Exclusive: Slamdance 2010 Report: Amber Benson’s Drones, The Last Lovecraft, The Scenesters, and More!

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Last week Dread Central’s own Heather Wixson (aka The Horror Chick) and Brian Dreads packed up and headed off to the snow-covered hills of Park City, Utah for both the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals.

On Saturday night Slamdance held its press event at the Treasure Mountain Inn, and the red carpet was packed with up and coming filmmakers and actors as well as some veterans to the genre.

While at the Slamdance event, Dread Central had the opportunity to talk with the cast and crew of the horror comedy The Scenesters, which focuses on a serial killer stalking hipsters in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood.

Also, we took some time to talk with the creators and cast of The Last Lovecraft, a cool new flick centered around the last descendant of the legendary H.P Lovecraft.

The geek out moment for yours truly came when it was time to talk to the cast and crew of Drones, the sci-fi themed comedy co-directed by Amber Benson and Adam Busch. You might remember both Benson and Busch from their time on the Joss Whedon series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as Tara (Willow’s love interest) and Warren (who shoots Tara during the 2002 season).

Also on hand to talk about Drones was Samm Levine, who had a pretty big year in 2009 since he was a featured player in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

Slamdance also announced its winners last week, and although most of the genre fare was shut out, we thought our readers might still enjoy seeing who walked home with some awards after the fest.

GRAND JURY AWARDS

  • Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Narrative Film:
    Winner: SNOW AND ASHES, directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud
    Special Jury Mention: ONE HUNDRED MORNINGS, directed by Conor Horgan
    Winner also receives three, eight-hour workdays from POP Sound in Los Angeles for Audio Post Production Services; Panasonic AG-HPX170 Camera; Sony Software Package

  • Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Documentary Film:
    Winner: AMERICAN JIHADIST, directed by Mark Claywell
    Winner also receives Sony Software Package

  • Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Animated Short:
    Winner: SEED, directed by Ben Richardson and Daniel Bird
    Winner also receives Sony Software Package

  • Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Narrative Short:
    Winner: PRVI DAN MIRA (First Day of Peace), Mirko Rucnov
    Special Jury Mention for a short documentary film: BOUT THAT BOUT, directed by Nico Sabenorio
    Winner also receives Sony Software Package
  • AUDIENCE AWARDS

  • Audience Sparky Award for Best Narrative Film:
    Winner: THE WILD HUNT, directed by Alexandre Franchi
    Winner also receives $5000 in Post Production Services from Post Factory, New York; $3500 in Legal Services from Pierce Law Group; Sony Software Package

  • Audience Sparky Award for Best Documentary Film:
    Winner: MIND OF THE DEMON: THE LARRY LINKOGLE STORY, directed by Adam Barker
    Winner also receives $5000 in Post Production Services from Post Factory, New York; $3500 in Legal Services from Pierce Law Group; Sony Software Package

  • Audience Sparky Award for Best Anarchy Online Film:
    Winner: SUGAR STICK, directed by Laura Harris
    Winner also receives Sony Software Package

  • Spirit of Slamdance Sparky Short Film Award:
    Winner: MOSQUITO, directed by Jeremy Engle
    Awarded by the Class of 2010 filmmakers to the film teams that best exhibit passion and talent, commitment to the independent community, and enthusiastically embrace all Slamdance has to offer.
    Winner also receives Sony Software Package
  • SPONSORED AWARDS

  • Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography:
    Winner: GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9, directed by Robert Persons
    Winner also receives 10,000 feet of Kodak film for the filmmaker to make their next feature

  • Dos Equis Most Interesting Film Award (and best Mumblecore film to NOT play SXSW):
    Winner: NOTHING BUT EVERYTHING, directed by Wallace Cotten
  • Slamdance also presented the first Annual Script Accessible Screenplay Award sponsored by Lonely Seal Releasing to ALL THE WRONG REASONS, written by Gia Milani. The Script Accessible Award is part of Slamdance’s year-round Writing Competition that received over 2,500 submissions in 2009.

    2010 marked the 16th anniversary of Slamdance, one of the few remaining film festivals whose sole mission is to support truly independent works from first-time filmmakers, staying true to its mission of “by filmmakers, for filmmakers.

    For more information on the festival (which is also a year-round organization), check out Slamdance.com, and look for a few Slamdance reviews later this week!


    Slamdance 2010 Video Report
    Uploaded by dreadcentral. – Classic TV and last night’s shows, online.

    Heather Wixson

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