The First Real Place’ short film, craft beer documentary among top award winners at Grady Fest 2015
The best video work created by mass media arts and digital broadcast journalism majors during the 2014-15 academic year was on display at Grady Fest on May 7 at UGA’s Tate Theater.
Winning the Turner Entertainment Networks Best of Festival Award was “The First Real Place,” a short film about a recent college graduate moving into his own apartment for the first time while preparing to start his career.
The story, which unfolds through a father-son phone conversation, was directed by Alex Yarber and produced by Lauren Schorr.
Randall Abney, who is a Grady Fellow along with wife Carolyn, gave the Dean’s Horizon Award to “Beerocracy: One Nation Under Hops.”
“It had quality sound, great effects, very nice photography, and it was great investigative reporting,” Abney said of the abridged version of the documentary directed by Cameron Johnson and produced by Savanna Thompson.
The Raines Plambeck Doggone Dawgged Future Filmmaker Award, a legacy of the 2012 Grady alumna by the same name, was presented by Parker Middleton, senior director of development and alumni relations at Grady College.
“It means that a filmmaker has come up against every odd, has triumphed over adversity, has shown persistence, perseverance—you name it—to complete their creative vision,” Middleton explained.
The award went to Devyn Trottier, director of “Umbrella.”
Turner Entertainment was the main sponsor of Grady Fest. Additional sponsors included Entertainment Partners and Brixx Wood Fired Pizza.
Congratulations to student festival co-directors Stephanie Hotchkiss, Tavis Vannucci and Beau Ward, and to the additional list of winners below:
• Best of 3210: “Wake Up” directed by Johnny Morgan and produced by Lindsey Smith
• Best News Package: “Cerebral Palsy Won’t Stop This Man from Talking” directed and produced by Mary Grace Shaw
• Best Visual Effects: Max Christian, “Shade”
• Best Sound Design: “Umbra” directed by Brennan Boyd
• Best Production Design: Catie Stewart and Sarah Crawford, “News to Me”
• Best Editor: Justin Isbecque
• Best Director of Photography: Connor Cuevas, “The First Real Place”
• Best Writer: Adelaide Obasanya, “Paint”
• Best Directors: Brennan Boyd and Justin Isbecque, “Umbra”
• Best Producers: Beau Ward and Tavis Vannucci
Date: May 12, 2015
Author: Stephanie Moreno, s.moreno@uga.edu