Sarasota Film Festival's Filmmaker Tribute: The Show Goes On With and Without John Landis

[Amy Warren, LMHC / WQ Mag Columnist]

Volcanic ash may have prevented Sarasota Film Festival’s guest of honor, renowned director John Landis, from attending the Filmmaker Tribute, but as they say, “The show must go on.” In spite of cancelled flights due to weather conditions, today’s technology enabled Landis to be transported to Sarasota’s Opera House via Skype, making it seem almost as if Landis was right in the room. The recipient of this year’s Master of Cinema award, Landis appeared on screen following a salute by Vincent D’Onofrio and a montage of his films including Animal House, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, and Thriller. On stage, dancers reenacted the performance in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.

Landis told the crowd he found it somewhat frustrating to see the montage, stating “I felt like I died.” He also noticed the absence of his film Innocent Blood. Landis said that as a high school drop-out, he wasn’t “a good example.” Beginning his career in the mail room of 20^th Century Fox and moving forward to direct some of the greatest comedies of all time, Landis stated he had “outlived the death of Hollywood.” When the festival’s artistic director Tom Hall asked Landis for his message to young filmmakers, he followed his initial “Good luck!” with the advice to read books, stating how shocked he is at how illiterate his peers are. It is apparent that Landis has educated himself, making him a good example after all of how self-educated and successful one can become.

The Filmmaker Tribute also served as the festival’s award ceremony. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson were among the presenters. With few of the filmmakers present to receive their awards, Tucci joked that it may be the “quickest award show ever.”

The winners of the 12^th Annual Sarasota Film Festival’s awards are:

Narrative Feature Competition:

Competition Winner: A Brand New Life, directed by Ounie Lecomte

Special Jury Prize: Winter’s Bone, directed by Debra Granik

Documentary Feature

Competition Winner: The Oath, directed by Laura Poitras

Special Jury Prize: Gasland directed by Josh Fox

Audience Awards:

Best Documentary Feature: For Once In My Life, directed by James Bigham

Best Short Film: Ingelore, directed by Frank Stiefel

Best Narrative Feature: The New Year, directed by Brett Haley

Best In World Cinema: I Forgot To Tell You, directed by Laurent Vinas-Raymond

Independent Vision Prize:

Tiny Furniture, directed by Lena Dunham

youthFEST Awards:

Short Film: Lost And Found, directed by Philip Hunt

Audience Awards for Short Film: Breakout! The Power of One, directed by Lalita Krishna

If you didn’t see the award-winning films at the Sarasota Film Festival, hopefully, you’ll have other opportunities to see them either in the theater or on DVD. This year’s festival showcased some very talented filmmakers. Those of us who participated in the festival might just be able to say one day we “knew them when….”