“The Dark Horse” wins best film at Seattle Int’l Film Fest

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Seattle International Film Festival announced the audience and competition winners of its 2015 iteration on Sunday, June 7, according to Variety.

In the audience awards, “The Dark Horse” won best film and best actor for Cliff Curtis; Alfonso Gomez-Rejon won best director for “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”; “Romeo Is Bleeding” won for documentary and Nina Hoss was top actress for “Phoenix.”

“Liza, the Fox-Fairy,” “The Great Alone’ and “Chatty Catties” took home the grand jury prize awards for new director, documentary and new American film, respectively.

“Our 41st festival was another fantastic celebration of storytelling in all its forms,” said SIFF’s artistic director Carl Spence in a statement. “We presented everything from the storied cinematic past (archival screenings celebrating Martin Scorsese’s the Film Foundation and live read of the late Stewart Stern’s ‘Rebel Without a Cause’), to the iconic (Kevin Bacon!), to the independent (Jason Schwartzman and his new comedy ‘7 Chinese Brothers’). With a record 92 countries represented this year and sold-out shows every night, this year’s festival was bigger than ever, but it also fittingly included a proper sendoff of an iconic moviehouse, the Harvard Exit.”

“This year’s festival was one big celebration after another: There was the launch of our new Culinary Cinema program and its ‘Dinner and a Movie’ events, the re-creation of Studio 54, which took many of us way, way back, and the chance to see Sir Mix-A-Lot on stage at Neumos at the after-party for ‘The Glamour & the Squalor,'” added SIFF’s managing director Mary Bacarella.

Winners of the juried competition won $2,500 in cash. The New American Cinema competition winner was also awarded the Fipresci prize.

The 25-day festival started May 14 and had 450 films representing 92 countries, including 49 world premieres, 52 North American premieres, 18 U.S. premieres and 720 fest screenings and events.