March 20, 2006

Big Muddy Film Festival winners named

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Organizers of the Big Muddy Film Festival at Southern Illinois University Carbondale announced the 10 winning films of the annual cinema event.

The festival, one of the longest-running University/community film festivals in the nation, kicked off on Feb. 24 and ran for 10 days. Thousands of movie fans took in dozens of films shown at a variety of venues throughout Southern Illinois. The festival closed March 5 with "Best of the Fest," a showing of the top films as selected by a committee of organizers and film jurors.

Organizers received about 300 films seeking entry for this year's festival. A prescreening committee cut that number down to about 60.

The festival's jury selected nine films for honors. This year's three-person jury consisted of Brian Standing, Danielle Beverly and Charles Coleman, who were in charge of splitting up the estimated $3,500 in prize money any way they saw fit.

The festival audience selected the 10th film, honored as "audience choice."

A complete listing of the winning films follows:

Documentary feature

"Time and Tide," by Josh Salzman and Julie Bayer.

"The Last Cowboy," by Jon Alpert, honorable mention.

Documentary short

"Nasiona (The Seeds)," by Wojciech Kasperski

"Muslim 101," by Usame Tunagur, honorable mention.

Narrative

"The Legend of Black Tom," by Deron Albright.

Experimental

"Life and Times of RFK" by Aaron Valdez.

"Demolition 7," by Richie Sherman.

Animation

"Fable," by Daniel Sousa.

"Drawing Lessons," by Maureen Selwood.

Audience choice

"Carhenge," by David Liban.

Coordinating and expanding major cultural outreach programs is among the goals of Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment, the blueprint the University is following as it approaches its 150th anniversary in 2019.