Winners, Best of Festival Nominees Announced

Check out the full winners list and meet the Best of Festival (Grand Prix) nominees now at www.filmfestawards.com

Board members lend talents to judging

U.S. International Film & Video Festival is fortunate to have three of its board members among its judging teams for 2013. Michael Marshall, Neil Curry and Joseph Ball have generously helped out when needed. And, considering their many commitments, we are thankful for their support.

Michael Marshall

Marshall, founder of Breathing Space Productions, Isle of Whithorn, Scotland in the UK, established a community cinema in his home area. He writes he is “passionate about passing on my skills to others – recently acting as a mentor to graduate film students in the UK, teaching digital photography and video techniques privately, as well as for several Adult Learning programmes in the southwest of Scotland.” Marshall also counts a number of wins in the competition from 1987-2004. He also lives in a beautiful place that lends itself to cameras: See http://www.isleofwhithorn.com/

Ball, publisher of Advertising Communication Times (ACT), produces a business-to-business monthly journal for company owners and executives in Philadelphia, Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey & Delaware. Website: http://www.phillybizmedia.com/

Neil Curry

Neil Curry, Insight Films in Western Cape, South Africa, is the originator and producer, in collaboration with Oxford Scientific Films, of “The Elephant, The Emperor and The Butterfly Tree,” which won the Golden Panda at Wildscreen in 2004. The film tells the story of the eternal struggle between the elephant, the emperor moth - or rather its caterpillar - and the mopane tree: a saga of destruction, rebirth and survival - and the effect this has on the lives of the human beings who share the same environment and who depend on the ecosystem for their livelihood, and on the harvest of mopane worms it produces to supplement their diet. Curry now works in “retirement” in Africa. He moved there from England as a director-cameraman with the Central African Film Unit in what was then Rhodesia, and then to South Africa, to the newly created National Film Board.  Later, with his own production company, he made films about the gold and diamond mining industries, farming, exports, the arts, and wildlife.

Past Winning Topics Still Current

From "Accessibility NOW"

Sometimes it is enlightening to look back to see what was hot in the festival a few years ago. The findings either remind us of how little or how much life changes.  For example, among the Best of Festival winners from 2007 were:

“Accessibility NOW” — Corporate, produced by Animech AB, Uppsala, Sweden

“Anti-Drug Files – Lost & Found” — Educational,  from Radio Television Hong Kong, Hong Kong   

“The Battle of Chernobyl” — Documentary, Discovery Networks International, Silver Spring, Md.

All are subjects everlasting. 

FilmFest Competition Revs Up

        Life becomes so much more interesting around the office when those first entries arrive for a new competition. That's happening these days for the 2013 festival, and it feels so good.

        US International Film & Video Festival offers five mini-competitions in one by recognizing outstanding Corporate, Education, Entertainment, Documentary and Student productions. Join the mailing list to keep up with this competition, which has a March 1 deadline. Remember, student entries are welcome!

“Cookable” book a Grand Prix Winner in Mobius

       A cookbook you can read and also cook won Best of Show in Brochure/Book in the 2012 Mobius Awards for Advertising, sister company to US International Film & Video Festival.
      “The Real Cookbook,” developed by Kolle Rebbe GmbH and Korefe, Hamburg, Germany, is made of 100 percent fresh pasta. It even included information about cooking etched on inner pages of the pasta. “The Real Cookbook,” packaged as a classic lasagna dish, was delivered to business partners to promote Gerstenberg’s range of cookbooks. By adding a little sauce between the pages, sprinkling cheese on the top, and cooking the “book” at 200 degrees C, the recipients had a treat.
       The Kolle Rebbe-Korefe team included Account Managers Gereon Klug and Inga Eickholt; Executive Creative Director Sascha Hanke; Creative Directors Antje Hedde and Katrin Oeding and Art Directors Reginald Wagner and Hedde. Gereon Klug was Copywriter, Christine Knies Graphic Designer, and Photographers were Jan Burwick and Christoph Himmel. Daniela Filthaut represented the advertiser; Producer was Martin Lühe; Account Executive Inga Eickholt, and the production company was Pasta Prima, Lübeck, and Buchbinderei Zwang GmbH, Hamburg, with Postproduction by Markenfilm Crossing GmbH, Hamburg. Cinematographers were Sören Brandenburg and Jakob Süß.
        Find all of the winners at www.mobiusawards.com

Mobius Awards expands Photography categories

Mobius Awards, a sister company to US International Film & Video Festival, is in the midst of its 2012 competition. This year, opportunities for Commercial Photographers have been expanded. Entries in advertising photography are invited from Commercial Photographers and/or their agents and from Student Photographers.
For more information, visit www.mobiusawards.com

Off to Japan for 2 presentations

Scene from "Lessons"

Lee Gluckman has hit the road again; he will present an award in Osaka Tuesday to
Kansai Telecasting Corporation for its film, "Lessons," which won Best of Festival in Entertainment in the 2012 competition.

He's staying at the Nikko Hotel close to Fuji TV where he will present an award on Wednesday. Fuji won Best of Festival in Documentary for “Pioneers in the Land of Rubble-Recovering from the 3/11 Disaster.”