AWARDS/
NEW DIRECTORS PRIZE
We are pleased to present the New Directors Prize given to a first-time filmmaker whose work is featured in the San Francisco International Film Festival, and accompanied by a $10,000 cash award. Films competing for the New Directors Prize must be the director’s first narrative feature, exhibit a unique artistic sensibility or vision and deserve to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. An independent jury of film critics, filmmakers and film industry professionals will screen an international selection of 11 first features during the Festival to decide on a winner. The winner of the New Directors Prize will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards Ceremony on May 7 at the California Culinary Academy.
New Directors Prize contenders
The Art of Negative Thinking
Bård Breien
Norway
Cochochi
Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán
Mexico
Flower in the Pocket
Liew Seng Tat
Malaysia
Frozen
Shivajee Chandrabhushan
India
Mutum
Sandra Kogut
Brazil
Sleep Dealer
Alex Rivera
USA
Valse Sentimentale
Constantina Voulgaris
Greece
Vasermil
Mushon Salmona
Israel
Water Lilies
Céline Sciamma
France
Wonderful Town
Aditya Assarat
Thailand
La Zona
Rodrigo Plá
Spain
New Directors Prize jury
Florence Almozini, a French native, has been a film curator at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) since the 1999 inception of BAMcinématek. During her tenure, she has produced a variety of retrospectives and touring series, featuring artists like Aki Kaurismaki or Manoel de Oliveira, and has collaborated with esteemed institutions throughout the world. For the last three years, she has also worked in partnership with the Sundance Institute on the annual Sundance Institute at BAM series.
Rebeca Conget is currently VP of Acquisitions and Distribution at Film Movement, a distribution company that specializes in foreign art house fare and American independent films. She worked for almost ten years at veteran boutique distributor New Yorker Films, where she headed the theatrical department, handling such hits as the Oscar-nominated My Architect and the re-release of Godard’s Breathless, among others.
Johnny Ray Huston is Arts and Entertainment Editor at theSan Francisco Bay Guardian, where he also writes about film, music and visual art. His recent or current projects include a collage series, co-curating a presentation of films by the late Warren Sonbert and a contribution to the poetry anthologyMorning Train (Auguste Press).
New Directors Prize (formerly SKYY Prize) past winners
The Violin 2007
Francisco Vargas
Mexico
Taking Father Home 2006
Ying Liang
China
Me and You and Everyone We Know 2005
Miranda July
USA
Squint Your Eyes 2004
Andrzej Jakimowski
Poland
The Man of the Year 2003
José Henrique Fonseca
Brazil
The Wild Bees 2002
Bhodan Slama
Brazil
The Business of Strangers 2001
Patrick Stettner
USA
Eeny Meeny 2000
Alice Nellis
Czech Republic
Xiao Wu 1999
Jia Zhangke
China
Somersault in a Coffin 1998
Dervis Zaim
Turkey
Honey and Ashes 1997
Andrzej Jakimowski
Poland
The Violin 2007
Francisco Vargas
Mexico
Taking Father Home 2006
Ying Liang
China
Me and You and Everyone We Know 2005
Miranda July
USA
Squint Your Eyes 2004
Andrzej Jakimowski
Poland
The Man of the Year 2003
José Henrique Fonseca
Brazil
The Wild Bees 2002
Bhodan Slama
Brazil
The Business of Strangers 2001
Patrick Stettner
USA
Eeny Meeny 2000
Alice Nellis
Czech Republic
Xiao Wu 1999
Jia Zhangke
China
Somersault in a Coffin 1998
Dervis Zaim
Turkey
Honey and Ashes 1997
Andrzej Jakimowski
Poland
