New York, NY (Top40 Charts) These powerful films do much more than entertain, and our hope is that these honors and cash prizes will inspire our filmmakers to continue making impactful and inspiring stories for years to come.
Tonight the 25th annual
Heartland Film Festival (Oct. 20-30, 2016) announced its full slate of winners - including Grand Prizes, Best Premieres, Audience Choice,
Indiana Spotlight, and High School Film Competition winners - at its Awards Party at the Premiere Pavilion at AMC Castleton
Square 14. Awarding $129,000 in cash prizes for 2016, the Festival has bestowed more than $3 million to independent filmmakers since 1992 - the largest total amount awarded by any film festival in the United States. The event was presented by the
David and Betty Klapper Family Foundation.
"We are thrilled to celebrate our silver anniversary with this fantastic selection of award-winning films from our own backyard and around the world," said
Heartland Film
Director of Programming & Marketing Greg Sorvig. "Documentary feature and audience choice winner 'Night School' was shot in Indianapolis, while narrative feature winner 'Home Care' was the Czech Republic's foreign-language entry for the 2016 Academy Awards®. These powerful films do much more than entertain, and our hope is that these honors and cash prizes will inspire our filmmakers to continue making impactful and inspiring stories for years to come."
The
Heartland Film Festival has earned the special designation of being a qualifying festival for the Annual Academy Awards® within the Short Films category. This means that the winner of the Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short Film ("The Ravens," directed by Jennifer Perrot) will qualify for consideration in the Live Action Short Subject category of the Annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules. Created by Disney-Pixar animators, "
Borrowed Time" took top honors in the Festival's inaugural Animated Short Film category.
$2,000 Summer White Lynch Memorial Award - High School Film Competition Grand Prize
Underwritten by Gary D. & Marlene Cohen
The inaugural Jimmy Stewart Legacy Award honors a single film, selected from the Festival's feature-length narrative and documentary titles. This film embodies the ongoing legacy of actor and national hero Jimmy Stewart and demonstrates the triumph of the human spirit through determination and the defiance of odds, humble vulnerability, and courage in the face of adversity. Made possible by a partnership with The Stewart Family.
Encore performances of feature-length finalists will screen Sunday, Oct. 30 exclusively at AMC Castleton
Square 14, followed by Closing Night film "Josephine," directed by Rory Feek.
Submissions for the 26th annual
Heartland Film Festival (Oct. 19-29, 2017) will open in February.
About
Heartland Film, Inc.
Heartland Film is a nonprofit arts organization founded in 1991 with the mission to inspire filmmakers and audiences through the transformative power of film.
Heartland Film is a curator and supporter of purposeful filmmaking, honoring a wide variety of cinema and awarding storytellers from all over the world. The films
Heartland Film selects and exhibits - whether they inspire and uplift, educate and inform, or have the ability to shift audiences' perspectives on the world - all have one thing in common: they are entertaining films that do more than just entertain. Every October, the
Heartland Film Festival gives its moviegoers access to more than 100 visiting independent filmmakers from all over the world, right in the heart of the Midwest.
Heartland Film Festival (Oct. 20-30, 2016) showcases more than 130 independent films over 11 days of red carpet premieres and events, parties and hundreds of film screenings across Indianapolis. The
Heartland Film Festival has earned the special designation of being a qualifying festival for the Annual Academy Awards® within the Short Films category. Each year, the
Heartland Film Festival awards more than $125,000 in cash prizes and presents its Festival Awards to top-judged submissions.
Heartland Film has awarded more than $3 million to support indie filmmakers over the last 24 years. Beyond the
Heartland Film Festival,
Heartland Film honors theatrically-released films that align with its mission via the Truly Moving Picture Award, inspires the next generation of filmmakers via the
Heartland Film Institute, and exhibits films across
Indiana all year long via the
Heartland Film Roadshow. To learn more, visit heartlandfilm.org.