The East Lansing Film Festival - ELFF
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The Ninth annual East Lansing Film Festival Exceeds all Expectations
This article was posted on Fri, Apr 21 2006
The East Lansing Film Festival (ELFF), the largest and most diverse film festival in Michigan, took place this year March 22 through March 30 in East Lansing and Lansing. This year, ELFF expanded from five days to nine days by partnering with Celebration! Cinema in south Lansing, which allowed ELFF to show repeat screenings and to premiere the New Line Cinema movie, Take the Lead, starring Antonio Banderas. ELFF also premiered the new Universal Pictures American Dreamz directed and penned by Paul Weitz (About a Boy, In Good Company), starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid and Mandy Moore. Having major studio films, a diverse film program, many sellouts, and an enthusiastic and positive response from the audience made the 9th edition of the East Lansing Film Festival one of the best.
This year, ELFF presented an amazing number of films: 21 features, 26 documentaries and 58 short films, totaling 105 films from 16 countries. Included in those films were two Midwest premieres of studio films, American Dreamz (Universal Pictures) and Take the Lead (New Line Cinema); two Mid-Michigan premieres of studio films, Paradise Now (Warner Independent Pictures) and Duma (Warner Bros.); and many Midwest and world premieres.
On Sunday, the Lake Michigan Film Competition (LMFC) had the best attendance in festival history and its strongest lineup of films. This year’s LMFC had 152 films submitted from the four states that border Lake Michigan making a difficult time for the LMFC judges to narrow down the following winners:
FEATURE FILMS:
1st place: Human Achievement directed by Dan Jones (MI)
2nd place: I love you…for awhile directed by Jim Auker (MI)
3rd place: Surviving the Rush directed by Sean Farley
DOCUMENTARY FILM:
1st place: 10 MPH directed by Hunter Weeks (MI)
2nd place: One: the Movie directed by Ward Powers (MI)
3rd place: Requiem for a Stream directed by David J. Ruck
SHORT FILM
1st place: The Bitterness, directed by Kim Putman (MI)
2nd place: Confederate Zombie Massacre! Directed by Devi Snively (MI)
3rd place: 21 Carbs directed by Marty Shea
STUDENT FILM:
1st place: Priest and Razorface directed by Dax de la Monta (MI)
2nd place: The Memoirs of Don Walker directed by Erik l. Wilson (IL)
3rd place: Night and Day Losers directed by John Kerfoot (MI)
Message Maker’s MOST PROMISING STUDENT FILMMAKER
Micho Rutare director of U
The audience at ELFF votes for the Best Features, Documentaries, and Short Films with the Audience Award ballots. The winners were broken down in two categories: films with theatrical distribution and films without theatrical distribution. The winners and runner-ups are the following:
Best Narrative Feature Film (with distribution)
A Song for Martin (En Sång Fõr Martin) directed by Bille August
Paradise Now directed by Hany Abu-Assad
Best Narrative Feature Film (without distribution)
Night of the Living Dorks (Die Nacht der Lebenden Loser) directed by Matthias Dinter
Four Eyed Monsters directed by Susan Buice and Arin Crumley
Best Documentary (with distribution)
The Boys of Baraka directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Heart of the Congo: Rebuilding Life in the Face of War directed by Tom Weidlinger
Best Documentary (without distribution)
Occupation 101 directed by Abdallah and Sufyan Omeish**
Purvis of Overtown directed by Shaun Conrad and David Raccuglia
Best Short Film shown in a Short Film Program
The Other Celia directed by John Knautz
Closing Time directed Chris Brandt
Best Short Film shown before a Feature
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The Zit (tie) directed by Mike Blum
I am Ann (tie) directed by Ann Coppel
** Occupation 101 received the highest scoring from the Audience Award ballots.
This year ELFF created for the first time the “48/5 Film Contest” where teams compete in making a five-minute short film in just 48 hours. The response was incredible with 23 teams competing. “A second viewing space had to be created at the Gone Wired Café to accommodate the over 140 participating teams,” commented Shannon Burton, Program Director and Creator of the 48/5 Film Contest, “we couldn’t fit them all at Magdalena’s Teahouse.
The winners of the 48/5 Film Contest are the following:
First Place: Exposure, Team - 720P
Second Place: The Practical Joke Adventure, Team - P.S.Y. T. V.
Third Place: Patient 96342, Team - Caster Troy Productions
Honorable Mention (in no particular order)
Knife, Team - X-Blade
The Agency, Team - French Flying Monkeys
The Call, Team - The People
For more information, call 517-336-5802 or visit the ELFF website at http://www.elff.com.
The East Lansing Film Festival, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, is supported by
Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Talent
This article was posted on Fri, Apr 21 2006
When:
April 21st - 27th at 9 p.m. every night.
Where:Talent - A film by Nathaniel Nose, the maker of “Unruly Nights”. “some things are best left undiscovered...”
Advanced Tickets Available: (517)393-SHOW or http://www.celebrationcinema.com