Oh boy, what a thrilling, fun and exhilarating 10 days it’s been!! Pardon the late Closing Night recap, I stayed up pretty late last night at the Closing Night party, as I missed the past few years’ festivities. It’s so awesome that this year we’ve got a great spot for our Nightly Mixer at the Shops at West End, just a few doors down from The Showplace ICON Theatres! It’s definitely been a great success once again, woot woot!
Congrats on 5 great years, @TCFilmFest ! Here’s to many many more! pic.twitter.com/qPHuHX6Rat
— JeffroBazinga (@JeffroBazinga) October 26, 2014
This is the fifth year I’ve been covering TCFF and I have to say this is truly the BEST year I’ve had. Of course it seems that I say that every year but this year is absolutely amazing. I’m so glad I got the chance to chat with many great filmmakers and talents who are all gracious and friendly that made every interview such a joy. Special thanks to Haley Lu Richardson, Rik Swartzwelder, Drea Clark, Jonathan Ehlers, Patrick Ward-Perkins, Molly Ryman, Tyler Noble, George Finn & Bradley King for taking the time to chat with me during the Film Fest! I’ve always got butterflies in my stomach before I go into any interview, but my qualms/nervousness quickly disappear as soon as I met each talent. It’s been a blessing to be a part of this great organization, so Jatin, Bill, Steve, Dani, Naomi, etc. I really mean what I said in my tweet last night …
Congrats @JatinTCFF @billcooperjr @TheSnydes @danipalmer23 etc. for another fantastic @TCFilmFest! 5 year strong & keeps getting better!
— FlixChatter (@FlixChatter) October 26, 2014
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I also want to thank all the blogging contributors Sarah Johnson, Josh Petitt and Adam Wells. I wouldn’t have been able to do all those interviews AND do every single review, so MASSIVE THANKS for all your help, guys!
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So here are this year’s winners of TCFF 2014 Awards!
The Twin Cities Film Fest bestowed eight films, two artists and one local community leader with awards late Saturday evening during a star-studded ceremony in downtown St. Louis Park. Leading the roster of winners was The Imitation Game, the World War II espionage thriller starring Benedict Cumberbatch as mathematician Alan Turing that is widely considered to be a frontrunner for the year-end awards race. The film took home the festival’s trophy for Best Feature Film. (See the festival’s complete list of 2014 finalists, which were announced Oct. 23)
Also honored: Keira Knightley, winner of the TCFF North Star Award for Excellence for her performances in two official festival selections: Laggies and The Imitation Game. “When you see this body of work paired together, there’s no denying the acting force that is Keira Knightley,” said TCFF Artistic Director Steven Snyder. “There’s such a range of talent on display here – funny, heroic, vulnerable, defiant, haunted, and always compelling. She breathes life into personalities and perspectives that are worlds apart – and yet proves charming, charismatic and irresistible every time out.” Hear, hear!
The independent sci-fi thriller Time Lapse walked off with the festival’s Indie Vision: Breakthrough Film award. Debra Granik’s Stray Dog – the director’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated narrative film “Winter’s Bone” – won Best Documentary. And Andrew Kightlinger’s Destroyer was selected as the year’s best short film.
Local film industry legend Al Milgrom was also honored Saturday evening, bestowed with a star on the Minnesota Walk of Fame, in recognition of a career spent importing and celebrating world cinema for the Twin Cities film community. Milgrom founded Minneapolis’ University Film Society in 1962 and later launched the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival in 1983.
Saturday evening’s ceremony marked the culmination of the 10-day festival, which screened more than 75 titles – a mix of independent premieres and Hollywood sneak peeks – at the Showplace ICON Theatres. In addition to the annual October festival, the Minnesota-based non-profit organizes year-round programming, as well as industry networking events and educational opportunities. Learn more at twincitiesfilmfest.org.
The complete list of 2014 winners:
Best Feature Film: The Imitation Game (dir. Morten Tyldum)
Runner-Up: Ink & Steel (dir. Jonathan Ehlers and Patrick Ward-Perkins)
Audience Award – Feature: Solitude (dir. Taylor Scott Olson and Livingston Oden)
Runner-Up: The Last Time You Had Fun (dir. Mo Perkins)
Audience Award – Short: Sad Clown (dir. Jason P. Schumacher)
Runner-Up: My Last Breath (dir. Cy Dodson)
Audience Award – Documentary: Scouts Honor: Inside A Marching Brotherhood (dir. Mac Smith & Tom Tollefsen)
Runner-Up: The Syndrome (dir. Meryl Goldsmith)
Indie Vision Award – Breakthrough Film: Time Lapse (dir. Bradley King)
Runner-Up: BFFs (dir. Andrew Putschoegl)
Indie Vision Award – Breakthrough Performance: Haley Lu Richardson, Actress “The Well” and “The Young Kieslowski”
Runner-Up: Eliza Coupe, Actress, “The Last Time You Had Fun”
Best Short Film: Destroyer (dir. Andrew Kightlinger)
Runner-Up: My Last Breath (dir. Cy Dodson)
Best Documentary: Stray Dog (dir. Debra Granik)
Runner-Up: The Immortalists (dir. David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg)
TCFF North Star Award for Excellence: Keira Knightley, for performances in “The Laggies” and “The Imitation Game”
TCFF-Minnesota Walk of Fame Award: Filmmaker Al Milgrom
Twin Cities Community Change Maker Award: Vednita Carver, executive director of Breaking Free. (BreakingFree.net)
Well the film fest may be over but I’ve still got a few more reviews I’ll be posting (The Imitation Game, Wild, Time Lapse, etc.) as well as my interview with The Last Time You Had Fun producer Drea Clark + George Finn & Bradley King from Time Lapse!
Thanks so much to all who have been reading my TCFF coverage!
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FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
Thanks for having me, Ruth! Glad the fest was such a huge success.
Thanks Josh! Hope you can attend in person next year 😀
Me too. 😃
Congratulations on great coverage. YOu looked like you had a ball. 🙂
Ha..ha.. yeah I absolutely did. It really was fun doing the interviews, esp when all the people have been so gracious. Thanks for keeping up w/ the coverage Cindy, I really appreciate it!
I agree, great lineup of films as always!
It was indeed. Thanks for all your help Sarah!
Great work on covering the event Ruth! Unfortunately I didn’t even make to one showing this year, I wanted to see The Intimidation Game but it’s sold out. Looking forward to reading your review of it though.
Bummer. But there was a RUSH LINE I think, it certainly was a popular movie.
I can see that you had so much fun there.
I can’t wait to see the imitation game
I’m so glad we got to see Imitation Game early, that was one of my most-anticipated Fall movies. I did like Time Lapse a lot tho.
Looks like such an amazing time! Great recap of all the films and festivities! Looks like you had a blast. Definitely anticipating some of your upcoming reviews of these films, especially The Imitation Game!
Thanks for checking out the reviews Kris! It was a blast but I wish I had more time to see more films, believe it or not, even w/ having screeners, it’s still impossible to see them all. The Imitation Game is definitely in my top 5 of TCFF films!
Ooo, that is awesome! And yeah, I believe it . . . it’s impossible to do everything, but your blogging coverage was just awesome. Super exciting to read, and it was obvious you had a blast interviewing, watching films, and blogging about it. Such a cool thing for Flixchatter!
Thanks Kristin! I appreciate that you find the coverage exciting to read. I do think that supporting local arts is important and that’s part of why I love getting involved. Plus you get to meet lots of interesting filmmakers and talents, speaking of which, one of my highlights was discovering the indie sci-fi Time Lapse and meeting the director & actor in attendance. Hope you’ll check out the interview and later on will check out the movie, too! 😀
How fun! Congratulations on getting through this feat! Woo hoo you go girl.
Thanks! Now I’m getting a bit of film fest withdrawals, ahah. It’s really a lot of fun, I’m glad I got to meet a lot of interesting people too, that’s really the highlights for me.
You really did get to make some great connections. That’s awesome!
Sounds like you had a lot of fun! I’d love to see imitation Game, most of Oscar buzz movies seem to be failures this fall but this one seems good
I did indeed! I still can’t think about Oscar yet but The Imitation Game certainly IS good. A tad conventional but still, well-crafted & well-acted all around. I’m also curious about The Theory of Everything tho, I wonder if it’ll be a race between Turing vs Hawking!
Sounds like another awesome festival! Really curious to see The Imitation Game now.
It is, can’t believe it’s only been 5 years but it’s gotten better and better! The Imitation Game is very good, though I’m not sure yet where it’ll fall in my top 10 of the year, if it did make it there that is.
I loved Headhunters (2011), so maybe The Imitation Game by the same director will appeal to me. Sounds a little similar to a film a fews years ago with Kate Winslet called Enigma (2001), about the Enigma code during World War II
Yeah I like Headhunters too but this one is very different in terms of style. A bit more conventional type biopic but still very good. I think the Enigma movie w/ Winslet focuses more on the actual code breaking stuff, whilst this one also has the espionage stuff but it’s more of a character study of Alan Turing.
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Great post! You always do an awesome job covering this festival, Ruth.
Thanks so much Josh!!
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