The WFF Story(Continued)

"You couldn't ask for a warmer sendoff for any picture heading out
into the world."
Brad Silberling, 10 Items or Less

Filmmaker Kohl Glass (Der Ostwind) greeting two fans at MoCA

Artists and moviegoers alike praised Season Nine, which included many feature premieres - world (Anamorph), East Coast (Stay Away... a little closer), New England (Dark Matter, Purple Violets, Day Zero, Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer), and Berkshire (The Good Night, Running Funny, Teeth), not to mention off-season screenings of Rocket Science and God Grew Tired of Us.

Featuring a superb central performance by John Cusack, Grace Is Gone wowed the audience at WFF's first-ever Benefit, with the film preceded by a sold-out dinner at Cafe Latino. The Clark Art Institute was packed for the haunting Dark Matter and an in-depth Q-&-A with director Chen Shi-Zheng. The Festival teamed up with MASS MoCA, this year on the vampire classic Nosferatu with live original score by the Alloy Orchestra. WFF also hosted provocative seminars with the cast, writers, and director of Running Funny, and with Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff. With the prize of an original artwork by Board member Stephen Hannock, the Reeve Award went to the short film Validation. Kurt Kuenne's droll musical romance narrowly edged Paco Farias' Fool Me Once and Kohl Glass' Der Ostwind in the audience balloting.

"My time there was sheer bliss. I felt the audiences and I were one body, film lovers all."
Louis Zorich, Running Funny

Save Me

Wth 40 films and as many artists in residence - a new record - WFF's 10th anniversary season showcased a remarkable spectrum of talent to high praise from audiences. Among features alone, the schedule boasted two world premieres (Moving Mike, Adopt a Sailor), an East Coast premiere (Bunker Hill), four New England premieres (Save Me, Dear Zachary, Gotta Dance, Bart Got a Room), a Berkshire premiere (Theater of War), and warmly-received screenings of Frozen River and Phoebe in Wonderland. Also popular: both All-Shorts slots and the breakfast and lunch seminars - the former about shooting in the heartland; the latter an in-depth conversation with independent film legend John Sloss.

Following up last year's success, the Benefit dinner at Cafe Latino was enlivened by the surprise appearance of four-time WFF alumna Patricia Clarkson. In fact, this landmark season was notable for a slew of artists returning to the Berkshires: Clarkson, her Phoebe in Wonderland director Daniel Barnz, Adopt a Sailor director Chuck Evered, Frozen River director Courtney Hunt, Gotta Dance director Dori Berinstein, Bunker Hill actress Laura Kirk, and shorts filmmakers Will Frears, Paul Gutrecht, and Mark Cummins. But newcomers had an equally good time. Sick Sex director Justin Nowell hailed WFF as "a terrific, spitrited festival - who else packs a house for a 10 a.m. screening of shorts?" Bunker Hill actor Blake Robbins "had a blast - without question I'll be coming back. I can't think of any better compliment." And Michael O'Donnell, the first-time director of Moving Mike, said simply: "The Williamstown Film Festival was the most supportive and inspiring place to begin my career."

For a third time, WFF presented the Christopher and Dana Reeve Award for top short of the Festival by audience vote. The prize went to Steph Green's deeply moving New Boy - shot in Ireland, it was the first Reeve Award winner from abroad and the first directed by a woman. Close behind were runners-up Joe Wein's charming Goldfish, Bill Block's incisive The Drummer, and Chris Lavis' and Maciek Szcerbowski's haunting Madame Tutli-Putli.

"A great place to think about one's craft - instead of one's career."
Robert Cary, Save Me

Diana Levinson and Tom Fontana

With 39 films, a sold-out Benefit, and Halloween distinguished by a throng of major artists, WFF's 11th season was memorable by any yardstick. From Bette Gordon's haunting season opener Handsome Harry to the wacky shenanigans of Lynn Shelton's Humpday on closing day, the lineup was warmly received. New England premieres of Against the Current at MASS MoCA and Poliwood at the Clark Art Institute were big draws, with Current's writer-director Peter Callahan receiving WFF's first-ever feature screenplay prize and the Festival saluting filmmaker Barry Levinson.

It was a strong year for documentaries - besides Poliwood, the schedule included Sue Gilbert's Beyond Greenaway: The Legacy, Crayton Robey's Making the Boys, and Richard Shepard's I Knew It Was You. Lighter moments were provided by Adam Salky's unusual teenage romance Dare, the high-camp Mexican sci-if musical The Ship of Monsters (with live original score by Ethel), and the always-popular All-Shorts slots.

The Festival's second Saturday - will be especially remembered. In the morning Plympton, America's leading animator, showed two shorts and sketched drawings for fans eager to obtain dvds of his work. At a packed lunch seminar, award-winning director James Ivory recalled his career of nearly half a century. Boys in the Band playwright Mart Crowley received a standing ovation after the screening of Making the Boys. That evening Poliwood producer Jason Sosnoff, WFF board president Joe Finnegan, and Barry Levinson's producing partner/WFF board member Tom Fontana joined WFF executive director Steve Lawson onstage at the Clark to present Levinson with a rendering of his friend (and frequent performer in his films) Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come, created by artist and WFF board member Stephen Hannock. The group then announced finalists for the annual Christopher and Dana Reeve Award, with three titles - Bevan Walsh's Love Does Grow on Trees, Foulkes and Smith's This Way Up, PES' Western Spaghetti - close runners up to John Allen's riveting Love and Roadkill for the prize as top short of the season.

"A beautiful setting and one of the best audiences I've ever had."
Bill Plympton, Hot Dog and Santa: The Fascist Years

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