Student winners offer powerful work

Yan Zhang production

Driskill

Guan Xi

Three students, from Texas, Los Angeles and the United Kingdom, received awards in the 2016 competition. The Student Certificate winners were:

Tyler Driskill, Driskill Films, Austin, Texas, for “Good Luck Bub,” about a “boneheaded bank robber” who ends up stuck with a strange girl. The cast included Jill Bailey and Zack Scott. Driskill studied at the Art Institute of Austin. His website is www.driskillfilms.com

Guan Xi, a master of fine arts graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Los Angeles, won for “Mandala,” a film about Tibet, love, death and reincarnation. She is a native of Beijing. Read an interview with her at https://cinema.usc.edu/news/article.cfm?id=15211

Yan Zhang, United Kingdom, for “The Flavor of the Moon,” a story of a rejected lover who finds his way back to her heart through the moon. The writer was Na Zhao. Yan, a language student at International House, London, showed her film in the short film section at the Cannes Film Festival 2016. See her experience there at http://www.ihlondon.com/news/2016/ih-london-student-show-film-at-cannes/

The 2016 competition delivered 146 awards, including 10 Gold Camera, 36 Silver Screen, 88 Certificates for Creative Excellence and the student awards. 

Welcoming Italy-based judges

Veteran producers Corinne Burns Bruno and Riccardo Neri have joined the FilmFest judging panel. 

Bruno has been an American in Italy for 45 years and in the production film business for more than 35 years. After several years as managing director of Film Master Service, in 2004, she launched Corinne Burns Bruno Service. Her company has produced in Australia, South Africa, England, France, Spain, Lebanon and her native USA.

Corinne Burns Bruno

Riccardo Neri

Neri started Lupin Film, an independent production company headquartered in Rome, in 2005 after 26 years in the Italian and international audiovisual industry. In 1996, he worked on “Portrait of a Lady” directed by Jane Campion and has worked for Martin Scorsese in two movies: “Kundun” and “Gangs of New York.” He also worked on “The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean” by Giuseppe Tornatore, “Harem Soiree” by Ferzan Ozpetek, “The Bourne Supremacy”  by Paul Greengrass, and “Under the Tuscan Sun” by Audrey Wells.

What is this guy looking for?

He's seeking a winning film, of course. 

Michaud: Didn't he have a mustache last year?

Meet Justin Michaud of Telecine Multimedia, Montreal, Quebec, who has agreed to be on the judging panel for the 2016 US International Film & Video Festival now in progress.

  

Michaud, who attended Concordia University, is the Digital Signage Support Specialist at Telecine, a company founded in 1996 and specializing in all aspects of digital signage. 

Telecine's works have included Bloomberg’s OnSite Pro and The HUB at London City Airport. 

See some of Telecine’s creativity at http://www.telecine.ca/