{"id":130497,"date":"2020-01-31T09:03:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T14:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=130497"},"modified":"2024-07-01T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T21:00:00","slug":"moviemakers-arent-the-only-winners-in-bates-film-festival-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/01\/31\/moviemakers-arent-the-only-winners-in-bates-film-festival-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Moviemakers aren’t the only winners in Bates Film Festival Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

High standards are something that Bates Film Festival audiences can brag about.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For example, the folks who viewed the 2018 short comedy Nefta Football Club<\/em> at last November\u2019s festival gave the film the Audience Award for Narrative Short, one of eight festival awards. And then, just a couple of months later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences affirmed that judgement by nominating Yves Piat\u2019s film for an Oscar.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"

The 2019 Bates Film Festival presented jury and audience awards in each of four categories.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

Yes, it\u2019s true that the BFF is not Sundance or Cannes. But it\u2019s also true that there\u2019s real value in the awards program, which was inaugurated with last year\u2019s festival and comprises an audience award and a jury award in each of four categories.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Value for whom? Well, for the festival itself, for starters. As an ongoing enterprise of the Department of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies, the festival over time will see its reputation grow through the awareness-raising effect of the awards.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As for the honorees, those filmmakers benefit from a cash award \u2014funded by BFF supporters \u2014 that, especially in the case of emerging auteurs<\/em>, helps pay down debt or finance the next production. Perhaps more important, an award provides film artists with valuable moral support and validation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A festival laurel tells \u201cthese artists that they’re making a difference in the world,\u201d says Steven Brookman, a Bates parent and co-head of motion picture business affairs for Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency. Brookman also leads the Bates Entertainment, Arts, and Media networking group, or BEAM \u2014 and with his wife, Michelle Brookman, made the BFF Awards possible.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\n\t+<\/span>Bates Film Festival 2019 Awards<\/a>\n\t<\/h5>
<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u00a0<\/td>\r\nJury Award<\/strong><\/td>\r\nAudience Award<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Documentary Short<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSelling Lies<\/em> (2019. Director: Leslie Iwerks)<\/td>\r\nA Shared Space: Lewiston<\/em> (2019. Directors: Daniel Quintanilla & Shuab Mahata)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Narrative Short<\/strong><\/td>\r\nBewildered<\/em> (2018. Director: Gregor Wilson)<\/td>\r\nNefta Football Club<\/em>(2018. Director: Yves Piat)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Documentary Feature<\/strong><\/td>\r\nMidnight Traveler<\/em> (2019. Director: Hassan Fazili)<\/td>\r\nThe Feeling of Being Watched<\/em> (2018. Director: Assia Boundaoui)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Narrative Feature<\/strong><\/td>\r\nThe Last Black Man in San Francisco<\/em> (2019. Director: Joe Talbot)<\/td>\r\nWoman at War<\/em> (2018. Director: Benedikt Erlingsson)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n

<\/div>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Yet, as befits a college-produced festival, the biggest beneficiaries of the BFF Awards are likely the students who organize the festival \u2014 that is, the students in professor Jon Cavallero\u2019s \u201cFilm Festival Studies,\u201d a course that puts current theory about the industry into play through the production of a real-world festival.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Those students take on virtually all aspects of organizing this public event that includes screenings, public discussions of the films and the medium itself, and visits from filmmakers, other participants in the featured productions, and scholars.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"A<\/a>

A scene from Bates Film Festival Audience Award winner Woman at War<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

While film festival audiences, obviously, vote on Audience Award recipients, the festival\u2019s student producers select the Jury awardees. And, as it turned out last fall, that process resembled a kind of capstone project for majors in rhetoric, film, and screen studies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cThe Jury awards place the students, who have seen all the films, in the position of an expert, somebody who understands various theoretical approaches to cinema,\u201d Cavallero says.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Shown<\/a>

Shown during a “Film Festival Studies” class session last fall, Jon Cavallero holds the rubric class members used to select Bates Film Festival Jury Award winners. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\r\n

\u201cAs a class, we were taking everything we had learned in our previous courses in the rhetoric department and using that to guide our decisions with the awards,\u201d says Julia Gutterman \u201920, a double major in German and rhetoric from Mamaroneck, N.Y.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For example, the Icelandic film Woman at War<\/em>, about a music teacher\u2019s battle against the island nation\u2019s aluminum industry, drew unqualified raves at the festival screening and received the Audience Award for Narrative Feature. But, says Cavallero, his students\u2019 responses were more specific and nuanced, scrutinizing the film\u2019s treatment of climate change and its representation of women.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The process was also a useful exercise in navigating a welter of different ideas to arrive at consensus, says Abel Ramirez \u201920 of Denver, a double major in rhetoric and Spanish. \u201cI truly learned how to negotiate. That skill will definitely be useful once I leave Bates.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The substantiveness of the debate was a pleasant surprise to Cavallero. \u201cI thought the discussion about awards would take, like, half a class, and it stretched over three. It was fantastic to see.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/a>

Students picked director Joe Talbot’s film for the Narrative Feature Jury Award.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

The students deciding the Jury awards viewed each entry in light of a rubric, or a set of points for consideration \u2014 for instance, did the \u201cfilm form,\u201d a movie\u2019s aesthetic machinery, effectively convey its message? The rubric had been prepared months previously by Cavallero and students in a Short Term Innovative Pedagogy (Re)design course.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A prime criterion for a Jury Award was alignment with the festival\u2019s mission statement, which has a pronounced social justice component, Gutterman says. The jurors also considered what \u201cthe film aesthetically did for the medium, and how it challenged ideas in either filmmaking or just in its story.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And the students pondered a tactical reality rooted in the film industry ecosystem: Should they consider a potential recipient\u2019s reputational value to the Bates festival? \u201cIt was almost like, do we think of that self-promotion when we’re awarding a film or should we not do that?\u201d Gutterman explains. And then, in a meta sort of way, \u201cthe conversation definitely came up as to how much that played into our decisions.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In fact, there\u2019s no shame in wielding a festival laurel wreath as a promotional tool, as evidenced by their abundance among film marketing campaigns. For Bates, of course, awards are a way to get the festival\u2019s name out \u2014 and to discerning eyes, the pairings of film and BFF Jury award signal the festival\u2019s values and interests.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cWe’re seeking films to show,\u201d as Gutterman says, \u201cand then maybe people will want to submit films for us to show, and it turns into something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Providing pecuniary as well as promotional value, the awards program \u201cmakes our festival more attractive to filmmakers,\u201d Cavallero says. Short films, in particular, \u201cusually are not made to make money \u2014 they’re made by people that love filmmaking and think they have something to say.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Film<\/a>

Film and screen studies professor Jon Cavallero and students in his “Film Festival Studies” course meet with Dining, Conferences, and Campus events staff (center right) for festival planning in October 2019. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\r\n

Cavallero points out that in their thank-you for the BFF Jury Award for Narrative Feature, the makers of Last Black Man in San Francisco<\/em> noted specifically that the cash prize is going directly to salaries for the film team\u2019s next picture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cWe highly appreciate this honor that you\u2019re giving us because the movie meant the world to us,\u201d Last Black Man<\/em> star and co-writer Jimmie Fails said. \u201cAll we ever wanted to do was make art that will last forever and we plan on continuing to do so.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A BFF award \u201cis a recognition of work well-done, but it also helps more work to be made,\u201d Cavallero says. \u201cI think, increasingly, as big movies dominate the megaplexes and independent films end up going to festivals, it’s important for festivals to step up and support this kind of work.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Brookman, whose agency, an industry powerhouse, represents the interests of major figures in entertainment, sports, and media, agrees. Especially given the Bates Film Festival\u2019s ethos, he says, the festival awards spotlight \u201cthe kinds of things that move the needle out there in the world. It’s film having high impact.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\"A<\/a>

A scene from the Oscar-nominated Nefta Football Club<\/em>, 2019 Audience Award winner at the Bates Film Festival.<\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The process is prized by the students who pick the award-winners, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":130586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010,224,11009],"tags":[11580,10754],"class_list":["post-130497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-society-culture","category-the-college","tag-bates-film-festival","tag-rhetoric-film-and-screen-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130497"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130603,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130497\/revisions\/130603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}