In the last six days, 88 films screened in Wroclaw's New Horizon Cinema for almost 19 thousand viewers. Fourteen narrative features from SPECTRUM and thirteen documentaries from AMERICAN DOCS have competed for the 2015 AFF Audience Awards, and the two winners were announced last night during the Closing Night Gala after the closing night screening of Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs.
Winning the $10,000 BYN Mellon sponsored prize from the SPECTRUM program is Rick Famuyiwa's Dope. Famuyiwa is a Nigerian-American director and screenwriter, whose work focuses predominately on issues of Afro-American identity. Dope tells the story of Malcolm, a high school geek living in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood, on a serendipitous adventure with his friends. The film premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Editing Award for Lee Haugen. The film's soundtrack features songs by Pharrell Williams, which has helped to commercialize the otherwise arthouse picture. The cast includes actors and performers from the comedy, rap, TV, and modeling sectors of the American entertainment industry,and introduces a promising performance from newcomer Shameik Moore.
Winning the $5,000 BNY Mellon sponsored prize from the AMERICAN DOCS program is Patrick O'Brien's TransFatty Lives. O'Brien was a New York City DJ spinning under the name TransFatty until diagnosed with ALS. With only two to five years to live, O'Brien makes a ten yearlong movie memoir as the disease consumes his body. The film won the Audience Award at New York's Tribeca Film Festival, where it first premiered. Indiewire has called it "groundbreaking" and The Hollywood Reporter has described it as "profoundly life-affirming." The film is set to open in New York City this Christmas. O'Brien is "honored and humbled" to have received this year's AFF Audience Award, and though he was unable to join us in Wroclaw to celebrate his award, he has personably reached out to express "how thrilled I am that #transfattylives has earned the respect of the Polish people."
The winning LA-based thriller comedy and the winning NYC-based spirited documentary are well-deserving AFF winners this year among a slew of other festival hits. The 2015 American Film Festival has showcased many compelling stories from films across many American landscapes, from so many diverse American filmmakers, so it is particularly exciting that AFF audiences have selected to award two such alternative stories. The 6th annual AFF has proven to be a celebration of American indie cinema by bringing the year's most important American stories to the screens of Wroclaw.
Next edition on the American Film Festival will held in Wrocław from 25-30th October 2016. More about the festival on www.americanfilmfestival.pl.