{"id":146424,"date":"2022-05-13T13:01:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T17:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=146424"},"modified":"2022-05-13T13:54:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T17:54:16","slug":"bates-film-festival-announces-2022-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2022\/05\/13\/bates-film-festival-announces-2022-prizes\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates Film Festival announces 2022 awards in six categories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When the final panel discussion wrapped up and the credits had rolled on the last of the more than 20 films screened at the 2022 Bates Film Festival<\/a>, the Bates students who produced the festival as part of their coursework still had some work to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But their assignment was a fun one, namely the business of counting ballots, choosing winners, and sending out awards in six categories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bates
Cole De Magistris ’24 gets a Bates Film Festival audience at the Nordica Theatre in Freeport, Maine, warmed up for an afternoon screening of Memoria<\/em> on April 2, 2022. Attendees were asked to fill out ballots for three audience awards. (Phylis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The awards aren\u2019t just about giving recognition to the filmmakers \u2014 although that is essential \u2014 they are part of the educational experience. The students became the \u201cjury\u201d for BFF. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe deliberations led students to mobilize ideas they learned in their Bates classes in a practical discussion that had real-world implications for the films being considered,\u201d says Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies Jonathan Cavallero, whose course \u201cFilm Festival Studies,\u201d teaches students how to produce a festival from start to finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe debates around awards tend to define the post-festival discussions in a wonderfully appropriate way,\u201d Cavallero says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Namely, students advocate for the films they love, put the scholarly theories they\u2019ve studied to use in practical ways and consider a range of perspectives, including each other’s. \u201cThey reach a consensus and, ultimately, see the results of that work immediately,\u201d their professor says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jury’s top prize for narrative feature went to The 24th<\/em>, a historical drama released in 2020. It’s about an all-Black military unit in Houston in 1917 and their mutiny over racism within the military and the community. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/lite-youtube>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
The jury for the 2022 Bates Film Festival \u2014 composed of students in the course \u201cFilm Festival Studies,\u201d which oversees all aspects of the annual festival \u2014 awarded the top prize for narrative feature to The 24th<\/em>.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n

The 24th <\/em>was directed by Kevin Willmott who co-wrote BlackKklansman<\/em> with director Spike Lee; the duo share the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay. Willmott visited Bates in 2017 to show and discuss another film he and Lee co-wrote, Chi-raq<\/em>, a riff on Lysistrata<\/em> of Aristophanes, but set in modern day Chicago amid gang violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Short Film went to Her Dance<\/em> (2020), and the documentary award was awarded to a 2020 film about students at Lowell High School in San Francisco going through the admissions process, called Try Harder! <\/em>\u201cWe feel very honored and can\u2019t wait to tell the whole team \u2014 especially cannot  wait to tell your alum, and our Field Producer, Lauren Kawana,\u201d director Debbie Lum, told the class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiences also had a chance to reward the films they loved. At the venues for this year\u2019s festival, on campus and, for the first time, at a satellite location in Freeport, the Nordica Theatre, audiences filled out ballots that the students collected at each screening and tabulated after the festival to determine the three Audience Award winners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiences awarded the film B\u00e9b\u00e9’s Kids<\/em> (1992), directed by the festival\u2019s special guest, Bruce W. Smith, the award for narrative feature. It\u2019s 30 years old but earned a following after its release. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/lite-youtube>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
The Bates Film Festival’s audience award for narrative feature went to B\u00e9b\u00e9’s Kids<\/em> (1992), directed by the festival\u2019s special guest, Bruce W. Smith.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI am honored and flattered that this film sits as a fond memory for animation fans around the nation,\u201d Smith said in a statement. He\u2019d traveled to Lewiston and participated in multiple interviews, including a panel discussion at Schaeffer Theatre on the closing day of the festival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen directing B\u00e9b\u00e9’s Kids<\/em> I certainly didn\u2019t know how it would be received, but it\u2019s heartening to know that people have good feelings while watching the film. Thank you, Bates College, for having me and for embracing all of us at this festival.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Audience Award for documentary was a tie, between 2020\u2019s On the Record<\/em> and 2022\u2019s Framing Agnes<\/em>, both of which received perfect scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bruce W. Smith speaks to Bates professors and students during the 2022 Bates Film Festival. Smith’s B\u00e9b\u00e9’s Kids<\/em> received the festival’s award for narrative feature. (Gianluca Yornet de Rosas ’24 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each winner receives a cash award of $500. The awards are \u201cmodest by film festival standards,\u201d Cavallero says. But meaningful. \u201cThe monetary part of the award is important to us. The Bates Film Festival would not exist if filmmakers were not willing to share their work with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most festivals charge filmmakers a submission fee, he says. Bates does not. And many festivals ask filmmakers to attend but pay for only a portion of the trip, or nothing at all. \u201cThe Bates Film Festival does everything it can to pay for the entire cost of a filmmaker\u2019s trip to our festival,\u201d Cavallero says. \u201cI sincerely hope that we can raise even more money for awards at future festivals because they help to support some truly extraordinary work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel Cuillier, co-writer and director of 2021\u2019s Buy Sell Trade<\/em>, which won the Audience Award for short film, plans to put his \u201cawesome\u201d honor, along with that cash award, to good use immediately \u2014 by submitting his now-award winning film to other festivals. \u201cIt would definitely be helpful for some of the submission fees,\u201d he wrote to Cavallero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The awards are specifically funded by a group that includes alumni who work in the entertainment industry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marco Black \u201992 is a producer whose credits include film (Old School<\/em> and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang<\/em>) and television (The Rookie<\/em>, currently running on ABC), and Taylor Blackburn \u201916 is a television writer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several parents contribute to the award fund as well: Ed Decter P\u201920, a screenwriter and showrunner; Steve Brookman P\u201921 who is co-director of Motion Picture Business Affairs at CAA; and Trey Callaway P\u201920, who contributes on behalf of his father-in-law, the late, legendary Mace Neufeld. Neufeld\u2019s career went back to the 1970s and his more than 50 producing credits include several Jack Ryan movies, starting with The Hunt for Red October<\/em>. The Harraseeket Inn in Freeport was also an awards sponsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next Bates Film Festival is slated for 2024. \u201cIdeas are circulating and conversations are already being had,\u201d Cavallero says. \u201cThe one area that was repeatedly identified by students is the need to promote the panel discussions in the future. Without fail, some of the festival\u2019s most memorable moments occur at those discussions, which are typically student led. Bigger audiences at those events would lead to even better conversations, so marketing that aspect of the festival is something we\u2019ll look at next time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a full list of winners:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jury Award for Narrative Feature<\/strong>: The 24th<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jury Award for Documentary Feature<\/strong>: Try Harder!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jury Award for Best Short Film<\/strong>: Her Dance<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audience Award for Narrative Feature<\/strong>: B\u00e9b\u00e9’s Kids<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audience Award for Documentary Feature<\/strong>: On the Record<\/em> and Framing Agnes<\/em> (both tied with perfect scores)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audience Award for Short Film<\/strong>: Buy Sell Trade<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From more than 20 films screened at the 2022 Bates Film Festival, the Bates students who produced the festival have announced jury and audience awards in six categories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1283,"featured_media":146436,"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],"tags":[11580,10921],"class_list":["post-146424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-society-culture","tag-bates-film-festival","tag-schaeffer-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146424","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\/1283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146424"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146454,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146424\/revisions\/146454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}