A parade of star presenters announced the winners of Audience and Jury Awards for the Sarasota Film Festival this year. John Tengrove’s The Wound won the Best Narrative Feature Competition and Firas Fayyad’s Last Men in Aleppo (pictured) took the Best Documentary Feature competition in the major juried categories. Other major awards included Mike Ott’s California Dreams, which took the Independent Visions Prize, and Menashe, which won the Terry Porter Visionary Award.

The same evening, legendary actress Diana Lane picked up the Sarasota Film Festival Award for Cinematic Excellence, which was presented to her by Rosanna Arquette. “She really is the greatest actress we have going on screen today,” Arquette said of Lane.

A complete list of awards follows: Continue reading ‘The Wound,’ ‘Last Men in Aleppo’ lead Sarasota Film Festival award winners →

The sidewalks of Sarasota serve as red carpets for such Hollywood stars as Diane Lane, Stanley Tucci, Rosanna Arquette and Aisha Tyler over the next 10 days. When documentarian Rory Kennedy walks into the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall tonight, it marks the launch of the 2017 Sarasota Film Festival, now the largest film festival in the Southeast United States, and good luck getting a place inside the Sarasota Opera House tonight. Continue reading Rory Kennedy kicks off Sarasota Film Festival today →

Soldiers who dream of bringing a military perspective to the screen will get a boost from the new Veteran’s Filmmaking Academy. Created in collaboration with Project Rebirth, the first film produced through the program will premier at this year’s Sarasota Film Festival. Continue reading Veterans Filmmaking Academy Launches in Sarasota →