Addition to award tradition
At Woodstock Film Festival ceremony, actor Harry Lennix pledges $2,500 as prize for top female director to honor Maverick Award recipient Julie Taymor
The Woodstock Film Festival may have one more award to give next year. During his introduction for filmmaker Julie Taymor at the Woodstock Film Festival Awards ceremony at BSP in Uptown on Saturday night, actor Harry Lennix pledged $2,500 as a prize to have a female director award
in Taymor’s honor at next year’s festival.
“Take me up on it,” Lennix said to applause, “so after tonight, there will be a Julie Taymor award.”
Taymor, a Tony, Emmy and Grammy-award winner and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, received the Maverick Award during Saturday’s ceremony, which she
placed on a stool next to a new transparent lectern.
She performed a small dance before speaking.
That was a clear contrast to last year’s festival, when actor Bill Pullman climbed on a wood lectern and dropped his Maverick Award, breaking it after the award fell off the podium into the floor.
Also different this year was a mascot in a bear costume, a nod to this year’s festival poster featuring dancing bears. The character
would occasionally appear on the podium, dancing to the live moviethemed tunes from the Paul Green Rock Academy Band.
Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Awardwinning filmmaker Matthew Heineman received the Filmmaker Award of Distinction for his debut feature narrative, “A Private War.” That award was presented by film producer Molly Thompson and film director Alex Gibney.
Heineman said the film was a love letter to journalism.
Roger Ross Williams, the first African American director to win an Academy Award, opened the awards show, celebrating independent artists and films and introducing festival cofounder and executive director Meira Blaustein.
Blaustein would later note the longevity of the festival, which has been taking place since 2000. “I don’t know how many more years I’ll be doing this, but I will be doing one more year, and it’s been an honor,” Blaustein later said.
The next festival,
the 20th, is scheduled to take place on Oct. 2-6, 2019.
The Maverick Awards
The feature film “Wheels” and the documentary “The Feeling of Being Watched” took top honors during the Maverick Awards on Saturday.
The Best Narrative Feature went to Paul Starkman for “Wheels” and honorable mention went to Brendan Walter for “Spell.” A special award for ensemble cast went to John Stimpson for “Ghost Light.”
The Best Documentary Feature went to Assia Boundaoui, director for “The Feeling of Being Watched.” Honorable mention went to director Juliane Dressner and Edwin Martinez for “Personal Statement.”
Best Narrative Short went to director Leonora Lonsdale for “Beast.” Honorable Mention went to Alexis Gambis for “Mi Hermano” (“My Brother”).
Best Student Short went to director Jisun Jamie Kim for “A Year.”
The Ultra Indie Award went to Alex Moratto for
“Socrates.”
Best Animated Short went to Mark C. Smith for “Two Balloons.”
Best Short Documentary went to Skye Fitzgerald for “Lifeboat.” Honorable mention went to Lynne Sachs for “Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor.”
The Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography went to Eric Bader for “Spell.”
The James Lyons Editing Award For Narrative Feature went to editor Kristina Davies, for “Unlovable.”
The James Lyons Editing Award For Documentary Feature went to editor Rabab Haj Yahya for “The Feeling of Being Watched.” Special mention went to “Wrestle.”
The World Cinema Award went to Laurie Colbert and Dominique Cardona for “Keely & Du.” A special mention went to director Roxy Toporowych for “Julia Blue.”
The Carpe Diem Andretta Award, sponsored by The Vincent J. Andretta Memorial Fund and presented to the film “that best represents living life to the fullest,” was awarded to director William Fichtner, for “Cold Brook.”
The Maverick Award trophies are handcrafted by Steve Heller of Fabulous Furniture in Boiceville, N.Y.
The film festival continues on Sunday.