Held at The Venetian’s Postrio restaurant, Saturday afternoon’s Filmmakers’ Award Luncheon was kicked off by UNLV film department chair Francisco Menendez, who attributed CineVegas’ growth and success to the “Holy Tripod of Trevor and Mike, our incredible Dennis Hopper, and my great friends Danny and Robin [Greenspun].” Menendez introduced ten recipients of the festival’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, outstanding students in their junior or senior year, each of whom received a $500 prize. All but one of the students experienced the Sundance Film Festival this year as part of the school’s travel program.
Director Gary Nelson, a member of the Shorts Jury alongside producer Emily Jillette and NBC anchor Mitch Truswell, awarded the Nevada Shorts Honorable Mention to Christopher Ordaz’s Danuta, and the Best Film prize to UNLV assistant professor of film (and founder and director of the UNLV Short Film Archive) David Schmoeller’s Spanking Lessons. In the main Shorts category, Lilah Vandenburgh’s Bitch, Howard Duy Vu’s Equal Opportunity and Kevin Lau’s Year of the Dog received honorable mentions, with Jennifer Aniston’s Room 10 named the overall winner. “That’s it,” Nelson concluded. “And I would like about an hour and ten minutes of my life back.”
CineVegas artistic director Trevor Groth spoke on the addition of a new festival category showcasing films and filmmakers emerging from Mexico. Bad Habits was awarded the La Proxima Ola Jury Prize; director Simon Bross received a bottle of Don Julio tequila for his efforts.
After I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal and Throwing Stars were named Audience Award winners for best respective documentary and narrative, Groth quoted from his Blackberry that the winner of a new prize at this year’s festival, the Heineken Red Star Award, “receives a full-page profile in Variety magazine, will be featured in a segment on the Independent Film Channel, and will be invited to participate in an industry networking event in Los Angeles in December; all in an effort to provide much-needed recognition and exposure to talented filmmakers to assist in getting their works to screen and to be screened and distributed.” The Living Wake – the festival’s most-deserving film of its prize -- took the honor; director Sol Tyron received an angular, crystalline trophy and posed in front of the festival sponsor’s bottle display near Postrio’s entrance.
“And now on to our Feature Film Jury Awards,” Groth continued. “First one, a Jury Award for Distinctive Visual Expression, to All God’s Children Can Dance.” Director Robert Logevall gave his thanks, joking that he needed to attend the UNLV program, if they would accept him. First-time feature director Joy Dietrich’s Tie a Yellow Ribbon received the Jury Prize for Directing, and the final award of the afternoon, the CineVegas Jury Prize, went to Adam Rifkin’s LOOK.
Even before the entrees could hit the tables, the dissention began. But as The Fifth Patient director Amir Mann mused, “If you win an award, that means you’ve done something wrong.” - Julie Seabaugh