The Cinema City International Film Festival Announces First Monthly Online Festival Winners

PRLog (Press Release) - Nov 20, 2009 -
The Cinema City International Film Festival, rated by Movie Maker Magazine as one of the top twenty five film festivals in the country, is pleased to announce the winners of its first Monthly Online Competition.

The winners were chosen from a number of outstanding submissions by the Festival Board members.  “Our judges, all professionals within the industry, read and review works by filmmakers and screenwriters whose work entertains, provokes, inspires, shocks, surprises, invokes humor, raw emotion and good storytelling into their projects.”
In the feature length screen category, Mark Winzer captured the Gold Award for his film, “Dressed in a Black Flag”, the true life story of the rise, capture and trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women who rejected the shackles of 18th Century society to become pirates of the high seas.

Janyce Lapore is the recipient of the Silver Award for her film ”Poppy Town.”  Enthusiasts of film noir will enjoy this story where the hero travels to Hong Kong for a drug deal and ends up fighting an Opium Master. The film comes alive through many unexpected touches.

“Mexican Dream” written and directed by Nino Mihilli, won a Bronze Award for his motivational film detailing a reverse role of Immigration.  This heartfelt story is about a struggling small business owner from Detroit who decides to sell his business and leave his wife and children to pursue a better life for his family in Mexico.  After overcoming personal family endeavors, he collides with the Mexican Government.  Meanwhile, a Registered Nurse, leaves America to work in Mexico. On her quest to her new dream she turns into a difficult fork in the road where she must choose either her faith, or capturing The Mexican Dream.

In the animation category, Hyunjung Rhee,a filmmaker from San Francisco scored high, winning a Gold Award for “The Marked Man”, a 3-D animated short film about an ex-convict suffering as a result of other peoples prejudices. This film brings to life prejudices and the effects of isolation from society.

“Superstitious”, by David Magnier, won a silver award for his animated story about the perils of having faith in nonsensical beliefs. This is a story of a man who accidentally breaks a mirror and opens an umbrella indoors.  Upset about the bad luck he is to receive, he counts the days of misfortune.   His belief in superstition takes hold of his life and eventually, through a series of twists and turns he gets his life back on track.

Best in Feature Length category awards were presented to Deborah Geffner and Arielle Baron.  Deborah’s film titled “Guitar Lessons” scored a Gold award for her film about a a married woman who falls in love with her daughter's guitar teacher, and comes to realize that what you desire is not always what you want.  Arielle Baron, a recent film school graduate is the winner of  a Silver Award for "Barley Soup”, a film about a frustrated, lonely 21 year old who joins an online dating service to find love.  This is a breezily, unpretentious, genially upbeat movie, with a few little unexpected touches and delights along the way.

“We are extremely pleased by the number of excellent submissions we’ve received since the launch of our Online Monthly Festival, said Suzanne DeLaurentiis, co-founder of the CCIFF Festival.

For information on submitting to this festival, go to:  cinemacityonline.net
Cinema City International Film Festival
cciff.com or cinemacityonline.net
818-754-1953