Approximately 250 attended the Awards Dinner in the Tiara Ballroom. The program began with 2014 Honorary Chair Mayor Don Guardian being introduced by his predecessor and longtime festival supporter, Tom Hayes, Director of Community Relations, New Jersey Natural Gas. After remarking on the festival's successful move to Atlantic City, Mayor Guardian presented Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno with the Impact Award for Promoting Business & Arts Alliance in New Jersey. "Strengthening the alliance between business and the arts is a priority of our Administration, and for good reason," said Lt. Governor Guadagno. "Every nickel of state arts funding can generate up to a dollar of annual economic impact, and you can look no further than the ongoing urban renaissance of cities such as New Brunswick and Newark as evidence of this fact. It's a pleasure to get the opportunity to highlight the great work being done by our arts organizations statewide, all while reaffirming our unwavering commitment to promoting the arts as a catalyst for job creation and investment statewide."
Other honorees were Laura Dern for Independent Spirit presented by her mother Diane Ladd; Bebe Neuwirth for Wave of Excellence presented by Ed Asner; Franklin Ojeda Smith for Lifetime Achievement in Acting and Education; Scott Neustadter for Spirit of New Jersey; and the Possibility Project for Broader Vision. Up and coming actor Paul Castro Jr. was named the Robert Pastorelli Rising Star named for the festival's co-founder, and presented annually by his sister Gwen Pastorelli. In her remarks, Ms. Neuwirth recalled working with the late actor and commented on "his kindness, his generous spirit."
New Jersey filmmaker Garry Pastore won the Audience Choice for Destressed, his "docudramady" about his journey to eliminate the stress in his life to improve his overall health after a severe illness. Other big winners were Best Narrative Feature, How to Make Movies at Home which opened the festival on Friday Night. A Hillport Maine Productions with Morgan Nichols, director; and Amy Dawn Palmo, Lisa Dowda and Morgan Nichols, producers. How to Be Happy (Ireland) won The International Narrative Feature with Brian O'Neill, Mark Gaster and Michael Rob Costine, directors; and David Brady and Richie Bolger, producers. Farah Goes Bang won The Bud Abbott Award for Feature Length Comedy with Meera Menon, director; and Laura Goode, Erica Fishman and Danielle Firoozi, producers. Dar He: The Story of Emit Till won the Alternative Feature Award with Rob Underhill, directing and producing. Rob Stewart won the M. Carroll Raver Award for Cinematography for Revolution. The Garden State Screenplay Competition Winner is Burleigh Smith for, "You Can't Play the Game If You Don't Know the Rules."
In the Shorts category, A Poet Long Ago with Bob Giraldi, director and Amelia Dallis, producer; tied with Of Teaching of Killer Whales Compassion with Raphe Wolfgang, director and Allison Vanore and Raphe Wolfgang, producers. Riff Raff won theLou Costello Award for Comedy Short with Jeremy Weiss, director and Heather West and Jeremy Weiss, producers.Kush (India) won International Narrative Short with ShubhashishBhutiani, director and AsthaDinghra, Joel Dunn, Sanjay Bhutiani and ShubhashishBhutiani, producers. Mr. Bear (Spain) won the International Comedy Short with Andres Rosende, director and Chris Laszlo and George T. Kimmel IV, producers.
In the Documentary Category, the Emanuel "Manny" Berlingo Award for Feature Length Documentary was presented to KTF Films' The Human Experiment with Dana Nachmanand Don Hardy, Jr., directors and Chelsea Matter, Dana Nachman and Don Hardy, Jr., producers. Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride with Amy Nicholson as director/producer tied. Mortified Nation won BestFeature Length Comedy Documentary with Michael Mayer, director and David Nadelberg, Neil Katcher and Michael Mayer, producers. Mosquito Park Productions'Into the Light won BestShort Documentary with Paul Pawlowski directing and producing. Free China: The Courage to Believe (China/USA) won Best International Feature Documentary: world2be productions/New Tang Dynasty Television with Michael Perlman, director and Kean Wong and Michael Perlman, producers. Mona Lisa: Leonardo's Earlier Version (Switzerland/USA) won Best International Short Documentary with Rafael Feldman, Yan Feldman, director/producers.
A number of other awards were presented for animation, music videos, student films and a entire category for Home Grown films, shot in New Jersey. Destressedwon the Home Grown Documentary Feature. Dynamatt Productions' Two Pints Lighter won the Home Grown Feature award with Matt Lawrence, director; and Mike Lawrence, Matt Lawrence, Ryan Conrath and Scott Ballard, producers. 624 Productions' Two Sides of Love won Best Home Grown Short with Thomas Baldinger as director/producer.GPC Productions LLC's Magic on Music Mountain won Home Grown Documentary Short with Gary Cohen, director and Paul Kaye and Gary Cohen, producer. A full list of winners follows.
The festival kicked off on Thursday, April 3rdwith a co-hosted benefit for the Historic Organ Restoration Committee in Boardwalk Hall. Over 1,000 guests attended a screening of 1926 silent film, the Black Piratewith live organ accompaniment. The Trump Taj Mahal and Resorts Casinos were the prime festival locations with Dante Hall and the Chelsea Hotel also hosting events. They included a live script reading directed by Diane Ladd with Ed Asner, Paul Castro Jr., Franklin Ojeda Smith and several other professional actors presenting. Bebe Neuwirth, Diane Ladd and Scott Neustadter were among participants in panel discussions on the film industry well-attended by fellow filmmakers and aspiring others. "All in all, the move to Atlantic City has been a success," states GSFF Board Chairman, Nick Falco. "We need to grow our audience here and make some adjustments but for a relaunch and learning process, the festival did very well and were made to feel very welcome here by everyone involved."
