The 24th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival, presented by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS, will run February 6-16, 2014. Sponsored by the Leichtag Foundation.
February 10th, a day was devoted to short films (THE JOYCE FORUM), which was a juried competitive program of short films. During the day, Programs One and Two were be shown at the Arclight Cinemas and Program Three was held at the David and Dorothea Garfield Theater (LFJCC), JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS at 7:30pm. The awards were presented immediately following the films by a film industry group of jury members.
The juryconsisted of the following:
Bruce Fessier, Jury Chairman, Entertainment/ Film Editor
Bruce Fessier has been an award-winning journalist and community leader for 40 years. A writer and editor for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. Fessier has reviewed and written columns about the Palm Springs International Film Festival since its inception in 1990.
Beth Fromm, Juror, The Desert Film Society
Beth Fromm has been the Executive Director of the Desert Film Society in Palm Springs since 2004. She has served as a jury member for the Palm Springs Shorts Showcase. She is on the board of the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
Alain J. Cohen, Juror, Professor of Film Studies
Alain J. Cohen is a Professor of Comparative Literature and Film Studies at the University of California, San Diego where he has spent his career. Dr. Cohen has written extensively about the films to highlight methods of film analysis, psychoanalytic approaches to cinema, the aesthetics of the filmic image, the rhetoric of violence and contemporary US cinema.
Rebecca Webb, Juror, ArtPower! Film Curator
Film curator Rebecca Webb has worn many hats in the world of film production and new media. In 2014, she is inaugurating the Filmatic Festival, a digitally diverse festival that aims to blur the line between audience and artist.
Awards were given in the following categories:
The Joyce Award for Best Short Film– Andreas Henn for GREAT
The Joyce Award for Best Emerging Filmmaker– Costa Fam, director of SHOES
The Joyce Award for Best Local (San Diego) Screenwriter- Michael Carnick for ROLLING ROMANCE
The Joyce Award for Best Director of a Short Film – Yoav Hornung for DESERTED
The Joyce Award for Special Jury Award– Nick Rowland for DANCING IN THE ASHES
Two local (San Diegians) won The Joyce Awards tonight: Costa Fam (SHOES) and Michael Carnick (ROLLING ROMANCE).
SHOES for BEST EMERGING FILMMAKER
The 24th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival awarded Director Costa Fam for Best Emerging Filmmaker for his award-winning short SHOES at The Joyce Forum awards presentation.. The film just won numerous awards at the Monaco Film Festival where jury member Academy Award winning Director Roland Joffe called it “brilliant. Noted Los Angeles film critic FX Feeney said, “In SHOES, Costa Fam has managed a miracle in 18 minutes. He has dramatized 20 years of an individual life, of our world's tragic history -- indeed, the defining tragedy of the 20th century -- and done it without a word. He's even done it without a face. We are witnesses to the ‘dance steps’, so to speak, and the evolving footwear of a young woman as she charmingly explores the world, falls in love, and becomes a mother before catastrophic events overtake her". Director Costa Fam shot SHOES in 5 countries with a crew of 400!
ROLLING ROMANCE for BEST LOCAL SCREENWRITER
Filmmaker/screenwriter Michael Carnick is a resident of Del Mar. At the end of 2012, Michael wrote the short film ROLLING ROMANCE. It was independently produced and shot on location in LA. David Conley was brought on board to direct the film. ROLLING ROMANCE was a passion project produced by enthusiastic young filmmakers on a modest budget. Since 2013, ROLLING ROMANCE has made several film festival appearances and has garnered awards including Best Screenplay at the Malibu Film Festival and Best in Show at the Indie Fest. Michael was born with a rare physical disability which confines him to an electric wheelchair. His work is often centered around the themes of disability awareness and the human experience of being a minority.
Directors, speakers and film industry experts are available for interviews by phone, in person, and in-studio. For more information and to arrange interviews or press tickets, please contact Nancy Richards at nancylrichards@gmail.com, or 917-873-6389 cell.
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CRAIG PRATER – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – SAN DIEGO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
Craig Prater began his work in the film festival industry in 1989 when he worked for entertainer and then-mayor of Palm Springs Sonny Bono and The Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 1993, Prater was contracted to serve as Bono’s Executive Director of Bono’s film festival for 8 years. It was during this period of time that Prater co-founded the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and the Palm Springs Film Noir Festival with Film Noir Author, Art Lyons, which continue as major events today.
Following Prater’s tenure in Palm Springs, he was contracted to serve as the Executive Director of The Bangkok International Film Festival for the Royal Thai government where over the next 5 years he supervised the programming and special events for the largest international film festival in Southeast Asia which hosted over 250 films each year with an Awards Gala honoring celebrities from around the world.
When Prater left the Bangkok event he produced and directed the following international film festivals: 1) The Women’s International Film & Television Showcase in 2007; The Film Forecast: A Marketing Research Project in 2008-2009; The Coachella Valley Latino Film Festival in 2009 followed by the National Hispanic American Educational Foundation’s Congo Caliente Latino Film Festival in Tampa, Florida. He also served as the Executive Director for the Museum of Tolerance International Film Festival in Los Angeles. During this same time period, he developed new film festival projects in Mexico for the Mexican government and worked with Mira Panajotovic (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) on new film festival proposals for Belgrade, Serbia.
In 2010, immediately following his work with the Museum of Tolerance International Film Festival, he was hired as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival where he served for 2 years and most recently joined the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
About the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture
San Diego’s only Jewish institution dedicated solely to presenting high quality, nationally recognized arts, culture & Jewish education programs. The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, while a separate non-profit, is housed at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center and acts as the education and cultural arts arm of the Center. The mission of the CJC is to expand and enrich cultural life in San Diego by presenting the finest in Jewish artistic expression, encouraging the preservation of Jewish culture and heritage, and nurturing new creativity in the arts. The CJC offers a wide variety of multidisciplinary artistic programs that explore cultural identities and perspectives, promote cross cultural understanding, and highlight human themes of family, tolerance, compassion, and hope. Its facilities feature a 500-seat theatre, a Judaica library, an art gallery, and a community Holocaust Memorial Garden.
About the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS
The mission of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS is to provide social, cultural, educational, and recreational programs to individuals and families of all ages, religions, races, and financial, physical and mental abilities. Likewise, the JCC provides equal opportunity employment to individuals of all religions and backgrounds. The JCC welcomes San Diego’s diverse Jewish community and the community at large. The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS is located at 4126 Executive Drive in La Jolla.