While
the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival rolls on, Film Independent announced
the winners of the Target Filmmaker Awards at the Spirit of
Independence evening on Wednesday, June 28, at the tony W Hotel in
Westwood Village. Virginia Madsen and Jimmy Smits presented the awards,
which went to Gretchen writer-director Steve Collins for Best Narrative Feature and Amy Berg, the director of Deliver Us From Evil, for Best Documentary Feature. Both award winners will receive $50,000 each, presumably not in Target gift cards.
The 17-year-old title character in Gretchen
(Courtney Davis) is of the pathologically awkward and shy high
school wallflower variety. When her obsession with bad boy Rick (John
Merriman) gets out of hand, her mother sends her to an “emotional
treatment center” to recover. A perfect balance of deadpan tone and
acute detail, the film is based on two shorts — including, chiefly, Gretchen and the Night Danger,
which won Best Short Film at the 2004 SXSW Film Festival — and augurs
in Collins the arrival of a genuine new cinematic voice.
The documentary Deliver Us From Evil,
meanwhile, chronicles the story of Father Oliver O’Grady, a
pedophile harbored by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church for more
than two decades, moving from one parish to another in northern
California throughout the 1970s. Juxtaposing the tragic stories of some
of his victims with an unsettling, extended interview with the man
himself, Berg brings into sharp relief a story with which we’ve
unfortunately become all too familiar in recent years.
For those that think with star power comes great line-cutting privilege, Islander costar Amy Jo Johnson waited in cue for the restroom just like everyone
else after the packed Sunday evening bow of her film at the Mann
Festival… Film Independent also presented its second annual Spirit of
Independence Award last night, this time to Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron, in recognition of her commitment to artistic independence in film…
Additional honors for the Los Angeles Film Festival, including the
Audience Awards, will be announced at the closing night ceremony on
Sunday, July 2, following the gala screening of Little Miss Sunshine… Also, overheard in line at one screening: “No, I mean, I’ll drink a little
bit before the features, but I only smoke up before the shorts
programs…” For more information on the films above and others in the
festival, visit