Mojave Phone Booth and The Lost Cause Sweep Awards

The HDFEST 2006 World Tour concluded recently in Los Angeles after HD festival events this year in London, Seoul, Hameenlinna, and New York. The weekend festival took place at Dolby Laboratories’ Larry Umlang Presentation Theatre II in Burbank. HDFEST's Los Angeles Event included HD movie screenings, panels, seminars on HD filmmaking and digital technology, parties, and the HDFEST Deffie Awards Ceremony recognizing outstanding achievements in HD filmmaking this year. Since the festival’s inception in 2000, all movies in the festival have been presented using HD projection and also have been created using only HD technology.

Thousands attended HDFEST events this year again making HDFEST not only the sole global High Definition event, but also the largest exclusively High Definition event. The HDFEST Los Angeles event concluded the tour and took place from December 1st-3rd, 2006. The Los Angeles screenings and presentations were held at Dolby’s Theatre. Dolby Laboratories was also a top sponsor for the HDFEST 2006 World Tour.

HDFEST Deffie Awards

HDFEST announced the winners of the HDFEST 2006 Deffie Awards on Sunday December 3rd at Dolby Laboratories. Over 25 judges, who are industry experts in their fields, deliberated to crown the winners of the Deffies. The HDFEST Deffie Awards were the first and remain the only film festival awards exclusively dedicated to achievement in HD independent filmmaking.

Three HD movies "The Mars Underground," "The Lost Cause," and "Mojave Phone Booth" swept HDFEST this year, winning awards in multiple recognition categories.

This year also marked an impressive array of prizes for HDFEST Deffie Award winners. A copy of Avid’s Media Composer Software went to both John Putch for "Mojave Phone Booth" as well as editor Michelle Botticelli for her work on "The Lost Cause." Other prizes for HDFEST 2006 included software from Final Draft, Entertainment Partners and Footage Firm.

The HDV Feature Film "Mojave Phone Booth" won recognitions including The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best HD Feature Presented by Avid, The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best Director of an HD Feature Presented by Production Update for Director John Putch, and The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best Screenplay in an HD Feature. In reference to his win Director John Putch stated, "We are extremely honored to receive 3 Deffies for "Mojave Phone Booth" from HDFEST 2006. The collective hard work paid off and the cast and crew are all very appreciative to be recognized by such a cutting edge festival. Here's to HDFEST, and more HD movies in our lives."

The short film "The Lost Cause" won five HDFEST Deffie Awards at the festival including The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best HD Short Presented by Dolby, The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best Editing in an HD Short Presented by Avid, The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best Director of an HD Short for Director Jim Taylor, The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best Screenplay in an HD Short and The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best Cinematography in an HD Short. "The Lost Cause," which stars Nick Searcy, was shot on the VIPER FilmStream camera.

The feature documentary "The Mars Underground" won multiple Deffie recognitions in the HDFEST Documentary category including The HDFEST Deffie Award for The HDFEST Deffie Award for Best HD Documentary and Best Director of an HD Documentary for Director Scott J. Gill. James Cameron recently stated in regards to this groundbreaking movie, it "is the manifesto of the new space revolution."

Other HDFEST 2006 Award Winning movies included "First Flight," "Expiration Date," "Dirty Mary," "Sound of Eternity," "Crack in the Sidewalk," "Friday Night Shirt," "Seven Swans," "Zoltan the Great," "Water's Journey- The River Returns," "The Shovel" and "The Scoop." The entire list of HDFEST 2006 Deffie Award Winners can be found at HDFEST's website http://www.hdfest.com/hdfestdeffies.html.