The excellent film festival is founded and run by women including Colleen deVeer Founder and Director of Programming, Wendy Stapleton Founder and Chairman of the Board and Ginger Stickel Executive Director. The mission of the Greenwich International Film Festival is to provide filmmakers with an effective platform to showcase their work with the goal of finding financing opportunities for future projects. Additionally, GIFF harnesses the power of film to serve the greater good by highlighting important issues that relate to basic human rights, education, the environment and health care. The Changemaker Gala honored Eva Longoria whose foundation's focus is to assist Latina's to thrive and Bobby Walker Jr. of the Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich, CT. Kathy Lee Gifford emceed the event. An elegant evening, the reception was held at Betteridge Jewelers on Greenwich Ave and the dinner where the honorees were awarded was held at L'escale on the Greenwich Harbor.
The Opening Night Party allowed us to meet the filmmakers and actors of many of the films represented in the festival. The Epic Anniversary Party with Kesha was exciting and not to be missed! Here are the winners: *Best Narrative Film: “Sister Aimee,” directed by Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann: It is loosely based on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson, a famous evangelist during the 1920s and 30s who ran away from her success with her lover in Mexico. *Best Documentary: “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” which is about the mysterious death of former U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld in a 1961 plane crash. The film explores the unsolved mystery and discusses potentially larger conspiracies. *Best Narrative Short Film: “The Animal” by Sebastian Kass about a teenage girl who gets a call from child protection services about how something might be wrong in her family. *Honorable Mention Short Film: “The Blues Crab” in the kids shorts category. The film by Ari Rubenstein is about an old, gnarled crab telling his story of loss and sorrow to younger crabs. *Best Documentary Short: The ESPN documentary “Mack Wrestles” from Erin Sanger and Taylor Hess about a transgender athlete named Mack Briggs who is trying to wrestle in Texas. *Best Short Film about Connecticut: “120 Years,” by Matt Nadel and Lukas Cox, about New Haven resident Scott Lewis, who was sentenced to life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and the impact of that wrongful conviction. *Social Impact Award: “Afterward,” a documentary about Ofra Bloch, a Jewish psychotherapist specializing in trauma. The film follows Block, who is disturbed by the rise of fascism and anti-Semitism, and travels to Germany, Israel and Palestine to confront her own feelings about the people there. Another successful Greenwich International Film Festival!!
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