The Tallahassee Film Festival is just coming off another incredibly strong weekend packed with 80 films and more than 30 filmmakers and industry talent in attendance at the festival. We want to take a moment to thank and congratulate all the filmmakers who contributed selections this year, and share with you the winners at the 2019 Tallahassee Film Festival.
Directors’ Choice Award – Best Feature
The Directors’ Choice Award for Best Feature went to Paul Barbeau’s We Have Forever, which made its U.S. premiere at the Tallahassee Film Festival. The film follows a time in the life of 20-year old Antoine, as he struggles to decide whether to make the move to the big city of Montreal and attend one of the top culinary schools, or remain in the small rural town and work as welder. This beautifully told coming-of-age film evokes all the qualities of the Louis Malle via Larry Clark.
Directors’ Choice Award – Best Short
The Directors’ Choice Award for Best Short went to Kevin Contento for his inspired slice of life in the sugar cane region of Florida. Hierophany takes the grittiness of American independent cinema of the ’70s and imbues it with the unfettered sentiment of the French New Wave from the same period.
Audience Favorite Awards
Best Feature – Rendezvous in Chicago
Chicago-based filmmaker (and three-time TFF alum), Michael Smith, took home the Audience Favorite Award for Best Feature with his latest film, Rendezvous in Chicago.
Rendezvous in Chicago is a short comedic feature film comprised of three vignettes corresponding to the beginning, middle and end stages of a relationship: Paul, a charming young man, attempts to pick up Delaney, a bookish grad student, in an otherwise empty wine bar. Rob and Andy are enjoying the bliss of newly formed couplehood. Julie comes home from work early to find her boyfriend, Wyatt, in bed with another woman.
Best Short – Your Last Day On Earth
Spanish filmmaker Marc Martínez Jordán took home the Audience Favorite Award for Best Short for his unforgettable and inspired scifi romance Your Last Day On Earth. A fox-dressed man breaks the spacetime limits with only one goal: to spend some time with his wife. But beneath this seemingly recreational act there’s a far more complex and ambitious plan afoot.
Best Documentary – Alluvium
Tallahassee-based filmmaker Malia Bruker scored the Audience Favorite Award for Best Documentary with her film Alluvium. The rolling hills and ancient villages of Tuscany provide the backdrop for Alluvium, both an experimental documentary about art-making and a piece of art in itself. As artists from across Italy gather to create work in and inspired by the Tuscan landscape, Alluvium observes their praxis, then quietly drifts into its own. The cinematography makes magic of the process of finding inspiration, as it slips between reality and illusion, observation and performance.
Best TV/New Media – Tom & The Domme
Director Keith Marlin won the Audience Favorite Award for Best TV/New Media with his by-turns hilarious and dramatic, pilot concept for Tom & The Domme. Fascinated by his recent discovery and exploration of BDSM, Tom’s growing preoccupation lands him at the crossroads of his current relationship. In turn, Tom & The Domme explores the blurred lines of intimacy alongside the couples emotional and sexual compatibility.