A new Filmmaker Award has been announced that will be given to emerging filmmakers at a series of upcoming film festival events. The International Film Guide Inspiration Award, presented by Wallflower Press (www.wallflowerpress.co.uk), the largest independent film book publisher in the UK, and the Criterion Collection (www.criterion.com), the leading distributor of classic world cinema, is a unique prize of film books, reference guides and film DVDs designed to provide emerging filmmakers at the start of their careers with inspiration from some of world’s most iconic filmmakers, including Federico Fellini, Francois Truffaut, Fritz Lang, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Jim Jarmusch, Akira Kurosowa, Jean-Luc Godard, Todd Haynes, Terrence Malick, Mike Leigh, Roman Polanski, Chris Marker, Ang Lee, Werner Herzog, David Lynch, Lars von Trier and Lindsay Anderson.

The International Film Guide Inspiration Award is part of the renaissance of the International Film Guide, a yearbook publication that covers the world of independent and international cinema, which is celebrating its 45th year with a January 2009 publication date. The Guide, a comprehensive 450-page book, offers a world survey of over 125 countries, as well as special focuses on the worlds of film festivals, new media and other topics of interest to film professionals, academics, programmers and cinephiles.

The inaugural International Film Guide Inspiration Award will be given to an emerging Canadian feature filmmaker at the Vancouver International Film Festival (www.viff.org) on Saturday, October 4 in the city of Vancouver, Canada. With over 100 Canadian films being shown at the event, the Award will help distinguish one of Canada’s rising young film talents.

The Award will then be given just two weeks later on Canada’s other coast, in the historic city of Montreal, as part of the celebrations of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (www.nouveaucinema.ca). That prize will be given to an emerging short filmmaker from the province of Quebec. The Festival is renowned for its program of cutting-edge cinema, including film shorts, video art and digital short form.

International Film Guide Inspiration Award
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In November, the International Film Guide Inspiration Award will be given at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (www.fliff.com), one of the nation’s most respected regional film festivals. With American independent cinema one of its chief focuses, the Award will be bestowed on an emerging American Indie feature filmmaker, with a film screening at the prestigious festival.

The final International Film Guide Inspiration Award of the year will be given to one of the last film festivals on the busy festival calendar. The Santa Fe Film Festival (www.santafefimfestival.com), which takes place the first week of December, has become a major destination event. Drawing on local audiences and the nearby Southern California film scene, the Festival is a six-day celebration of impressive new visual talents. The Award will be given to an emerging Documentary Filmmaker with a film screening at the festival.

The Award at each Festival will be determined by either by the Festival Programming Committee or as part of the Festival’s existing Competition Juries. Honorees will be chosen based on the “unique visual style, daring content and expansive execution” of a film from an emerging filmmaker screening at the respective festival. The Award itself will include both the 2008 and 2009 editions of the International Film Guide, a collection of books from various Wallflower Press series and a library of 10 classic DVDs drawn from the Criterion Collection of world cinema masterpieces, with a combined cash value of $2500.

In addition, a profile of the winning Filmmaker and his/her Film will be included in the printed 2009 edition of the International Film Guide and on the sister website (www.internationalfilmguide.com), which will be launching in late October 2008. Plans are in place to present the Award at nearly a dozen film festival events around the world in 2009.

“We’ve wanted to work with film festivals to recognize new talents for a long time now”, Wallflower Press publisher Yoram Allon explained. “But rather than simply offering a cash prize, we felt it would ultimately be more meaningful to the filmmakers to provide them with a unique award….one that would provide inspiration, insight and helpful tools at the start of their careers. What better mentors to these new filmmakers than the classic directors of world cinema?”