2005 BIG APPLE FILM FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS

Screenplay Competition Third Place Winner - Gabriella Messina for "The Devil Inside"

Screenplay Competition Second Place Winner - Foley North for "Jokerman"

Screenplay Competition First place Place Winner - Mikael Hanson for "Four Alone, Four Together"

Honorable Mention for Experimental Film - "Between You and Me"
Dir: Patryk Rebisz

Best Experimental Film - "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana"
Dir: Ken Kimmelman

Best Screenplay for a Short Film - "Van Vorst Park"
Writer: Paul Dunleavy

Best Screenplay for a Feature Film - "Baby Fat"
Writer: Joshua Nelson

Honorable Mention for a Documentary - "United We Stand, Divided We Fall"
Dir: Paul Kroll

Best Documentary - "We Are the Children"
Dir: Dianna Dilworth

Best Female Performance - Wendy Falcone for "Life in Bed"

Best Male Performance - Brendan Sexton III for "Love, Ludlow"

Honorable Mention for a Short Film - "Copperhead Road"
Dir: Ian Ogden

Best Short Film - "Sammy and Marry"
Dir: Hugh Plantin

Honorable Mention for a Feature Film - "Love, Ludlow"
Dir: Adrienne Weiss

Best Feature Film - "Baby Fat"
Dir: James Tucker

2005 News

12/15/2005:
Big Apple Film Festival congratulates its 2005 alumni film "Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party" for its DVD release on May 30, 2006.
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12/01/2005:
Big Apple Film Festival congratulates this year's BAFF Honorable Mention Award winner and closing night film, "Love, Ludlow" for its DVD release from Warner Home Video.
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11/20/2005:
The 2005 Big Apple Film Festival is proud to announce its film award winners, as well as the winners of the 2005 BAFF Screenplay Competition officially sponsored by Scriptshark.com.
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11/19/2005:
Big Apple Film Festival welcomes actor Alicia Goranson. Ms. Goranson's credits include the critically acclaimed  independent hit "Boy's Don't Cry" and the NBC hit TV series Roseanne.
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11/19/2005:
Big Apple Film Festival welcomes legendary screen actor Stephen Tobolowsky. Mr. Tobolowsky's credits span over 150 films and include Mississippi Burning, Bird on a Wire, Groundhog Day.
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11/19/2005:
Big Apple Film Festival welcomes industry panelists Bob Hawk, Independent Film Consultant and Producer, Tom Quinn of Magnolia Pictures and Trenton McDevitt of Wild Bunch Films.
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11/15/2005:
Big Apple Film Festival founder and executive director, Jonathan Marc Lipp, to appear on the Joey Reynolds Show on WOR Radio, along with participants in this year's festival, David Paterson, Joshua Nelson and Elizabeth Cooke."
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The Case of the Vermilion Chicken - 5 minutes
Director: Pfillip Tepper
Synopsis: In homage to film noir cinema, The Vermilion Chicken is about the titular object that has been stolen from its owner and the detective who is charged with retrieving it.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall - 10 minutes
Director: Paul Kroll
Synopsis: A different look at the effects of the tragedy of September 11, 2001. This film is a small effort to make sure we remember, not the bad, but the good that we are all capable of.

Todd and His Pal Polk - 6 minutes
Director: Nathaniel Bates
Synopsis: Todd Fenderboxing, a 23 year-old little boy, spends everyday on different adventures with his best pal in the entire world, James K. Polk, America’s 11th President, until one game goes awfully awry.

Life In Bed - 75 minutes
Director: Nick Lindsay
Synopsis: This Brazenly over-the-top dark comedy portrays a passionate but desperate group of friends and their individual struggles for love and validation. Sally, Christy and Joanie leave New York City for sunny southern California in search of their fame and fortune. But does moving to a new city mean moving away from their problems and living happily ever after? Find out when you enter this blackly comic maelstrom of narcotics, libido and confusion.

* 10 Minute Q and A with filmmakers and actors from all three short films and the feature film

 

Tina East Meets Tony West - 8 minutes
Director: Ashish Kothari
Synopsis: Tina is an Indian Classical Dancer who practices everyday after work. Tony is a former tap dancer who has just moved in next door. The thin walls of New York City apartments bring these two worlds together, creating a harmonious clash of east and west sounds, competition, and a little romance.

Linger - 38 minutes
Director: Tom Zanca
Synopsis: Detective Mike Tobin (Scott Schiaffo, Clerks, Vulgar) investigates an attack on Paula James (Trish Gonnella, The Royal Tenenbaums, Sex and the City), a teenager who claims that her ex-boyfriend was the attacker. But Tobin soon learns that the boyfriend committed suicide more than a year ago. Is she covering up for the real attacker? Did she simply feign the attack? Or is it something far deeper that continues to linger?

The Program - 50 minutes
Director: Irin Evers
Synopsis: Matt is working in rural Mexico trying to escape his conventional New York family. Just when he thinks he’s achieved his goal, he receives a computer disk from his deceased grandfather labeled "it took me eighty years to learn the meaning of life." Intrigued, Matt and his new co-worker, the spontaneous and carefree Sally, journey to the nearest town with a computer to find out what’s on the disk, and on each other’s minds.

* 10 minute Q and A with filmmakers and actors from all three short films

After Party- 11:00 P.M.: Telephone Bar and Grill (149 2nd Ave. bet. 9th and 10th Street)
Drink and dinner specials for filmmakers (with VIP badge) and audience members (with ticket stubs)
Live Music

Slide - 4 minutes
Director: Andy Phillips
Synopsis: Mr. Stynes must stop Sha from threatening the United Nations with innocents at stake.

The Heir - 9 minutes
Director: Lorenzo Collado
Synopsis: The Heir gives us a small view into the world of children living as victims of abuse. In this brief snapshot we see A.J., dealing with the consequences of receiving an unwanted gift from his abusive father. The gift unexpectedly becomes a source of great ridicule when A.J. meets his friends for a game of softball. It’s in A.J.’s behavior in dealing with ridicule that we see the "real gift" he’s received from his father.

We are the Children - 60 minutes
Director: Dianna Dilworth
Synopsis: We are the Children is a documentary film that takes you deep inside
the world of a group of Michael Jackson fans during the 2004-05 trial.
The film delves beyond the tabloidesque media coverage to uncover the
human faces of the dedicated fan. The film goes through the
motivations and experiences of the fans from the fun dance parties to
the emotionally trying court proceedings. What comes through is a
portrait of how a subculture can turn into a quest for truth and a
greater philosophical meaning.

* 10 minute Q and A with filmmakers and actors from both short films and the feature film

The Calm - 20 minutes
Director: Joseph Taglieri
Synopsis: The Calm is a quirky tale of a group of misfit tenants. Their distinctly independent lives will be forged together by the arrival of a mysterious resident in the middle of the night. Sometimes family is created, not born.

Copperhead Road - 15 minutes
Director: Ian Ogden
Synopsis: Copperhead Road is a deeply affecting, no-holds-barred depiction of a drunken woman’s nightmarish, post-New Year’s Eve Party run-in with a sociopathic cop. It depicts with raw honesty the all too common actions of law enforcement officers who abuse their power and take the law into their own hands.

Baby Fat - 90 minutes
Director: James Tucker
Synopsis: Joey and Gina are a young married couple living in the basement apartment of Joey’s mother’s house in Staten Island. Gina desperately wants to have a baby...seems easy enough...they’re married and in love...and what Italian family doesn’t want a new baby in the house? So Joey and Gina decide to have a baby...should be wonderful right? The problem is that Gina can’t bear the thought of gaining all that weight. So, they decide to hire a surrogate mother to carry Gina’s baby. After an exhausting search they find the perfect girl, but she soon finds that dealing with Joey and Gina, as well as their over bearing Italian family is much more than she bargained for and giving birth will probably be the easiest part of this bizarre situation.

* 10 minute Q and A with filmmakers and actors from both short films and the feature film

After Party- 11:00 P.M.: Telephone Bar and Grill (149 2nd Ave. bet. 9th and 10th Street)
Drink and dinner specials for filmmakers (with VIP badge) and audience members (with ticket stubs)

Sammy and Marry - 7 minutes
Director: Hugh Plantin
Synopsis: A married couple figure out their problems in a psychologist’s office

Melvin and His Boss - 17 minutes
Director: Raimond Jakovics
Synopsis: Amanda is frustrated with the work performance of Melvin, her employee. He never does what he is told, his office is always a mess, and he walks around with his zipper open. How does she turn Melvin into an employee any boss would be proud of? Everything she does fails, until she takes a desperate measure that leads to Melvin "running away" from work and a resolution satisfactory to both Amanda and Melvin.

Sleepwalker - 17 minutes
Director: Craig E. Young
Synopsis: On the night when Joshua and Diego should be celebrating their third anniversary together, Joshua sleepwalks. Does Joshua trust Diego enough to let him know why he’s sleepwalking? Can he come to terms with the past? He’s got to figure this out or risk losing Diego.

Van Vorst Park - 54 minutes
(starring Frank Vincent, Goodfellas, Casino, A Shark’s Tale, She’s the One, Do the Right Thing, Raging Bull)
Director: Kathy Cacicedo
Synopsis: Van Vorst Park was his hallowed ground. He thought whatever is said in the park, stays in the park. When one of his own is murdered, Johnny Decarlo, head of the crew, finds out that there is a fine line between revenge and Betrayal.

*10 minute Q and A with filmmakers and actors from all four short films

On The Scene at the Big Apple Film Festival:
The Big Apple Film Festival will present a panel discussion in which film industry representatives will discuss a variety of topics on current issues in today’s independent film scene. Some of the topics to be discussed will be: preparing your film for production, financing your film and distribution opportunities available for independent filmmakers today.

Panel discussion will feature:
Bob Hawk (producer of Ballets Russes, Trick, The Slaughter Rule, Chasing Amy),
Tom Quinn of Magnolia Pictures (Capturing the Friedman’s, Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room)
Trenton McDevitt (producer of The Angel Doll)

Musical performance by Joshua Frank

Smile for the Camera - 30 minutes
Director: Jordan Galland
Synopsis: Double exposures produced by an antique camera lead two New York photography students on a bizarre journey to a town where a cult of mysterious ‘boxheads’ entrap victims whose smiling photographs appear on the boxes that hide their own faces.

Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party - 90 minutes
Director: Robert Brinkmann
Synopsis: In Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party filmmakers Robert Brinkmann and Andrew Putschoegl follow Stephen on his birthday and document a performance he gives for the cameras and a group of friends, during which he tells stories about his experiences in Hollywood. Instead of his regular role as a supporting actor, Stephen takes the stage in Birthday Party and shows that he has the charisma to hold the audience’s attention
without the help of a script. Stephen’s guests include many of his actor friends, including Amy Adams, Mena Suvari, Greg Wagrowski and, of course, his wife Ann Hearn.

A discussion with Stephen Tobolowsky:
A discussion with legendary film actor Stephen Tobolowsky and director Robert Brinkmann

Mr. Tobolowsky has appeared in over 150 films throughout his illustrious career and has become a fixture in modern American cinema. Some of his credits include: Miss Congeniality 2, Garfield the Movie, Basic Instinct, Single White Female, Freaky Friday, Groundhog Day, and Spaceballs.

Director Robert Brinkmann will discuss his recent collaboration with Mr. Tobolowsky, Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party.

Musical performance by Joshua Frank

Oxford Park - 15 minutes
Director: Ian Lewis
Synopsis: The shadow of a knife. A scream. Murder. Lady Oxford is appalled that her favorite policeman isn’t available. They are sending 2 detectives on attachment from New York. She is even more appalled to discover that one of them is - a dummy. Will they uncover the guilty secrets of Oxford Park?

Iron Pocket - 20 minutes
Director: Daniel Wasserman
Synopsis: Late in the night, disaster strikes and a friendship is tested as blood spills on Brooklyn cement...

Dear Sweet Emma - 5 minutes
Director: John. M. Cernak
Synopsis: As the search is given up for Emma’s latest husband, Tucker, a private look reveals that Emma has a secret and uncontrollable dark side. Modeling and animation was produced in Lightwave 3d.

The Men’s Room - 6 minutes
Director: Gladys Bensimon
Synopsis: An animated film satirizing Hollywood’s history of male domination. The purpose of this film is to give, with humorous form, recognition to the many talented women directors in the USA and internationally, and to encourage women directors to be seen in the ways they deserve.

Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana - 16 minutes
Director: Ken Kimmelman
Synopsis: Combining digitally enhanced still photographs, live-action, and special effects, this dramatic and colorful montage takes us on an exciting journey showing how a hot afternoon in Montana is related to the whole world- people, places, things, events- past and present!

Skewed - 10 minutes
Director: Jeremy Wechter
Synopsis: Luca, a paranoid scientist, quits his corporation after convincing himself his boss is responsible for the impending apocalypse. Freaking out, and fearful that he is being watched, Luca locks himself inside his apartment. As Luca gets closer to the edge of insanity, his free-spirited friend, Keely, desperately pleads with Luca to open his eyes to reality before its too late.

The Rope - 11 minutes
Director: Philippe Andre
Synopsis: A young woman wakes up as she is lying on a sidewalk. She can’t move, attached by a rope back to back to a man she can’t see. The man wakes up and stands, dragging her away. She can’t control anything. She will follow and more and more will control the walk.

Patterns - 7 minutes
Director: Ana Cuadra
Synopsis: A man is found unconscious on a street next to a dead woman. Once sent to the precinct for investigation, he describes what he saw as he remembers. In this confusing description, he adds information about his missing daughter. As the story unfolds we find out that there is a link between the dead woman and the man’s daughter.

Alone At Last - 10 minutes
Director: David Shuff
Synopsis: Alone at Last is a playful drama that follows a young couple from the bustle of their wedding send-off to the stillest hours of the night. Told with warmth and candor, it is an intimate portrait of a less than perfect relationship. For, as anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows, even the best are infuriatingly- yet beautifully- imperfect.

* 20 minute Q and A with filmmakers and actors from all nine short films

Between You and Me - 6 minutes
Director: Patryk Rebisz
Synopsis: A compelling short about New York chance encounters, with a canon still camera.

Love, Ludlow - 90 minutes (Starring David Eigenberg from Sex and the City, Alicia Goranson from Boy’s Don’t Cry, Roseanne and Brendan Sexton III from Welcome to the Dollhouse, Boys Don’t Cry, Black Hawk Down, Empire Records)
Director: Adrienne Weiss
Synopsis: Myra has accepted a date with Reggie. Her brother Ludlow is not amused. Not prone to dating, as caring for Ludlow has been her only priority since the untimely death of her mother, Myra’s loneliness has inspired her to take one last swing at romance, no matter what her brother says or does about it. When Reggie comes knocking, a 36-hour tug of war rages in the cramped apartment. Ludlow is determined to destroy the budding relationship, while Reggie is determined to prove his commitment to Myra. Ultimately, Reggie takes the biggest risk of his life and Ludlow discovers that acceptance affords him a measure of dignity.

Meet the Stars:
Actors Alicia Goranson, Brendan Sexton III and producer David Paterson will discuss their behind the scenes experiences in the making of Love, Ludlow.
Alicia Goranson has starred in the hit television series Roseanne and had a major role in the independent hit Boys Don’t Cry.
Brendan Sexton III has had major roles in the independent hits Welcome to the Dollhouse and Boys Don’t Cry.

AWARDS CEREMONY: Awards will be presented in the theater following the closing night screening. Awards will be presented for achievements in filmmaking, as well to the winners of the Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition.

Closing Night Party- (immediately following awards ceremony): Webster Hall(125 E.11th Street)
Free admission for filmmakers (with VIP badges) and discounted admission for audience members (with ticket stubs). Complimentary beer until 1 a.m.