The Anchorage International Film Festival announced Friday that it has been awarded a $6,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (that's right, the folks who give out the Oscars) to help bring more filmmakers to Anchorage for next year's festival.
Here's the AIFF's release:
Just off its first decade of presenting independent films to Alaska audiences, the Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) has been awarded a $6,000 grant from the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to help filmmakers travel from other parts of the state, country and world to Anchorage for the 2011 festival.
"We feel extremely honored and excited about the Academy's grant award," said Tony Sheppard, the feature programmer and founder of AIFF. "It's an acknowledgement that our festival has established itself as a committed supporter of the art of independent film. Money is always an obstacle for these independent filmmakers, and knowing we can support some of these artists really gives us room to develop some educational and professional opportunities for our community of artists and filmgoers."
AIFF previously benefited from an Academy grant in 2008. The financial boost that year helped AIFF improve its visibility and enhance connections between filmmakers, and local audiences and artists. The award supported travel expenses for an Australian filmmaker who won the 2008 juried feature film competition, for example. When he returned in 2009 to do a workshop and present a film, he collaborated with local artists in producing a short film shot in Alaska and screened at the 2010 festival.
AIFF will use the Academy grant to provide travel support to four to six filmmakers in 2011, including airfare, accommodations, meals and other related expenses.
Every year, filmmakers say they want to come to Anchorage for the premier of their film, or to do workshops and outreach, but the cost of travel prohibits it. Though AIFF provides small stipends to filmmakers every year, it rarely gets the opportunity to fully support filmmaker visits.
The Academy awarded a total of $450,000 to 30 film festivals for the 2011 calendar year, with awards ranging from $2,500 to $50,000. The Academy encourages applications that make festival programs more accessible, provide support to less visible filmmakers, or strengthen the connection between filmmakers and the general public.
The Academy's Festival Grants program has distributed $4.4 million since 1999. For more information on the grants program, go to http://www.oscars.org/education-outreach/grants/.
The festival has also released its list of 2010 winners, which include:
-- Best feature: "The Wild Hunt," by Alexandre Franchi (Canada, 2009)
-- Best documentary: "Stolen" by Violeta Ayala & Daniel Fallshaw (Australia/USA, 2009)
-- Best Snowdance: "Native Time" by Sean Morris (USA/Alaska, 2009)
-- Best short: "Caron" by Pierre Zandrowicz (France, 2010)
-- Best super short: "Nuit Blanche" by Arev Manoukian (Canada, 2009)
-- Best animation: "Ode to a Post-it Note" by Jeff Chiba Stearns (Canada 2010)
-- Audience favorite, feature film: "Bai Yin Di Guo" (Empire of Silver) by Christina Shu-hwa Yao (China/Hong Kong/Taiwan 2009)
-- Audience favorite, documentary film: "The Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi" by Andrew Thomas (USA 2010)
-- Audience favorite, Snowdance: "Statehood!" by Laurence Goldin (USA/AK 2010).
-- Audience/juried second place, Snowdance: "Beekeepers" by Bryant Mainord
-- Honorable mention, Snowdance: "Portrait of Nikolai" by the youth of Nikolai
-- Audience honorable mention, Snowdance: "Journey On the Wild Coast" by Greg Chaney
If you missed them the first time around, you can still read short reviews of several Snowdance films (including three of the winners) and our AIFF coverage.