Two more SpIFF winners grab awards
As a member of the Spokane International Film Festival board of directors, I'm not above giving the annual Spokane-based movie-going orgy the attention I think it deserves. But sometimes I don't have to work hard to do it.
Sometimes the accolades just come naturally.
This is one of those times. I've already written about the several awards that have been won by "Wildlike," Frank Hall Green's feature that won the Silver SpIFFY for Best of the NW Feature and SpIFF's Audience Award in the same category.
And I've also written about Canadian filmmaker Corbin Saleken, whose short in the 2013 edition of SpIFF won the Gold SpIFFY for Best of the NW Short. Saleken also took home that festival's crown for Most Promising Filmmaker.
And the two have struck again, this time at the 10th Annual Big Island Film Festival, which was held over the Memorial Day Weekend on the big island of Hawaii. "Wild" won the top prize for feature films, while Saleken's first feature, "Patterson's Wager," won for best foreign feature.
SpIFF has a number of smart and knowledgeable film programmers, young and old(er). They've proven their worth yet again.
By the way, when SpIFF director Pete Porter congratulated Saleken in an email for, in his words, "redeeming SpIFF’s Most Promising Filmmaker Award," the filmmaker posted a nice response.
"Thanks, Pete," Saleken wrote. "It is an honour (spelled the Canadian way, because I can't help myself). Thanks for seeing something in me back in 2013. As I've said many times before, your award really did give me some much-needed encouragement."