Winners of the Steep & Brew Audience Award

voted by the audience for films 60 minutes or longer

BEST NARRATIVE FILM
Time to Die (Pora Umierać) | directed by Dorota Kędzierzawska
Poland, 2007, 104 mins
Time to Die is the story of elderly Aniela, the owner of a once beautiful, now run-down, wooden villa. After many years, she is finally “freed” of the last tenant in that mansion, forced upon her by the Communist government after World War II. She is once again the master of her own house. But this beautiful, long-awaited moment is far from what she had hoped. Her only son wants to sell the house, and there are now noisy neighbors (although they are fun to spy on with her binoculars). Shut off from the world, Aniela’s only companion is her (quite wonderful) dog, at least until a kid from the youth center start sneaking through the fence onto her property. Shot in luminous black-and-white and written especially for the actress Danuta Szaflarska, who was 91 years old at the time, the film is a “stunning visual universe created by Kędzierzawska and her cinematographer Arthur Reinhart. They are indeed true magicians of the eye, unafraid to let the camera paint pictures in front of us. This is the special and particular terrain of this film: the thoughtful depiction of the inner life of an elderly person. Kędzierzawska and Reinhart’s series of stunning images and the unforgettable dignity of Aniela combine to make Time to Die a unique film.” — Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM | watch on PBS May 27
New Year Baby | directed by Socheata Poeuv
USA, 2007, 75 mins
presented by the UW Asian American Studies Program
Born in a Cambodia refugee camp and raised with her family in Texas, Socheata Poeuv learns the real story of her parent’s survival and of her own heritage: her sisters are really cousins, adopted after her aunt was killed by the Khmer Rouge, and her brother is the son of her mother’s never-mentioned first husband. The family returns to Cambodia in a journey that is remarkably engaging, thanks to Socheata’s onscreen appeal and her dedication to allowing her parents to gradually re-enter that time of their lives that was so harrowing. A multiple award-winner, “it’s a remarkable story with lump-in-throat impact.” —Variety.

Thank you to Steep & Brew Coffee Roasters for helping present quality films at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival.

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Winners of the Wisconsin’s Own and Wisconsin Student Short Film awards

Support for Wisconsin films comes from Case IH Agriculture, a brand of CNH, part of the Fiat Group, based in Racine, Wisconsin.

“Wisconsin’s Own” winners

Alaska Far Away | directed by Paul Hill and Joan Juster

The Closing Hour | directed by Grey Gerling

The European Kid | directed by Ian Martin

Madison | directed by Brent Notbohm

Perceval | directed by Tate Bunker

2008 Wisconsin’s Own jurors:

Ali Selim, director of Sweet Land (WFF06)
Jim Kreul, founder of the Wisconsin Film Festival, filmmaker, and professor at University of North Carolina-Wilmington
Brijetta Hall Waller, documentary filmmaker and lecturer at Columbia College, Chicago

“Wisconsin Student Shorts” winners

Otto’s Day | directed by Ji-Sun O

Passing Through | directed by Jonathan Bothun

Them’s Trying Times to be a Canine | directed by Joseph Kraemer

2008 Wisconsin Student Shorts jurors:

Katherine Turczan, filmmaker, Chair of the Media Arts Department, and Professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minneapolis.
Jim Stanger, film editor
Max Selim, filmmaker and screenwriter
Thomas Pope, screenwriter and lecturer and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Ali Selim, director of Sweet Land (WFF06).