French film “Seraphine,” based on the life of little-known painter Séraphine de Senlis, swept the awards at the 2009 Newport Beach Film Festival, winning Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. “Blue Gold: World Water Wars” won the prize for Best Documentary. “Lymelife,” directed by Derick Martini and starring Alec Baldwin, Kieran Culkin, Rory Culkin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon and Emma Roberts, opened the eight-day festival, which closed with the west coast premiere of Marc Webb’s “(500) Days of Summer,” starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.
Launched in 1999, the Newport Beach Film Festival is celebrated as one of the leading lifestyle film festivals in the United States. Annually presenting over 350 films from over 35 countries, the Festival has featured many acclaimed motion pictures, including the U.S. premiere of the 2006 Academy Award® Best Picture winner Crash, and the west coast premieres of The Illusionist, Waitress, Captain Abu Raed, Son of Rambow, Mad Hot Ballroom, Layer Cake, Riding Giants, Spellbound, and Dogtown and Z-Boys.
JURY AWARDS
Features:
Best Film – Seraphine
Best Actor – Ulrich Tukur – Seraphine
Best Actress – Yolande Moreau – Seraphine
Best Director – Martin Provost – Seraphine
Best Screenplay – Martin Provost – Seraphine
Best Cinematography – Modern Boy
Documentary:
Best Documentary – Blue Gold: World Water Wars
Shorts:
Best Narrative Short – Through the Ear
Best Short Documentary – 12 Stones
Best Animated Short – The Incident at Tower 37
Special Prize Cinematography Short – Mkrtich Malkhasyan – Nora
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Feature – Street Dreams, Easy Virtue (tie)
Foreign Feature – Rudo y Cursi
Documentary – The Cove
Action Sports – That’s It, That’s All
Family Film – The Music Lesson
Short Film – Kwame
Short Documentary – Center Street Rising
Short Animation – Because You’re Gorgeous
FESTIVAL HONORS AWARDS
Humanitarian Vision Award – Earth Days
Outstanding Achievement in Acting – Jeremy Sisto – Into Temptation
Outstanding Achievement in Action Sports Filmmaking – The Glacier Project
Outstanding Achievement in Action Sports Filmmaking – Waveriders
Outstanding Achievement in Directing – The Brothers Bloom
Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking – See What I’m Saying: The Deaf Entertainers
Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking – Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking – Art & Copy
Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking – No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking – Dream Weavers: Beijing 2008
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – (500) Days of Summer
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Made In China
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – My Suicide
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Spooner
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Orange County Filmmaker Award – Echo Beach
SHORT FILMS
Outstanding Achievement in Short Filmmaking – Animation – Granny Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
Outstanding Achievement in Horror Filmmaking – Mom
Outstanding Achievement in Short Filmmaking – Directing – On The Road To Tel Aviv
Outstanding Achievement in Short Filmmaking – Screenwriting – Gone Fishing
Outstanding Achievement in Short Filmmaking – Acting – For a Few Marbles