‘The Dynamiter’ and ‘Salaam Dunk’ Capture Top Prizes at 2012 Nashville Film Festival presented by Nissan

Matthew Gordon’s “The Dynamiter” and David Fine’s “Salaam Dunk” have captured the top jury prizes at the 2012 Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) presented by Nissan, it was announced this morning at a luncheon in the Liberty Party Tent Festival at the Regal Green Hills Stadium 16. “The Dynamiter,” the tale of a young boy without his mother facing a future with social services, captured the Bridgestone Narrative Competition Grand Jury Prize, the top narrative prize; “Salaam Dunk,” a profile of the joys and challenges experienced by the American University of Iraq’s women’s basketball team, takes home the Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize. The Bridgestone Narrative Competition Grand Jury gave its best actor nod to William Ruffin, for his performance in “The Dynamiter,” and the best actress distinction to Alia Shawkat of “That’s What She Said.”

The Narrative Competition jury, comprised of Watkins College of Art, Design and Film’s Robin Foster; Millenium Studios’ executive producer Diego Martinez; and actor Anthony Zerbe (“Cool Hand Luke,” “Star Trek Insurrection,” “The Matrix Revolutions”) praised “The Dynamiter” as “the best kind of independent filmmaking — compelling, real, raw and lyrical.” The Documentary Competition jury, judged by the Documentary Channel’s Greg Crofton; artist, director and designer J Bird Lathon; and award-winning documentary maker Anita Moffatt found  “Salaam Dunk” “a unique take on sports and geopolitics; it won us over.”

In other major competition categories, Joe Berlinger’s “Under African Skies,” a look at Paul Simon’s return to South Africa to explore the incredible journey of the historic “Graceland” album, claimed the Music Films / Music City Competition Grand Jury Prize, known as the Gibson Impact of Music Award. The Music Films/ Music City jury was made up of filmmaker Todd Elgin; Durango Film Society founder Jane Julian; and Helen Pursell, director of programming and scheduling for the Documentary Channel. “A Trip (Izlet),” director Nejc Gazvoda’s story of the tension and conflict that arises when high school friends try to recapture their youth with a trip to the seaside, wowed the New Directors Competition jury, guided by actor Michael Chieffo (“Disclosure,” “Crimson Tide,” “Beginners”); renowned and prolific actress Beth Grant, the only actor in history to have appeared in three Academy Award winning Best Pictures and a Best Animated Feature, and Joe Pacheco, award-winning filmmaker of “After the Fall” and an Emmy-nominated cinematographer. The film not only picked up the New Directors Competition Grand Jury prize, but grabbed the jury’s award for Best Actor (Jure Henigman), Best Actress (Nina Rakovec) and a Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast.

Live-action narrative and animated short films that win in competition at NaFF are qualified for Academy Award consideration. The Best Narrative Short award went to director Shawn Christensen’s  “Curfew.” The Best Animated Short distinction was claimed by director Leo Verrier’s “Dripped.” The Best Short Documentary Award was given to director Matt Lenski’s “Meaning of Robots.”

A complete list of competition and special awards, including honorable mentions and special jury prizes, follows. Audience Award winners will be announced tomorrow at the NaFF Closing Night party at W.O. Smith School. The 43nd Nashville Film Festival presented by Nissan, which began on Thursday, April 19, closes tomorrow at Regal Green Hills Stadium 16 with encore screenings of competition award winners and popular films, and co-closing night presentations of “BIG EASY EXPRESS” at 7:00 p.m. , with members of Old Crow Medicine Show in attendance, and “Paul Williams Still Alive” at 7:15 p.m., with Williams in attendance. NaFF, together with the Nashville Scene and the Americana Music Association, will also screen “BIG EASY EXPRESS” again on Thursday night at 9:00 p.m., for free and open to public at the Centennial Park Bandshell. A program of NaFF 2012 award-winning shorts will start at 8:00 p.m.  and ‘BIG EASY EXPRESS” will screen at 9:00 p.m . The NaFF 2012 Closing Night party at the W.O. Smith School  starts at 9:00 p.m. with music from the Brooklyn Brothers, from “The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best” and other surprise guests. It is open to the NaFF laminate holders only.

Nashville Film Festival is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation and receives funding from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Franklin Brooks Philanthropic Fund and William N. Rollins Fund for the Arts of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Ann & Lance Krafft Charitable Lead Trust, The Memorial Foundation, Nashville Metro Arts Commission, Tennessee Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and its generous patrons and sponsors.

Narrative Competition presented by Bridgestone
Grand Jury Prize: “The Dynamiter” (Matthew Gordon / USA)
Honorable Mention: “QWERTY” (Bill Sebastian / USA)
Best Actor: William Ruffin, “The Dynamiter”
Best Actor (Honorable Mention): Shawn Ashmore, “Mariachi Gringo”
Best Actress: Alia Shawkat,  “That’s What She Said”
Best Actress (Honorable Mention): Lizzy Caplan, “Queen of Country”
Best Film Music: “QWERTY,” composers Bruce Chianese, Ricardo Veiga
Louise LeQuire Award for Best Screenplay: “Supporting Characters,” Tarik Lowe, Daniel Schechter

Documentary Competition 
Grand Jury Prize: “Salaam Dunk” (David Fine / Iraq, USA)
Honorable Mention: “La Camioneta” (Mark Kendall / USA)
Special Jury Prize for Achievement in Writing: “Mulberry Child” (Susan Morgan Cooper / USA)
Special Jury Prize for Achievement in Directing: “This Ain’t California” (Marten Persiel / Germany)

Music Films/Music City Competition presented by Gibson
Gibson Impact of Music Award: “Under African Skies” (Joe Berlinger / USA)
Honorable Mention: “Butch Walker: Out of Focus” (Peter Harding, Shane Valdes / USA)
Special Jury Prize for A Surprising Look at the Fan Experience: “Affair of the Heart” (Sylvia Caminer / USA)

New Directors Competition
Grand Jury Prize: “A Trip (Izlet)” (Nejc Gazvoda / Slovenia)
Co-Honorable Mention: “Welcome to Pine Hill” (Keith Miller / USA) and “Foreign Letters” (Ela Thier / USA)
Best Actor: Jure Henigman, “A Trip (Izlet)”
Best Actress: Nina Rakovec “A Trip (Izlet)”
Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast: “A Trip (Izlet)”

Southwest Airlines Freedom to Choose Audience Awards
Narrative Feature: TBA
Documentary Feature: TBA
Graveyard Shift: TBA

Short Film Competition
Best Narrative Short (Academy Award Qualifier): “Curfew” (Shawn Christensen / USA)
Honorable Mention: “Las Palmas” (Johannes Nyholm /  Sweden)
Best Animated Short (Academy Award Qualifier): “Dripped” (Leo Verrier / France)
Honorable Mention: “It’s Such a Beautiful Day” (Don Hertzfeldt /  USA)
Best Documentary Short: “Meaning of Robots” (Matt Lenski / USA)
Honorable Mention:  “Ben Franklin Blowing Bubbles at a Sword” (Jonathan Napolitano / USA)
Best Experimental Short: “All the Lines Flow Out” (Charles Lim Yi Yong / Singapore)
Vanderbilt Golden Opportunity Award: “Bian Zi” (Chun-Yi Hsieh / Taiwan, China)
Honorable Mention: “Contra El Mar” (Richard Parkin /  USA, Mexico)
Watkins Young Filmmaker Award: “Alone Together” (Ben Kadie / USA)

Additional Awards
NaFF Career Achievement Award: Dolly Parton
Mike Curb Career Achievement Award for Film Music: Paul Williams
Governor’s Award: Wayne White
Ground Zero Tennessee Spirit Award for Best Feature Film:  “He Ain’t Heavy” (jeff obafemi carr /  USA)
Ground Zero Tennessee Spirit Award for Best Short Narrative Film:  “Talking to Arthur”(William M. Akers / USA)
Ground Zero Tennessee Spirit Award for Best Short Documentary: “Mr. Smith’s Peach Seed” (Stewart Copeland / USA)
Outstanding Black Filmmaker Award: Sheldon Candis, “LUV”
NAHCC Hispanic Filmmaker Award:  TBA
Best GLBT Film Award: “Leave It On the Floor” (Sheldon Larry / USA)
NPT Human Spirit Award: “Salaam Dunk” (David Fine / Iraq, USA)
Women in Film & TV Prize for Best Film by a Woman Director: “That’s What She Said” (Carrie Preston / USA)
Film Musicians Secondary Market Fund Prize for Best Director / Composer : “I Am Not a Hipster,” Destin Daniel Cretton / Joel P. West
West Collaboration: “I Am Not a Hipster” (Destin Cretton / USA)