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Alba Rohrwacher in a scene from Laura Bispuri's SWORN VIRGIN, playing at the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 23- May 7, 2015.

The 2015 San Francisco International Film Festival which ran April 23 to May 7, 2015, presented by the San Francisco Film Society, announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Award (GGA) competitions.  Sworn Virgin, directed by Laura Bispuri won the Golden Gate New Directors Prize, and Western, directed by Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross won the Golden Gate Awards for Documentary Features.

GOLDEN GATE NEW DIRECTORS PRIZE
The Golden Gate Awards New Directors jury of the 2015 San Francisco International Film Festival was composed of producer and BFI Senior Production Executive Lizzie Franke, writer and filmmaker Ryan Fleck and producer Laura Wagner.

Winner: Sworn Virgin (pictured above), Laura Bispuri (Italy/Switzerland/Germany/Albania/Kosovo)
*  Receives $10,000 cash prize

In a statement, the jury noted: “Laura Bispuri is a distinct new filmmaking talent who we are excited to follow as her career progresses. There is a great purity and truth in her approach to a story of contemporary female struggle. Bispuri has crafted a film, grounded by extraordinary performances, that is at once effortless and delicate, but also bold in its execution.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARDS FOR DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
The GGA Documentary feature competitions jury was comprised of filmmakers Kristine Samuelson and Robert Greene, and journalist Susan Gerhard.

Documentary Feature Winner: Western, Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross (USA)
*  Receives $10,000 cash prize

The jury noted in a statement: “The competition was remarkable and every film in the category presented a unique vision, which made our job very difficult and brought us to reconsider the very nature of cinema itself in the year 2015. Films of great ambition, exceptional intimacy and intricate sound design, offered up empathy and poetry in equal measure and charted new paths for the form. We give the GGA Documentary Feature award to Western, a film that compresses observation and symbolism to take the experience of ‘seeing’ in a bold direction. Though driven by characters, those characters never overwhelm the sense of place, and the tension between narrative and poetry, fact and fictional refraction inflect new meanings on how we see the West.”

Special Jury recognition: Of Men and War, Laurent Bécue-Renard (France/Switzerland)

The jury noted: “Of Men and War makes us understand the horrors of war without ever showing us a single frame of battle, offering access to interior psychologies most viewers have never seen before in a tightly structured, beautifully edited, minimalist piece of nonfiction.”

Bay Area Documentary Winner: Very Semi-Serious, Leah Wolchok (USA)
*  Receives $5,000 cash prize

The jury noted: “We award the Golden Gate Award for Bay Area Documentary Feature to Very Semi-Serious, which reminds us that humor has a purpose. It subtly reveals the vast array of personalities engaged in this art form, including women and young people making their way into a historically male-dominated field. Its brave ellipses in storytelling allow us to consider the intertwining of tragedy and comedy.”

Special Jury recognition: T-Rex, Drea Cooper, Zackary Canepari (USA)

The jury noted: “We recognize T-Rex for its ambition and courage. This film subverts the sports conquest genre and takes a clear-eyed view of race and class.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARDS FOR SHORT FILMS
The GGA Short Film jury consisted of filmmakers Grace Lee and Jonathan Duffy and curator Liz Keim.

Narrative Short Winner: The Chicken, Una Gunjak (Germany/Croatia)
*  Receives $2,000 cash prize

Documentary Short Winner: Cailleach, Rosie Reed Hillman (Scotland)
*  Receives $2,000 cash prize

Animated Short Winner: A Single Life, Marieke Blaauw, Joris Oprins, Job Roggeveen (Netherlands)
*  Receives $2,000 cash prize

New Visions Short Winner: Discussion Questions, Jonn Herschend (USA)
*  Receives $1,500 cash prize

Bay Area Short First Prize Winner: The Box, Michael I Schiller (USA)
*  Receives $1,500 cash prize

Bay Area Short Second Prize Winner: Time Quest, John Dilley (USA)
*  Receives $1,000 cash prize

GOLDEN GATE AWARD FOR FAMILY FILM
The Family Film jury consisted of Arts Education consultant Amy Balsbaugh, third grade teacher at Grattan School Susan DesBaillets and Head of Education and Community Programs at The Walt Disney Family Museum Hillary Lyden.

Winner: The Story of Percival Pilts, Janette Goodey, John Lewis (Australia/New Zealand)
*  Receives $500 cash prize

Family Film Honorable Mentions: Lava, James Ford Murphy (USA) and One, Two, Tree, Yulia Aronova (France/Switzerland)

GOLDEN GATE AWARD FOR YOUTH WORK
The Youth Works jury was comprised of local high school students Diana Garcia, Ramses Mosley-Wise and Sean Rossiter, with adult supervisor Lisa Landi, producer of Film School Shorts at KQED.

Winner: Two and a Quarter Minutes, Joshua Ovalle (USA)
*  Receives $1,000 cash prize – including $500 donated by KQED

Youth Work Honorable Mention: The Off / Season, Lance Oppenheim (USA)
*  Receives $250 cash prize donated by KQED

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