA)
ASIFA-Colorado Best Animated Short Award Salmon Deadly Sins directed by Steven Vander Meer (USA)
The Liberty Global International Student Short Award The Bigger Picture directed by Daisy Jacobs (United Kingdom)
The Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award A Grand Canal directed by Johnny Ma (USA)
Feature Screenplay Award Little House written by Claire Fowler
Short Screenplay Award Pelham Bay Park written by John Burdeaux

42nd Denver Film Festival (DFF42)

The 2019 Denver Film Festival was held from October 30th to November 10th, 2019. After conclusion of the Festival, the following films were recognized as the Audience Award winners for the 42nd Denver Film Festival by a tally of ballots.[7][8]

Award Winner Special Mention
Audience Award for Narrative Feature The Conductor directed by Maria Peters
Audience Award for Documentary Feature 3 Days 2 Nights directed by John Breen
Audience Award for Music Video Salvatore Ganacci, "Horse" directed by Vedran Rupic
Audience Award for Short Subject Film Palliative directed by John Beder
Krzysztof Kieślowski Award for Best Feature Film Song Without a Name (Cancion Sin Nombre), directed by Melina León (Peru) The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, directed by Karim Aïnouz (Brazil)
Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Scheme Birds directed by Ellen Fiske, Ellinor Hallin (Scotland)
American Independent Award for Best Feature Film Swallow directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis (USA) Olympic Dreams directed by Jeremy Teicher (USA/South Korea)
Special Mention Jury Prize Midnight Family directed by Luke Lorentzen (Mexico)
Marilyn Marsh Saint-Veltri Award for Best Student Animated Short Film Daughter directed by Daria Kashcheeva Roadkill, directed by Leszek Mozga
The Liberty Global International Student Filmmaker Award She-Pack directed by Fanny Ovesen
The Liberty Global Domestic Student Filmmaker Award The Clinic directed by Elivia Shaw Dunya’s Day, directed by Raed Alsemari
Short Screenplay Award Pelham Bay Park written by John Burdeaux
Rare Pearl Award Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de La Jeune Fille en Feu), directed by Céline Sciamma

Awards previously given or announced:

Maria and Tommaso Maglione Italian Filmmaker Award

THE INVISIBLE WITNESS (IL TESTIMONE INVISIBILE) Director: Stefano Mordini

John Cassavetes Award Recipient:

RIAN JOHNSON

Stan Brakhage Vision Award Recipient:

VINCENT GRENIER

Brit Withey Artistic Director Fund Recipient:

GYÖRGY PÁLFI

See also

Notes

  1. Denver Film Society. "ANNA AND JOHN J. SIE PROVIDE $2.5 MILLION TO DENVER FILM SOCIETY". Denver Film Society. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  2. https://movies.yahoo.com/news/34th-starz-denver-film-festival-award-winners-174900057.html
  3. Cangialosi, Jason. "35th Starz Denver Film Festival Award Winners". Mile High Cinema. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  4. Cangialosi, Jason. "Starz Denver Film Festival 2013 Award Winners". Yahoo!. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  5. The 37th Starz Denver Film Festival Award Winners
  6. The 42nd Denver Film Festival Award Winners
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