“Little Pink House” wins Provincetown Festival Audience Award

PanARMENIAN.Net - The 19th Annual Provincetown International Film Festival concluded Sunday, June 18, with the HBO Audience Awards going, for narrative feature, to Courtney Moorehead Balaker's Little Pink House, and for documentary, to I Am Evidence, directed by Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

Those prizes reflect an edition of the festival in which more than 50 percent of the films were made by women.

Based on a true story, Little Pink House stars Catherine Keener as a nurse who leads her neighbors in a struggle to save their homes in working-class Connecticut from political and corporate interests trying to seize residential land and turn it over to Pfizer.

I Am Evidence investigates the alarming backlog of untested rape kits in the U.S., exposing disturbing patterns in the handling of sexual assault cases by law enforcement.

The John Schlesinger Awards for first-time filmmakers also were presented, going for narrative to Dave McCary's Brisgby Bear, about a man raised in a bunker who sets out to recreate his favorite childhood TV series; and for documentary to Suzanne Bartsch: On Top, a portrait of the veteran New York City party promoter by filmmaking duo Anthony&Alex.

Also during the festival, the previously announced 2016 Filmmaker on the Edge Award was presented to Sofia Coppola, whose June 23 Focus Features release, The Beguiled, screened to strong audience response. This year's Excellence in Acting Award went to Chloe Sevigny, and the Next Wave Award for an emerging risk-taker was given to Aubrey Plaza, whose indie comedy, Ingrid Goes West, screened as Provincetown's closing-night film.

The dates for the 20th-anniversary edition of the Provincetown International Film Festival have been set for June 13-17, 2018.