The 7th Annual Seattle Film Festival is open for submissions having concluded its most successful festival run to date.
Sander Burger’s The Judgement (De Veroordeling) was awarded Grand Jury Prize at the recently concluded 2020 Seattle Film Festival. The Dutch feature film is based on the real story of a TV investigative journalist in the Netherlands challenging the judicial system, media and public opinion as he attempts to uncover the truth about a controversial high-profile murder case. The film won a total of six awards in the World Competition, including Best Director (Sander Burger), Outstanding Male Performance (Fedja van Huêt), Best Supporting Actor (Yorick van Wageningen), Best Supporting Actress (Lies Visschedijk) and Best Screenplay adapted from a novel.
Other big feature film winners in the World Competition include: 8 (The Soul Collector) (South Africa), which won 5 Awards including Best Visionary Feature Film, Best Actor (Tshamano Sebe), Best Actress (Inge Beckmann) and Best Young Actress (Keita Luna). Myroslav Latyk’s 5 Bucks - Case of Hamster (Khalepa na 5 Baksiv) (Ukraine) won four awards including being voted the winner of the Audience Award. Nigina Sayfullaeva’s Infidelity (Vernost) (Russian Federation) was the winner of three awards including Outstanding Female Performance (Evgeniya Gromova) and Jury Prize for Best Director (Nigina Sayfullaeva). Fabio Massa’s Never Forever (Mai Per Sempre) (Italy) took home two awards including Best Ensemble Cast. Hemwant Tiwari’s The Fox (LOMAD) (India) was given two awards including the Jury Prize for Special Achievement in Filmmaking. The Fox is the world’s first black and white feature filmed in one continuous shot.
In the U.S. Competition, Niels Mueller’s Small Town Wisconsin was the winner of seven awards including Best Feature Film, Best Director (Niels Mueller), Best Actor (David Sullivan), Best Supporting Actress (Kristen Johnston), Best Young Actor (Cooper J. Friedman) and Best Supporting Actor (Bill Heck) who shared the award with Sean Astin, who won for his performance in Miss Perception. For The Hits took home Best Actress Award for Krista Allen’s performance.
Public Enemy Number One, executive produced by Ice-T was awarded Best Documentary Feature along with Jim Kroft’s documentary A Conversation With America (U.S.). Christina Zorich’s The New Abolitionists (Thailand) won Best Documentary Feature in the International Competition.
Winners of the Best Documentary Short Film U.S. Competition are Marianne Gardner’s After My Brother Died and Allen Hicks’ Liv. Naziha Mehmood’s Street Bullets (Pakistan) won for Best Documentary Short Film International Competition. Best Making-Of Documentary Short Film winner was Matthew Snead’s Tremors: Making Perfection in which the filmmakers explore the film’s enduring cult appeal with Michael Gross and Kevin Bacon.
Bonnie McKee was awarded Outstanding Performance in a short film and also took home the Seattle Filmmaker Short Film Award for April Kills The Vibe. The Winner of Outstanding Performance in a TV Web Series was Ireon Roach in The Come Up. Best Short Film Winners under 12 minutes run time include Georgi M. Unkovski’s Sticker (North Macedonia) and Masoud Soheili’s Elephant Bird (Iran) which claimed two awards. James Solomon’s A Hole (New Zealand) shared the win for Best Short Film over 12 minutes run time with Sergine Dumais’ Wichita (U.S.) which won three awards in total including Best Director and Best Acting Duo Award for Maxim Roy and Jeremy Sisto. Best Actor in a Short Film was awarded to Christopher Piccione for his performance in Mr. Sam (U.S.). Ali’s Realm (U.S.) won three awards including Best Director (Mario Torres Jr.), Best Actress in a Short Film (Nicole Elizabeth Berger) and Best Ensemble Cast with Nicole Elizabeth Berger, Mark Webber, Paulina Porizkova and Jennifer Beals.
