2015 New Hampshire Film Festival Wrap-Up

Posted by Leah on 10/21/2015 1:39:13 PM

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        It’s official. The 15th year of the New Hampshire Film Festival is in the books. There was so much going on during this year’s amazing festival that I hardly know where to begin!
 
        It’s really amazing to me to see how the festival has grown, just during the 4 years I’ve been attending. NHFF Executive Director Nicole Gregg, Programming Director Nicole Galovski, Co-Founder/Panel Director Dan Hannon, Screenplay Competition Managers Jeff Somerville & Angela Marsh, Technical Director Ryan Plaisted, Co-Founder Chris Proulx and Young Filmmakers Workshop Director John Herman work hard throughout the year to ensure that each year’s festival is bigger and better than the last; and what an amazing job they all do! Each year that I’ve attended I’m astounded at the sheer number of film selections, the high quality of those selections, the number of film makers that attend and are available to interview, the number of big name celebrities in attendance, the production value of the ceremonies and pre-ceremony activities and more. I know that I’ve used the phrase “bigger and better than ever” every year that I’ve attended, but it’s true; each year’s festival really IS bigger and better than the last! (At least now I have a year to come up with a better phrase than “bigger and better.” I promise to find something new in that time!)

         As is usually the case for me, when the festival schedule was released I spent hours poring over descriptions, watching trailers and creating my own daily schedule of what to see. My goal is always to cram in as many films as possible so that I can then share with you the best of what the festival had to offer. This year though I ended up changing much of what was on that schedule and even missing some films so that I could interview some of the film makers. I felt that it would be better to bring you the deeper stories behind these films. I had the opportunity to interview Roger Memos, the maker of the documentary Marsh Hunt’s Sweet Adversity, Mike Scholtz, the creator of the documentary Lost Conquest, Meagan Frappiea, one of the film makers behind the documentary Brew Hampshire, Michael Mohan, the creator of the short film Pink Grapefruit, the award winning cast and crew of the NHFF Best Short Drama, Delia and Jeff Stern, the film maker behind the short film The Morning of Everything. I’ll bring you all of those interviews, including my reviews of those films in the days to follow.
 
        One of the highlights of the festival was the Screenwriter’s Competition Meet and Greet on Sunday at 3S Artspace. It featured Kenny Stevenson, the winner of the 2015 Screenwriting Competition and David Dastmalchian, Grand Prize Judge of the competition. During the meet and greet we were treated to the reading, by Kenny, of an excerpt of his prize winning script, How to Be a Canadian.
 
        The script, a comedy, is about a misplaced New Yorker who defects to Canada after the candidate he hates is elected president. While many people think that we Americans have Canada down pat and wonder what possible cultural differences there are between us, Kenny didn’t want to write a script that would end up being the stereotypical American view on Canadians. Since it was impossible at the time, (due to the recent birth of his daughter), to travel to Canada for research, Kenny instead spent a year interviewing different Canadians and asking their points of view on different things, as well as reading different Canadian political satirists. He stated that his main goal with the script was to be as authentic and genuine as possible, without (of course) actually being Canadian. As of right now, there are no plans in the works to make the script into a film, but I’ll be sure to let you know if and when this hilarious film gets made.
 
        There are a ton of competitions that go on during the festival each year, and while I haven’t yet seen all of the films to receive awards this year, here is the list of winners:

·  Best Student Film — Basilisk directed by Nikolai Hamel
·  Best Short Comedy – In the Clouds Directed by Marcelo Mitnik
·  Best Short Drama – Delia directed by Thomas Scott Stanton
·  Best Short Documentary – Body Team 12 directed by David Darg
·  Best Animation – Hands of Flame directed by Steven Markowitz (in attendance)
·  Audience Choice Documentary — Harry and Snowman Directed by Ron Davis
·  Audience Choice Feature – Oliver’s Deal directed by Barney Elliott (who was in attendance)
·  Best Documentary – Cartel Land directed by Matthew Heineman
·  Best Feature – The Witch directed by Roberts Eggers
·  Documentary Grand Jury Award: Frame by Frame directed by Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli
·  Narrative Grand Jury Award: Chicken directed by Joe Stephenson (who was in attendance, with lead actor Scott Chambers)

        So if you missed the chance to go to this year’s NHFF, they’ve got you (at least partially covered). If you head to their website www.NHFilmFestival.com and click on the “films” button you’ll be able to see descriptions and trailers for all of the films that were shown. Then you can start your own list of things you simply must see!

               In the meantime, it’s time to start saving and planning for next year’s festival, which I’m sure will be “bigger and better than ever”!