Our Awards

Call for Entries Begins October 22, 2009

The Charlotte Film Festival presents 14 awards in five categories.

	The Indie Film Force Award is handed to the best Narrative Feature as chosen by our panel of judges.
	This audience choice award is handed to the best Narrative Feature as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.
	The Indie Truth Award is handed to the best feature-length Documentary as chosen by our panel of judges.
	This audience choice award is handed to the best feature-length Documentary Feature as tabulated from our audiences ballot card results.
	The Indie Spirit Award is handed to the best Short Film (narrative or documentary) as chosen by our panel of judges.
	This audience choice award is handed to the best Short Film (narrative or documentary) as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.
	The Indie Hope Award is handed to the best Student Film as chosen by our panel of judges.
	This audience choice award is handed to the best Student Film as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.
	This audience choice award is handed to the NARRATIVE film with the best cinematography in the feature, short, or student categories as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.
	This audience choice award is handed to the DOCUMENTARY film with the best cinematography in the feature, short, or student categories as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.
	This audience choice award is handed to the NARRATIVE film with the best music in the feature, short, or student categories as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.
	This audience choice award is handed to the DOCUMENTARY film with the best music in the feature, short, or student categories as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.
	This audience choice award is handed to the best story in a NARRATIVE film in the feature, short, or student categories as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.
	This audience choice award is handed to the best actor in a NARRATIVE film in the feature, short, or student categories as tabulated from our audience’s ballot card results.

2009 Judges Bios

Feature-Length Narrative Judges

Matt Brunson is the Film Editor & Movie Reviewer for Creative Loafing in Charlotte. He has been with the alternative newsweekly since 1988, initially as a freelance film critic before joining the paper full-time as a staff member in 1996. His articles have appeared in a handful of publications around the South, and he is the recipient of several awards from both the North Carolina Press Association and the North Carolina Working Press, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the 15 Short Film Festival. In addition to his film duties, Matt also holds positions at Creative Loafing as Senior Editor and Arts & Entertainment Editor. He currently serves as President of the Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA).

Sean O’Connell is the film critic for the Carolina Weekly Newspaper Group, which publishes six papers including the South Charlotte Weekly, the Union County Weekly and the Lake Norman Herald Weekly. He can be seen Friday mornings on WBTV News 3, and heard on WBT-AM Charlotte’s Morning News with Al Gardner and Stacey Simms. A member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Sean has earned recognition from the North Carolina Press Association for his reviews. When the workday ends, he retreats home to watch the Panthers, Tar Heels and Chelsea futbol with his wife and two young sons.

 

Feature-Length Documentary Judges

Jay Morong is an educator and theatrical video designer. His recent video design work includes: William Shakespeare's The Tempest; Voices From the War and The Roots of Coincidence (Both 9/11 pieces), all at UNC Charlotte; and Requiem For New Orleans at the New York International Fringe Festival. Jay is also a Theater & Film Studies Instructor in the Theatre Department at UNC Charlotte. Jay works as a projectionist at the Manor Theatre in Charlotte and as a Special Events Film Programmer at the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, MA.

Sam Shapiro manages the Main Library’s Movies and Music Room, where he has developed the DVDs and CDs into an award-winning collection. Since 1993, he has programmed several popular film series for the library system, including this summer’s series “The Master of Suspense: Alfred Hitchcock Classics”. For the past 13 years, Sam has been a Film History instructor at UNCC.

Short Film Category

Glen Baity is a journalist and critic who lives in Greensboro. Since early 2005, he has written a film column for Yes! Weekly, an award-winning alt-weekly newspaper serving the Triad

Joe Scott is the head programmer of the Mixed Tape Film Series, a monthly cinema retrospective out of Greensboro, NC. He's also co-host of The Movie Show on WUAG 103.1 FM (http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.themovieshow.org) and a contributing film and entertainment writer for the News and Record.

Student Film Category

Student films are judged by a combined panel of specially selected students from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Queens University of Charlotte.

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