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Every year, LOCAL SIGHTINGS awards one feature film and one short film with a cash prize. Outstanding films are selected for inclusion in the competition by festival programmers, and competing films are viewed by our esteemed guest jurors during the festival. The winning feature filmmaker will receive $4,000 in cash and a theatrical run at Northwest Film Forum. The winning short filmmaker will receive $1,700 in cash, public exhibition at Northwest Film Forum and $1,000 of studio time and equipment rental.



2007 Winners

Best Feature:
All My Love, Director Brian Short

Best Short:
Fortune Hunters, Director Thom Harp




The 2007 films in competition:

Features:
THE CHURCH ON DAUPHINE STREET
ALL MY LOVE
ACTS OF IMAGINATION

Shorts:
IN MEMORY OF CORROSION
THE RAMBLER
JACK THE VOMITER
MANOJ
ELLIOT�'S WAKE
THE BALLAD OF MARY JO
FORTUNE HUNTERS
THE SINKING OF THE HUNLEY
FALLEN
PHANTOM
GUSTAV BRAUSTACHE AND THE AUTO-DEBILITATOR

2007 Juror Bios

JOE SWANBERG
Joe Swanberg (b. 1981) studied film production at Southern Illinois University, where he developed an interest in emerging video technology and a crippling addiction to the Internet. His three features, KISSING ON THE MOUTH (2005), LOL (2006) and HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS (2007), premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and have played extensively at festivals around the world. HANNAH is being distributed by IFC First Take and is currently playing in theaters across the country. He produces an episodic web series, YOUNG AMERICAN BODIES, with his wife, Kris, that can be viewed for free online at www.nervevideo.com. He lives and works in Chicago, IL.

JONATHAN MARLOW
Despite occasional distractions, Jonathan Marlow is a writer, director, producer, cinematographer, critic, curator and composer. Not necessarily in that order. A moderately accomplished filmmaker with more than two dozen short films to his credit, Marlow is presently the President and CEO of the independent film distributor Cabinetic, with stops at Amazon.com, Scarecrow Video (where he ran the smallest operational movie theatre in the world) and the Rent-by-Mail/Video-on-Demand service Greencine along the way. It is not uncommon for Marlow to draw on his disparate experience for articles and interviews in numerous publications on issues pertaining to the motion picture business. He is also a Board member of the San Francisco Cinematheque, and occasionally hosts film screenings throughout the country that showcase remarkable cinematic works that are unavailable elsewhere.

VANESSA RENWICK
Vanessa Renwick is a Portland-based film/video/installation artist and all-around cinematic rabble-rouser. Her experimental and poetic documentary pieces explore place, relationships, landscapes, borders of all sorts, and the possibility of hope. Over the past year, her work has been shown in exhibitions and festivals across North America (from Art Basil in Miami to True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Mo and the Vancouver International Film Festival) as well as across the globe (Germany, Belgium, Scotland, Italy, Austria, South Korea, Mexico). She is the recipient of numerous festival awards, grants and residencies. Her work has pushed the boundaries of the documentary form, and her efforts as a curator/organizer have helped bring similarly unique work from Northwest film artists to an international stage.

Previous Award Winners and Jurors

2006:

Winning Feature: June & July by Brady Hall
Winning Short: What's in the Barn by Mike Corrigan, Travis Hiibner, Derrick King and Gary Mcleod

Jurors:
John Vanco: Vice President and general manager of the IFC Center
Charlie Humphrey: Executive Director of Pittsburgh Filmmakers
Scott Macaulay: Co-president, with producing partner Robin O'Hara, of Forensic Films and editor and co-founder of Filmmaker Magazine
Lane Kneedler: Programmer for AFI FEST in Los Angeles

2005:

Winning Feature: Ray of Darkness by JK Realms
Winning Short: My Saarab by Sarna Lapine

Jurors:
Michelle Satter: Founding Director of the Sundance Institute�s Feature Film Program
Richard Pena: Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Director of the New York Film Festival
Ted Hope: Co-founder of the New York production company This is that
Rebecca Campbell: Executive Director of the Austin Film Society

2004:

Winning Feature: Flight From Death by Patrick Shen and Greg Bennick
Winning Short: Les Nanas by Danielle Morgan

Jurors:
Marcus Hu: Co-President of Strand Releasing
Jeff Hill: Head of International House of Publicity (I.H.O.P)
Amy Talkington: Filmmaker and writer.

Prior to 2004, Local Sightings did not offer awards