2011
Festival Highlights
Award Winners
2011 Festival Program
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
On October 13th SYRFILMFEST'11 opened with the world premier of MY HOME, a delightful, sophisticated and educational animated short by Four Directions Productions. The film received a Directors Citation for Best Animation in recognition of the superb execution by a team of merely 6 animators. The exciting discussion following the screening was moderated by academy award nominated Rob Edwards, and featured multiple voices from the film, as well as, Four Directions Productions
crew members. All were glowing with excitement as the lights dimmed for the feature film of the evening, SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS. Writer/Director Hue Rhodes was present and with some last minute arrangements by festival staff, Romany Malco, one of the films stars, was in attendance and stayed through Friday night's events, he thought the festival was great and could not believe how accommodating
SYRFILMFEST was to Hollywood stars. Hue Rhodes said, "The Q&A after my film and even the car ride back to the hotel were the best discussions I've ever had about my film. In fact, it was the kind of discussion I always imagined would have happened, but never did. The festival was a real treat, and I appreciate it." Yet another great success!
Friday night kicked off with the festival's signature event: a classic film accompanied by original, live music. This year we showed WAY DOWN EAST, a D.W. Griffith film with live music composed by Philip Rothman. Rothman's score had the audience gripped throughout the icy drama starring Lilian Gish. Friday also featured the New York premier of long-time festival friend, Rob Nilsson's latest masterpiece, THE
STEPPES, which screened for an intimate audience at the Red House Art Center. Friday night closed with the 2nd annual midnight Brew & View screening with the New York premier of THE LAST CIRCUS, a sure to be cult classic. For those not wanting to commit to a feature at midnight, the festival offered a new option this year, a midnight program of short films on Friday and Saturday night at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Q.
Saturday was jam packed with programming: Imaging Disability in Film, the 5th annual Le Moyne College Peace and Social Justice Sidebar, the launch party for the "Science and Magic in Film Series" a collaboration of the festival and the Red House Arts Center with a screening of HUMAN ERROR followed by an afternoon reception, the US premier of CASE SENSATIVE with director Gil Kofman, a 35mm screening of the 1964 classic NOTHING BUT A MAN with Robert M Young and a midnight screening of THE HILLS HAVE EYES with intro by Tom Bower.
Sunday also offered an array of programs to choose from: Cynthia Slavens from PIXAR Animation Studios gave an amazing talk on female characters in Pixar films, Jason Richter launched the "Film Talks Series", a collaboration of the festival and Le Moyne College, to a packed CNY Jazz Central with his presentation on "The Art of the Short Story" and Rob Edwards presented his Academy Award nominated film THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG. Once Sunday's programs came to an end, we closed this year with an intimate awards ceremony, covered by Syracuse's YNN, for special guests, sponsors and press, held in the Palace Theater Events Room followed by a well attended screening of Dani Menkin's JET'AIME I LOVE YOU TERMINAL and a champagne and dessert party for our hard-working volunteers.
As a festival created by artists, for artists this year the festival staff demonstrated their commitment to fulfilling the SYRFILMFEST mission with more than 40 independent filmmakers attending and staying not only for their screenings but throughout the Festival events. All guests were thrilled to see what SYRFILMFEST had to offer and commented frequently on the successful organization, outstanding
programming and warm appeal of SYRFILMFEST'11. All who attended left with a greater appreciation and understanding of what independent and international cinema have to offer
Award Winners
2011 Festival Program
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
On October 13th SYRFILMFEST'11 opened with the world premier of MY HOME, a delightful, sophisticated and educational animated short by Four Directions Productions. The film received a Directors Citation for Best Animation in recognition of the superb execution by a team of merely 6 animators. The exciting discussion following the screening was moderated by academy award nominated Rob Edwards, and featured multiple voices from the film, as well as, Four Directions Productions
crew members. All were glowing with excitement as the lights dimmed for the feature film of the evening, SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS. Writer/Director Hue Rhodes was present and with some last minute arrangements by festival staff, Romany Malco, one of the films stars, was in attendance and stayed through Friday night's events, he thought the festival was great and could not believe how accommodating
SYRFILMFEST was to Hollywood stars. Hue Rhodes said, "The Q&A after my film and even the car ride back to the hotel were the best discussions I've ever had about my film. In fact, it was the kind of discussion I always imagined would have happened, but never did. The festival was a real treat, and I appreciate it." Yet another great success!
Friday night kicked off with the festival's signature event: a classic film accompanied by original, live music. This year we showed WAY DOWN EAST, a D.W. Griffith film with live music composed by Philip Rothman. Rothman's score had the audience gripped throughout the icy drama starring Lilian Gish. Friday also featured the New York premier of long-time festival friend, Rob Nilsson's latest masterpiece, THE
STEPPES, which screened for an intimate audience at the Red House Art Center. Friday night closed with the 2nd annual midnight Brew & View screening with the New York premier of THE LAST CIRCUS, a sure to be cult classic. For those not wanting to commit to a feature at midnight, the festival offered a new option this year, a midnight program of short films on Friday and Saturday night at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Q.
Saturday was jam packed with programming: Imaging Disability in Film, the 5th annual Le Moyne College Peace and Social Justice Sidebar, the launch party for the "Science and Magic in Film Series" a collaboration of the festival and the Red House Arts Center with a screening of HUMAN ERROR followed by an afternoon reception, the US premier of CASE SENSATIVE with director Gil Kofman, a 35mm screening of the 1964 classic NOTHING BUT A MAN with Robert M Young and a midnight screening of THE HILLS HAVE EYES with intro by Tom Bower.
Sunday also offered an array of programs to choose from: Cynthia Slavens from PIXAR Animation Studios gave an amazing talk on female characters in Pixar films, Jason Richter launched the "Film Talks Series", a collaboration of the festival and Le Moyne College, to a packed CNY Jazz Central with his presentation on "The Art of the Short Story" and Rob Edwards presented his Academy Award nominated film THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG. Once Sunday's programs came to an end, we closed this year with an intimate awards ceremony, covered by Syracuse's YNN, for special guests, sponsors and press, held in the Palace Theater Events Room followed by a well attended screening of Dani Menkin's JET'AIME I LOVE YOU TERMINAL and a champagne and dessert party for our hard-working volunteers.
As a festival created by artists, for artists this year the festival staff demonstrated their commitment to fulfilling the SYRFILMFEST mission with more than 40 independent filmmakers attending and staying not only for their screenings but throughout the Festival events. All guests were thrilled to see what SYRFILMFEST had to offer and commented frequently on the successful organization, outstanding
programming and warm appeal of SYRFILMFEST'11. All who attended left with a greater appreciation and understanding of what independent and international cinema have to offer
SYRACUSE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL