The Monastery Wins Big at Full Frame

The Monastery - Penille Rose Gronkjaer's film about the unusual relationship between Mr. Vig and the nun who comes to claim his castle for a Russian Orthadox Monastery - was the big winner this afternoon at the 10th Full Frame Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, taking both the Grand Jury Prize and the Charles Geuggenheim Emerging Artist Award for a first time filmmaker.

Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern's emotional and stirring look at the Darfur genocide - The Devil Came On Horseback - also picked up two awards, the Working Films Award, which honors a film "with the greatest potential for supporting serious grassroots organizing and social change" and shared the Seeds of War prize (for "filmmakers who lay bare the seeds and mechanisms that create war") with Jesse James Miller and Pete McCormack for their film Uganda Rising.

Full Frame tends to focus on films with a social justice message - indeed, aside from the Grand Jury and Emerging Artist prizes (both of which went to the entertaining and decidedly un-social justice Monastery) nearly all the awards are issue-driven rather than specifically craft-focused (although juries certainly include craft in determining winners from the narrow selection of films they are given to watch). 

The double win by The Monastery, following its triumph at IDFA in November, makes it one of the front runners for this year's Oscar nominations.  Writing about the film after seeing it at True/False last month, I said:

As great documentaries often go, The Monastery is a small story extremely well told, with a central figure - Mr. Vig - that should go down in history as one of the great characters of nonfiction film.  But it is Grønkjær's filmmaking - and her relationships, both on camera and off - that make the film as good as it is.

It also has the potential to be a big break-out film that reaches beyond traditional documentary audiences if a distributor can figure out how to tap into audiences that are interested in entertaining stories that also deal with religion.  (As a personal aside, my sister and her husband, who as far as I know have never seen a doc in a theater - aside from my own - and whose politics are decidedly more Republican than my own, saw the Monastery at True/False and laughed heartily throughout).

I will have my own full report on Full Frame upon my return to Los Angeles.  A full list of winners follows:

Grand Jury Prize
The Monastery
directed by Pernille Rose Gronkjaer

Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award
The Monastery
directed by Pernille Rose Gronkjaer

Audience Award
War/Dance
directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix/Fine

Shorts Jury Prize
Cross Your Eyes Keep Them Wide
Ikeyadirected by Ben Wu
(Honorable mention - Zo is dat, directed by Elizabeth Salgado)

Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award
(for films that "combine originality and creativity with firsthand experience in examining central issues of contemporary life and culture...created to honor and support documentary artists whose works are potential catalysts for education and change")
The Ants
directed by Kaoru Ikeya

Inspiration Award
(for "a film that best exemplifies the value and relevance of world religions and spirituality")
Forever
directed by Heddy Honigmann
(Honorable mention - Lake of Fire, directed by Tony Kaye)

President's Award for Best Student Film
Lumo
directed by Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Nelson Walker III

Spectrum Award
(for "a filmmaker of color whose work demonstrates artistic excellence and achievement")
Banished
directed by Marco Williams
(Honorable mention - Leila Khaled, Hijacker, directed by Lina Makboul)

Women in Leadership Award
("given to the film that best portrays women in leadership")
Shame
directed by Mohammed Naqvi

Working Films Award
The Devil Came on Horseback
directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern

Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights
("presented to a film that addresses a significant human rights issue in the United States")
For the Bible Tells Me So
directed by Daniel Karslake

Seeds of War Award (presented to two films)
The Devil Came on Horseback
directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern
Uganda Rising
directed by Jesse James Miller and Pete McCormack

Comments

[Cathleen Rountree]

Hi AJ: Glad to hear the great news re THE MONASTERY. I just saw a screener of it through SFIFF and loved it. I agree, I think it has strong Oscar potential. Honnigman's FOREVER is also good. And, of course, THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK,which I saw at Sundance, was wrenching.

[James McNally]

Thanks for the update. This will help me round out my Hot Docs schedule. I'll certainly have to get to The Monastery now.