Celebrating its 40th year, the Seattle
International Film Festival wrapped up this past weekend with a ceremony
announcing the winners of its 2014 Golden Space Needle and Competition Awards.
The winners were chosen from among 452 films representing 83 countries,
including 44 world premieres.

Kenyan-born filmmaker and actress Peres Owino received the Lena Sharpe
Award For Persistence of Vision for her feature documentary “Bound: Africans vs. African Americans,”
a project we originally profiled on this site nearly three years ago, then titled “Africans vs. African Americans: Healing The Sibling Rivalry.” Since
then, actor-producer Isaiah Washington
joined the project as producer, along with Owino and co-producer Tene Carter. The film had its world
premiere at SIFF.

Bound premiere

Framed around a panel discussion in which
Africans and African Americans hash out their issues, “Bound” traces the
historical tensions between the two groups, from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade
to persisting stereotypes of today.

Two other films S&A readers will be
familiar with, Chika Anadu’s realist
drama “B For Boy” and Justin Simien’s racial satire “Dear White People,” received a Special
Jury Mention for Best New Director and the Youth Jury Award For Best Futurewave
Feature, respectively.

On Saturday, all three films were represented
on a panel entitled Filmmaking Across
the African Diaspora, moderated by yours truly and organized by the SIFF
Education Program.

With three very different films representing regions
across the Diaspora, the panel resulted in a conversation on identity and
representation in the movies, as well as the challenges involved in making each
of the films.

Regarding the burden of representation that
some black filmmakers feel from their community, Simien offered, “I think my
movie is really about that kind of pressure, because there are very specific
social cues for what it means to be black and I often find myself in situations
where someone has a presumption about me – maybe it’s benign, maybe it’s or
funny or disgusting – just because I’m a black guy. In a lot of ways, the
movie’s a commentary on what that pressure feels like.”

SIFF panel

Anadu offered, “I think it’s perhaps an
African American thing to be conscious of that. But where I come from, we’re
all black. So with [“B For Boy”] it’s more important for me to talk about my
culture, not trying to show us as ‘nice’ or ‘good,’ but just trying to tell the
truth about my ethnic group in Nigeria.”

Overall the group seemed to agree that social
responsibility and a willingness to confront issues on film – whether surrounding
identity, ethnicity, gender or respectability – was key.

“I think what I felt was a sense of
responsibility to the past,” said Owino. “I felt that a lot, to be responsible
to those who came before us in Africa, and I felt responsible to those who were
on the project with me.”

The Seattle International Film Festival
concluded Sunday. Find the full list of award winners below.

SIFF 2014 GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARDS

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST FILM

Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater (USA 2014)

First runner-up: Life Feels Good, directed by Maciej Pieprzyca (Poland 2013)

Second runner-up: How to Train Your Dragon 2, directed by Dean DeBlois (USA 2014)

Third runner-up: The Fault in Our Stars, directed by Josh Boone (USA 2014)

Fourth runner-up: Big in Japan, directed by John Jeffcoat (USA 2014)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST DOCUMENTARY

Keep On Keepin’ On, directed by Alan Hicks (USA 2014)

First runner-up: Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory, directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett (USA 2014)

Second runner-up: I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story, directed by Dave LaMattina, Chad Walker (USA 2014)

Third runner-up: Strictly Sacred: The Story of Girl Trouble, directed by Isaac Olsen (USA 2014)

Fourth runner-up: The Case Against 8, directed by Ben Cotner, Ryan White (USA 2014)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST DIRECTOR

Richard Linklater, Boyhood (USA 2014)

First runner-up: Maciej Pieprzyca, Life Feels Good (Poland 2013)

Second runner-up: Zaza Urushadze, Tangerines (Estonia/Georgia 2013)

Third runner-up: Pawel Pawlikowski, Ida (Poland 2013)

Fourth runner-up: Sara Colangelo, Little Accidents (USA 2014)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST ACTOR

Dawid Ogrodnik, Life Feels Good (Poland 2013)

First runner-up: Guillaume Gallienne, Me, Myself and Mum (Belgium/France/Spain 2013)

Second runner-up: Matt Smith, My Last Year With the Nuns (USA 2014)

Third runner-up: Felix Bossuet, Belle & Sebastien (France 2013)

Fourth runner-up: Igor Samobor, Class Enemy (Slovenia 2013)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood (USA 2014)

First runner-up: Juliette Binoche, 1,000 Times Good Night (Norway 2013)

Second runner-up: Agata Kulesza, Ida (Poland 2013)

Third runner-up: Jenny Slate, Obvious Child (USA 2014)

Fourth runner-up: Jördis Triebel, West (Germany 2013)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST SHORT FILM

Fool’s Day, directed by Cody Blue Snider (USA 2013)

First runner-up: The Hero Pose, directed by Mischa Jakupcak (USA 2013)

Second runner-up: Strings, directed by Pedro Solis (Spain 2013)

Third runner-up: Mr. Invisible, directed by Greg Ash (United Kingdom 2014)

Fourth runner-up: Aban + Khorshid, directed by Darwin Serink (USA 2014)

LENA SHARPE AWARD FOR PERSISTENCE OF VISION

Bound: Africans Versus African Americans, directed by Peres Owino (USA 2014)

SIFF 2014 COMPETITION AWARDS

SIFF 2014 BEST NEW DIRECTOR

GRAND JURY PRIZE

10,000KM,directed by Carlos Marques-Marcet (Spain/USA 2014)

JURY STATEMENT: Our unanimous winner is Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000KM for its ability to simply and creatively convey the complexity and fragility of human relationships with gorgeous attention to detail.

SPECIAL JURY MENTION

B For Boy, directed by Chika Anadu (Nigeria 2013)

SIFF 2014 BEST DOCUMENTARY

GRAND JURY PRIZE

Marmato, directed by Mark Grieco (Colombia/USA 2014)

SPECIAL JURY MENTIONS

Dior and I,directed by Frédéric Tcheng (France 2014) and Garden Lovers, directed by Virpi Suutari (Finland 2014)

SIFF 2014 BEST NEW AMERICAN CINEMA

GRAND JURY PRIZE

Red Knot,directed by Scott Cohen (USA/Argentina/Antarctica 2014)

SIFF 2014 FUTUREWAVE AND YOUTH JURY AWARDS

YOUTH JURY AWARD FOR BEST FUTUREWAVE FEATURE

GRAND JURY PRIZE

Dear White People, directed by Justin Simien (USA)

YOUTH JURY AWARD FOR BEST FILMS4FAMILIES FEATURE

GRAND JURY PRIZE

Belle & Sebastien, directed by Nicolas Vanier (France)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang, directed by Óskar Santos (Spain)

FUTUREWAVE WAVEMAKER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN YOUTH FILMMAKING

GRAND JURY PRIZE

Malone Lumarda, Black Rock Creek (USA)

FUTUREWAVE SHORTS AUDIENCE AWARD

While We’re Asleep, directed by Summer Matthews (USA)

FUTUREWAVE PRODIGY CAMP SCHOLARSHIP

Khidr Joseph, Clapping for the Wrong Reasons (USA)

Peres Owino

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