16th Annual AT&T St. Louis
International Film Festival

MAJOR FILMMAKER AWARDS

Lifetime Achievement Award

John Sayles and Maggie Renzi: A pioneering American independent filmmaker, John Sayles first gained widespread notice in 1980, with "Return of the Secaucus 7." Made for a mere $60,000, the film earned fine reviews and inspired an unofficial studio remake in "The Big Chill." Since that auspicious debut, Sayles has written and directed such memorable works as "Matewan" (1987), "Eight Men Out" (1988), "City of Hope" (1991), and "Lone Star" (1996), while doing occasional work-for-hire screenplays to help finance his personal projects. He's also a lauded short-story writer and novelist ("The Anarchists' Convention," "Union Dues"). Maggie Renzi, Sayles' producing and life partner, has acted in eight of their films together and served as producer on every movie since "Secaucus." Their latest collaboration is "Honeydripper."

Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award

James Gunn: While earning his M.F.A. at Columbia University (which eventually resulted in the novel "The Toy Collector"), native St. Louisan James Gunn received a parallel filmmaking education at Troma Entertainment, where he wrote (and served in multiple production capacities on) "Tromeo and Juliet" (1996). Moving to Hollywood, Gunn then wrote and co-starred in the delightful superhero parody "The Specials" (2000) before scripting a string of popular studio successes: "Scooby-Doo" (2002), "Scooby-Doo 2" (2004), and "Dawn of the Dead" (2004). He co-wrote and starred in the mockumentary "Lollilove" (2004), directed by Jenna Fischer, before making his official debut as a writer-director with the horror comedy "Slither," one of 2006's best-reviewed (if puzzlingly underseen) films. Gunn also posts hilarious and delightfully profane observations on movies and life at his Web site: www.jamesgunn.com

Contemporary Cinema Award in Documentary

Alex Gibney: One of today's most significant documentarians, Alex Gibney has worked in film since the 1980s - including executive-producing the miniseries "The Fifties" (1997), writing and producing "The Trials of Henry Kissinger" (2002), and producing several episodes of Martin Scorsese's epic series "The Blues" (2003) - but he rose to new prominence with his Oscar-nominated "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" (2005). Since "Enron," Gibney has produced such important films as "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and "No End in Sight," and directed the well-reviewed Sundance Channel documentary "The Human Behavior Experiments." His new film, "Taxi to the Dark Side," premiered at Tribeca to wide acclaim, and he's in post-production on a much-anticipated documentary about writer Hunter S. Thompson.

Women in Film Award

Lynn Hershman Leeson: An award-winning artist excelling in multiple media - photographic, video, performance/installation, and interactive digital art - Lynn Hershman Leeson has been making pioneering works since the 1960s. Her art has appeared in more than 200 exhibitions and is in the collections of such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center. She's a professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. Since the late 1990s, Hershman Leeson has expanded her already vast range to include film. Her first movie, "Conceiving Ada" (1998), debuted at Sundance, which also premiered her "Teknolust" (2002). Hershman Leeson's latest is "Strange Culture," a provocative hybrid of documentary and docudrama, and she's currently at work on a film that chronicles the history of feminist art.

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS

Audience voting determines the winner of four awards from among the films in competition:

• Best Film Award
• Best International Film Award
• Leon Award for Best Documentary
  (named in memory of the late civic leader Leon Strauss)
• Vital Voice Award for Best GLBT Film

JURIED COMPETION AWARDS

Interfaith Awards

A jury gives Interfaith Awards to both a documentary and a feature, choosing from among 10 competition films (five in each category), which were selected for their artistic merit, contribution to the understanding of the human condition, and recognition of ethical, social, and spiritual values.
The 2007 Interfaith Sidebar selection committee was David Gast (chair), board chairman of the Carl F. Gast Co.; Delcia Corlew, member of the Cinema St. Louis board; Tullia Hamilton, nonprofit consultant; Paul Marsh, retired architect; Mikel Monnett, chaplain at Barnes Hospital;  Tom Stockdale, minister (retired); and Lee Whiston, emeritus professor of the Old Testament at Eden Theological Seminary.

The documentary jury is Kanak Gautam, associate professor of healthcare management at St. Louis University; Jill Petzall, filmmaker, writer, and designer for Beacon Productions; and Betty White, professor of English (retired). The feature jury is Sandra Olmsted, adjunct faculty member in English at St. Louis University, Fontbonne University, and Southwestern Illinois College; Pat Scallet, filmmaker and editor; and Joya Uraizee, associate professor of English at St. Louis University.

NFF Emerging Director Award

The InBaseline New Filmmakers Forum (NFF) annually presents the Emerging Director Award. Five works by first-time feature filmmakers compete for the prize, which includes a $500 cash award, a year's subscription to Baseline's StudioSystem database, and Avid Xpress Pro editing software.

The NFF is co-curated by Bobbie Lautenschlager. The NFF jury is Scott Foundas (chair), film editor for the LA Weekly and a film reviewer for Variety; Bill Appleton, assistant director for public programs and education at the Saint Louis Art Museum; Diane Carson, retired professor of film at St. Louis Community College at Meramec; Scott Phillips, author of "The Ice Harvest" and "Cottonwood"; and Joe Williams, film critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Shorts Awards

A jury chooses the winner of six awards from among the short subjects in competition:

• Best of Fest
• Best Animated Short
• Best Live Action Short
• Best Short Short (less than 5 minutes)
• Best Local Short
• Best International Short

The SLIFF shorts competition is officially sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, making the winners in the Best of Fest, Best Animated, and Best Live Action categories eligible to submit for Oscar consideration. The Best of Fest winner also receives a $500 cash prize from AtomFilms, a meeting with an AtomFilms director of content acquisition, and a certificate for a year's subscription to Baseline's StudioSystem database. All six shorts winners will be featured on AtomUploads (www.atomuploads.com) pending director's approval.

The jury is Brent Hoff, editor of the "Wholphin" DVD journal and former writer for "The Daily Show"; Tina Santamauro, acquisitions manager for AtomFilms; and RD Zurick, filmmaker and retired film teacher.

St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award

The metro area's film critics inaugurate their own award at this year's SLIFF. The critics and SLIFF have selected a dozen films for the jury to view. The films were chosen on the basis of critical recognition, festival awards, and filmmaker reputation. The films selected were "Aviva My Love," "Beauty in Trouble," "Children of Glory," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "Dry Season," "Emma's Bliss," "Getting Home," "Grace Is Gone," "Honeydripper," "Persepolis," "Tuya's Marriage," and "When a Man Falls in the Forest."

The jury is Cate Marquis, Rob Levy, Sandra Olmsted, Joe Williams, and Calvin Wilson.

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