“Lady Macbeth” among Montclair Film Fest award winners

PanARMENIAN.Net - The 2017 Montclair Film Festival came to an end over the weekend, revealing the winners in its four competitions. Five efforts competed in each category: fiction, documentary, future/now and New Jersey films, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

The fiction feature prize went to William Oldroyd's Lady Macbeth, with Florence Pugh receiving a special jury prize for her performance.

The documentary feature competition's Bruce Sinofsky Award was given to Yance Ford's Strong Island, with a special jury prize for direction given to Matthew Heineman for City of Ghosts.

Eliza Hittman's Beach Rats won the future/now prize, honoring emerging low-budget American independent filmmaking. The New Jersey films award went to Lara Stolman's Swim Team, with a special jury prize, the American Truth Seeker Award, given to ACORN & The Firestorm's Reuben Atlas and Samuel D. Pollard.

The Reagan Show, directed by Sierra Pettengill and Pacho Velez, won the third annual David Carr Award for Truth in Nonfiction Filmmaking, which honors a filmmaker who uses journalistic techniques to explore contemporary subjects.

Audience awards were won by the following films: Maudie (fiction), Dolores (documentary), Clash (world cinema) and Edith+Eddie (short films).

A junior jury of students from area high schools awarded its top prize to the documentary Elian, with Casting JonBenet receiving a special jury prize for innovative filmmaking.

“This year’s films represent a vast range of ideas, artistic approaches, and cinematic points of view,” Montclair Film executive director Tom Hall said in a statement. “We are honored to be able to share these films with our audiences, and congratulate all of our filmmakers on their outstanding work.”