Prior to the screening of the Festival’s closing night film, Potiche, the RiverRun International Film Festival honored its 2011 Jury and Audience Award winners by handing out 22 awards to outstanding features and shorts.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul was honored with the first ever Peter Brunette Award for Best Director for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Along with the Peter Burnette Award, the Narrative Features jury also honored BAL (Honey) with Best Narrative Feature. Armadillo won Best Documentary Feature. Crab Trap won a special prize for Best Ensemble Cast.

2011 audiences chose to honor Home For Christmas with Best Narrative Feature and Kinshasa Symphony with Best Documentary Feature. to.get.her took home the first ever Altered States Audience Award for Best American Indie. The awards are listed in full below.

2011 AUDIENCE AND JURY AWARDS

AUDIENCE AWARDS

KILPATRICK TOWNSEND & STOCKTON LLP AWARD FOR BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
Home For Christmas, dir. Bent Hamer
Previous Winner: Letters to Father Jacob, dir. Klaus Haro

KILPATRICK TOWNSEND & STOCKTON LLP AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Kinshasa Symphony, dir. Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer
Previous Winner: The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, dir. Leanne Pooley

ALTERED STATES AWARD FOR BEST AMERICAN INDIE
to.get.her, dir. Erica Dunton

NARRATIVE FEATURE
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
BAL (Honey), dir. Semih Kaplanoglu
Previous Winner: Katalin Varga, dir. Peter Strickland

PETER BRUNETTE AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Joe), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Previous Winner: Giorgos Lanthimos, Dogtooth

BEST ACTOR
Mathieu Amalric, On Tour

BEST ACTRESS
Djeneba Kone, A Screaming Man

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Baris Ozbicer, BAL (Honey)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE FOR BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
Crab Trap

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Armadillo, dir. Janus Metz
Previous Winner: Last Train Home, dir. Lixin Fan

BEST DIRECTOR
Nicolas Philibert, Nenette
Previous Winner: Susan Gluth, Soap and Water

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Naomi Kawase, Genpin

NARRATIVE SHORT
BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
The Award (El Premio), dir. Leon Siminiani

HONORABLE MENTION
You Too (Na Wewe), dir. Ivan Goldschmidt

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Surpriseville, dir. Tim Travers Hawkins

HONORABLE MENTION
Bathing Micky (Micky Bader, dir. Frida Kempff

HONORABLE MENTION
Mr. Hypnotism, dir. Bradley Beesley

ANIMATED SHORT
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
The Eagleman Stag, dir. Mike Please

HONORABLE MENTION FOR ARTISTIC TECHNIQUE
Madagascar, A Journey Diary (Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage, dir. Bastien Dubois

STUDENT SHORT
BEST STUDENT SHORT
The Eagleman Stag, dir. Mike Please

BEST STUDENT SHORT– HONORABLE MENTION
Flip, dir. Jill Hackett

BEST STUDENT SHORT– HONORABLE MENTION
Traumdeutung, dir. Lauri Warsta