The Multicultural Cinema Club

Sixth Film Festival Report and Results

Dear Friends and Sponsors of the Local Focus 2 Film Festival:

Thank you all so much for attending and supporting our recent film festival. We hope you enjoyed the 38 great selections of work by our local film-makers. We have a great number of talented filmmakers here in our region who need our support and of whom we can be really proud.

We want to share with you a quick report on how everything went.

Local Focus 2 was a very successful celebration of great films. We are very thankful for the many volunteers who helped us.

We are also thankful for all our sponsors: OAC, the Ontario Art Council who gave us a grant that enabled us to pay artist fees and cover some other expenses, and here we want to apologize that their logo was, in the last minute rush, inadvertently omitted from our brochure. Also we thank: The City of Kitchener, The Walper Terrace Hotel, Generation X, Waterloo Regional Arts Council, Social Planning Council, Waterloo Region Record, CTV, CKWR and The Working Centre.

This was the biggest turnout we have had to date for a film festival. 683 people attended the festival, with an average of 85 people per day.

The festival had two kinds of awards for the filmmakers: People's Choice Awards and Jury Awards.

People's Choice Awards

The People Choice Awards were voted on by those in attendance each evening, with the winners in each category receiving the highest number of votes.

Animation category: The animation films did not get the minimum passing marks from the audience during this festival, so this award was waved. However, we encourage animators to continue their good work and to participate again in future festivals.

Short Film category: The People's Choice nominees for best Short Film were: Parallels by Rouzbeh Noori; The Missing Piece by Todd William Schroeder; and Numb by Reese Eveneshen.
The winner was The Missing Piece by Todd William Schroeder.
The winner received certificate and $500.00 credit at the Multicultural Cinema Club which can be redeemed in membership and equipment rental.

Documentary Film category: The People's Choice nominees for best documentary film were: Common grounds: Giving Coffee a New Flavour by Lawrence McNaught; An Emotional Mission: Debbie Bodkin's Story by Neil Sylva; and Downside Up by Azam Fouk Aladeh.
The winner was Downside Up by Azam Fouk Aladeh.
The winner received certificate and $800.00 credit at the Multicultural Cinema Club which can be redeemed in one year membership and equipment rental.

Feature Film category: There was only one submission in this category but the audience voted to have it awarded the People's Choice Award.
The winner in this category was Four Aces by Thomas M. Gofton.
The winner received certificate and $1000.00 credit at the Multicultural Cinema Club which can be redeemed in membership and equipment rental.

Jury Awards

The jury judged the films in Local Focus 2 based on the following: Cinematography; Sound; Editing/Continuity; Story/Script; Performance/Acting; Believability/Credibility/Accuracy.

The jury was comprised of the following individuals: Mick Grogan, Terry Barna, David Finlay, Martin de Groot, Brian Scott, Philip Bast and Azam Fouk Aladeh.

Two films, one by Azam Fouk Aladeh and the other by Philip Bast were excluded from the competition for the Jury Award as Azam and Philip were members of the Jury, but these movies did compete for the Public Choice Award.

The jury recognized three youth directors for their great work and issued three certificates:

Jury Recognition of Merit, Youth Film Work - Film Title: Year Of The Dead by: Torin Langen

Animation category: The animation films did not get enough marks from Jury to earn an award.

Best Short Film category: The three nominees for this award were:
Corporeal Memories by Justin Lenssen; Zip Zap Zop by Carlito Ghioni; and Numb by Reese Eveneshen.
The winner in this category was Numb by Reese Eveneshen. The winner was awarded a sculpture and certificate.

Best Documentary category: The three nominees were:
An Emotional Mission: Debbie Bodkin's Story by Neil Sylva; Raqs Sharqi, It's No Hootchy Kootchy by Mary Lalonde; and A Growing Season by Paul Eichhorn and Robert Waldeck.
The winner in this category was A Growing Season by Paul Eichhorn and Robert Waldeck.The winner was awarded a sculpture and certificate.

Best Feature Film category: Although it was the only submission in this category, the jury decided after a long discussion to present this award because of the quality of the movie.
The winner in this category was Four Aces by Thomas M. Gofton. The winner was awarded a sculpture and certificate.

Thank you to all who submitted work, congratulations to the winners, and a special thanks to all of you who came out to support your local film-makers.

We look forward to seeing you all at our next festival: "Iraq in Hollywood" June 16 to 21, 2009 Kitchener City Hall.

Azam Fouk Aladeh

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