Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Kingston Canadian Film Festival announces Steam Whistle Home Brew Award winner
Short film IMPRESSIONS wins $200 prize

KCFF is excited to announce the winner of the first Steam Whistle Home Brew Award, for the best Local Short at the 2011 festival. The winning film, IMPRESSIONS, was decided by audience vote online at IndieFlix.com

Created as part of the Focus Film Festival in 2011, IMPRESSIONS was written, shot and edited in 72 hours, says Eric Ferguson, one of the filmmakers. The team responsible for writing, acting, directing and every other aspect of the film includes Ferguson, Tristan Tiggeloven, Kevin Ikeda, Deborah Hong and Elizabeth Lindsay.

The Local Shorts Program at KCFF has presented over 200 locally-produced short films over the years. Employing a piggyback strategy, local shorts are paired with feature length films, ensuring an audience for local films, and making sure that Kingston is represented at the festival. “The Steam Whistle Home Brew Award allows us to further several of our goals, including supporting local filmmakers and letting film audiences and film lovers decide what they like to see,” says festival director Alison Migneault.

“I believe it's important for filmmakers to showcase their work, whether it be for critical assessment or for inspiration,” says Deborah Hong. “Ultimately, our main goal is to engage the audience in discussion. The Kingston Canadian Film Festival has certainly allowed for us to do just that.”

“Kingston is a great place to make films, because of its welcoming and arts-friendly community and because of the incredible opportunity represented by the Kingston Canadian Film Festival,” agrees Eric Ferguson. “The festival's system of pairing a local short film with nearly every major feature screening guarantees that our films find new audiences, which is one of the most important - and most exciting - things for a beginning filmmaker. Winning the Home Brew Award is vote of confidence from the Kingston community."

IMPRESSIONS also claimed several awards at the Focus Film Festival, including Best Picture, People’s Choice and Best Original Screenplay.

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For interviews with the winning filmmakers, please contact Eric Ferguson, erictferguson@gmail.com, 613-328-9456

For more about this award, the Local Shorts Program, or the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, please contact Stephanie Earp, stephanie.earp@kingcanfilmfest.com, (613) 777-0161 x 1

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Stephanie Earp, Festival Manager
613-777-0161 ext. 1
Kingston Canadian Film Festival
March 2 - 6, 2011
www.kingcanfilmfest.com