The multicultural mystery drama “Man From Reno,” a knotty thriller filmed in San Francisco in a mixture of English and Japanese, has been named the favorite narrative film of the jury at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival. The romantic comedy “The Young Kieslowski” won the audience competition in the narrative category.
Among documentaries, the jury opted for “Stray Dog,” a character study that is the debut documentary from “Winter’s Bone” director Debra Granik. The audience opted for the “Meet the Patels,” which follows an India-born, L.A.-based actor when he allows his parents to help him choose an ideal Indian bride.
The jury also voted an award to the cast of “Recommended by Enrique” for “freshness and whacked-out spontaneity,” while the top prize in the new LA Muse section went to Damian John Harper’s “Los Angeles.”
The awards were announced on Thursday afternoon at L.A. Live, shortly before the LAFF’s closing-night screening of Clint Eastwood‘s “Jersey Boys.”
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All films at the festival were eligible for the audience awards, while a smaller number were in the running for jury prizes.
Nine films were competing in the Narrative Competition, seven of them either U.S. productions or co-productions. The others were “10 Minutes” from South Korea and “Someone You Love” from Denmark.
The last film won the audience award for Best International Feature.
Eight films competed in the Documentary Competition, including “Billy Mize and the Bakersfield Sound,” “The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest,” “My Name Is Salt” and “Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story.”
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Last year, Janis Nords’ “Mother, I Love You” and Ryan McGarry’s “Code Black” won the jury prizes in narrative and documentary, respectively, while Dustin Daniel Cretton’s “Short Term 12” and Grace Lee’s “American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs” won the audience awards.
Jury Awards:
Best Narrative Feature: “Man From Reno,” Dave Boyle
Best Documentary Feature: “Stray Dog,” Debra Granik
Honorable Mention: “Walking Under Water,” Eliza Kubarska
Best Performance in a Narrative Feature: the Cast of “Recommended by Enrique”
LA Muse Award: “Los Angeles,” Damian John Harper
Best Narrative Short Film: “The Runaway,” Jean-Bernard Marlin
Best Documentary Short Film: “The Queen,” Manuel Abramovich
Best Animated/Experimental Short Film: “Butter Lamp,” Hu Wei
Audience Awards:
Best Narrative Feature: “The Young Kieslowski,” Kerem Sanga
Best Documentary Feature: “Meet the Patels,” Geeta V. Patel and Ravi V. Patel
Best International Feature: “Someone You Love,” Pernille Fischer Christensen
Best Short Film: “The Gunfighter,” Eric Kissack
Best Music Video: “Turn Down for What: Lil Jon and DJ Snake,” Daniels