First Time Fest awards

Celebration of debut filmmakers inaugural awards

by Anne-Katrin Titze

Anthony Rapp presents Outstanding Achievement in Directing to Amélie van Elmbt and her producer Frédéric de Goldschmid
Anthony Rapp presents Outstanding Achievement in Directing to Amélie van Elmbt and her producer Frédéric de Goldschmid Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Amélie van Elmbt won best director for Headfirst (La Tête la première) and star Alice de Lencquesaing shared acting honors at the inaugural First Time Fest, a celebration of first time filmmakers that took place in New York City from March 1-4.

Anthony Rapp presented the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award for Headfirst to Belgian filmmaker van Elmbt, who also accepted Lencquesaing's award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting for the role of Zoe in the film. Her producer Frédéric de Goldschmidt joined van Elmbt on stage.

In addition to Sal winning the First Time Fest Grand Prize for director Diego Rougier, David Bravo took home the Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography Award for his beautiful cinematography with rich details, surprising touches, and a sense of humour.

David Schwartz, Mandy Ward, Johanna Bennett, Sal star Javiera Contador, and Grand Prize winning Sal director Diego Rougier <em>Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze</em>
David Schwartz, Mandy Ward, Johanna Bennett, Sal star Javiera Contador, and Grand Prize winning Sal director Diego Rougier Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Junction director Tony Glazer accepted the second Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award for Neal Bledsoe, for the ferocity of his performance, and playing an unsympathetic character who becomes more and more out of control in a believable way.

The industry jury consisted of B-52s Fred Schneider, author Gay Talese, producer Christine Vachon and Anne-Katrin Titze.

Here are the winners in full, along with why these filmmakers were selected by the jury:

Grand Prize Winner Of Theatrical Distribution From Cinema Libre Studio

Sal Written And Directed By Diego Rougier (Chile/Argentina)

An inventive modern-day western with majestic sweep, great acting, and a lot of surprises.

Outstanding Achievement in Directing

Amélie van Elmbt (Headfirst/La Tête la première) Belgium/France

For balancing a fairy tale quality with genuine believability, as its characters enter a forest, and confront a different world.

Outstanding Achievement in Writing

Max Weissberg (Summertime) USA, Directed by Max Weissberg

For a script showing clarity of vision, great storytelling talent, and sophistication, drawing inspiration from the work of Arthur Schnitzler.

 Junction director Tony Glazer accepting the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award for Neal Bledsoe <em>Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze</em>
Junction director Tony Glazer accepting the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award for Neal Bledsoe Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Outstanding Achievement in Acting

Neal Bledsoe (Junction) USA, Directed by Tony Glazer

For the ferocity of the performance, and playing an unsympathetic character who becomes more and more out of control in a believable way.

and Alice De Lencquesaing (Headfirst / La Tête la première) Belgium/France, Directed by Amélie van Elmbt

A star is born. A natural, seemingly effortless performance that makes everything she does convincing.

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

David Bravo (Sal) Chile/Argentina, Directed By Diego Rougier

For beautiful cinematography with rich details, surprising touches, and a sense of humour.

Outstanding Achievement in Editing

Jonah Moran, John Young (Zipper) USA, Directed by Amy Nicholson

Fast-paced editing that captures, in a balanced way, a story about humanity in an age of greed. The editing works like The Zipper itself, connecting the ride with the story of Coney Island.

Outstanding Achievement in Scoring

Martin Bossa and Tomás Carnelli (I Love You All / Los Quiero A Todos) Argentina, Directed by Luciano Quilici

A score marked by its precision, use of silence, trust in the place of language, and by its exuberance.

Gay Talese, Christine Vachon, Anne-Katrin Titze, Fred Schneider on the red carpet <em>Photo: Ed Bahlman</em>
Gay Talese, Christine Vachon, Anne-Katrin Titze, Fred Schneider on the red carpet Photo: Ed Bahlman

In addition to the Competition Films, ‪First Time Fest‬ presented First Exposure, a series of first films from now prominent filmmakers, with many of them attending to participate in a Q&A. They included The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola), Welcome To The Dollhouse (Todd Solondz), Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson), Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple), The Story Of A Three-Day Pass (Melvin Van Peebles), Pi (Darren Aronofsky), The Maltese Falcon (John Huston), Poison (Todd Haynes), Jack Goes Boating (Philip Seymour Hoffman) The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley), and True Love (Nancy Savoca).

The competition filmmakers who attended are:

Benj Binks (Mongolian Bling), Seth Fisher (Blumenthal), Tony Glazer (Junction), Eliav Lilti (Urban Tale), Amy Nicholson (Zipper), Sophie O’Connor (Submerge), Diego Rougier (Sal) Luciano Quilici (I Love You All), Fredrik Stanton (Uprising), Amélie van Elmbt (Headfirst), Max Weissberg (Summertime).

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