SKYY Prize in Support of Innovative Filmmaking
We are pleased to present, for the 11th year, the SKYY Prize, given to a first-time filmmaker whose work is featured in the San Francisco International Film Festival, and accompanied by a $10,000 cash award.
Films competing for the SKYY Prize must be the director’s first narrative feature, exhibit a unique artistic sensibility or vision and deserve to be seen by as wide an audience as possible.
An independent jury of film critics, filmmakers and film industry professionals will screen an international selection of 11 first features during the Festival to decide on a winner.
The winner of the SKYY Prize will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards Ceremony on May 9 at Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater.
SKYY supports innovative thinking by independent filmmakers, and offers this prize to shine the spotlight on an emerging director. Maurice Kanbar, the founder of SKYY, created the prize and is a major benefactor to the independent film community through his contributions and service. Kanbar has been a San Francisco Film Society board member for more than 20 years, and SKYY Vodka returns as a Presenting Sponsor of the Festival for the 12th consecutive year. SKYY applauds the artistic vision of independent filmmakers by sponsoring film festivals around the world.
SKYY Prize Contenders
Along the Ridge
Kim Rossi Stuart
Italy
Buny Chow
John Barker
South Africa
The Heavenly Kings
Daniel Wu
Hong Kong
How Is Your Fish Today?
Xialu Guo
China/England
Reprise
Joachim Trier
Norway
Rome Rather Than You
Tariq Teguia
Algeria / France / Germany
7 Years
Jean-Pascal Hattu
France
The Sily Age
Pavel Giroud
Cuba
The Violin
Francisco Vargas
Mexico
The Yacoubian Building
Marwan Hamed
Egypt
Zolykha’s Secret
Horace Ahmad Shansab
Afghanistan
SKYY Prize Jury
Jonathan Curiel
Jonathan Curiel is a staff writer with the San Francisco Chronicle who has written widely about film and other subjects. For Harlan Jacobson’s Talk Cinema, he has spoken about such films as The Lives of Others, An Inconvenient Truth and The Triplets of Belleville. Curiel has taught as a Fulbright Scholar at Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan, and was a Reuters Foundation Research Fellow at Oxford University in England.
Courtney Ott
Courtney Ott is the director of marketing and publicity for IFC First Take, a newly created label that acquires and distributes 24 films a year, releases them nationwide and simultaneously offers them on-demand. Previously, she worked in film distribution for IDP and Wellspring. Ott attended San Domenico Middle School and Marin Academy in the Bay Area, then studied film at Boston University.
Christoph Terhechte
Christoph Terhechte was born in 1961 in Münster, Westphalia and has worked as a film critic since 1984. He created the European Low Budget Film Forum in Hamburg and edited the Berlin City Magazine TIP. He has been a member of the selection committee of the Berlinale’s International Forum of New Cinema since 1997 and was appointed head of the committee in 2001.
Past Winners of the SKYY Prize
Taking Father Home 2006
Ying Liang
China
Me and You and Everyone We Know 2005
Miranda July
USA
Squint Your Eyes 2004
Andrzej Jakimowski
Poland
The Man of the Year 2003
Jose Henrique Fonseca
Brazil
The Wild Bees 2002
Bhodan Slama
Brazil
The Busines of Strangers 2001
Patrick Stettner
USA
Eeny Meeny 2000
Alice Nellis
Czech Republic
Xiao Wu 1999
Jia Zhangke
China
Somersault in a Coffin 1998
Dervis Zaim
Turkey
Honey and Ashes 1997
Andrzej Jakimowski
Poland