Black Dog, which follows a man named Lang as he returns to his hometown after being released from jail and strikes up an unlikely connection with a stray dog, also won the 2024 VIFF Quartermaster Award for Excellence in Feature Filmmaking by director Guan Hu. The film also took home Best Director by Guan Hu, Best Screenplay by Ge Rui and Guan Hu, and Best Cinematography by Gao Weizhe.
Other excellent films also on the 2024 indie film festival circuit, which VIFF programmed, included Bob’s Funeral, a multi-media documentary that mixes family videos with various animation styles in search of the root of generational trauma and familial estrangement, won the Burton Award for Excellence in Short Filmmaking and also won the Audience Award for Best Short.
Best shortCUTZ, which was sponsored by Vashon Island’s C’Mon Barber spotlighting local filmmaking, receives a year’s worth of free haircuts and movies passes, went to Boo by Jake Conroy, chronicling the adventures of a young girl after moving to a remote island.
The Audience Award for Best Feature went to director Brendan Gabriel Murphy’s Fluxx, which finds actress Vada Pierce desperate for answers after she awakens in a bathtub without memory of prior events and discovers that her home has been ransacked and her husband is missing.
Best Production Design went to Brandon Tonner-Connolly’s I Saw the TV Glow. This once-in-a-generation horror film follows suburban teenager Owen, whose classmate Maddy introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show that is a vision of the supernatural world beneath their own.
“…VIFF remains one of the best among boutique film festivals, filled with charm and inclusivity…”
Best Editing went to Kathryn Robson and Chris Gibson, and Best Original Music went to Chris Ruggiero for Resynator, which chronicles director Alison Tavel’s journey through the unsettling secrets and complex truths of her late father, inventor Don Tavel, who built a synthesizer prototype before his death when she was only ten months old.
Best Actor went to Everett Blunck for Griffin in Summer, the fourteen-year-old title character who spends summer vacation putting on a dramatic new play until his attention drifts to kindred spirit Brad, a zoned-out handyman and failed performance artist.
Best Supporting Actor went to Eryk Lubos for Swarm (Rój), the family patriarch, who self-exiled on a remote island until his wife expressed a desire to return to the world from which they were hiding.
Even as this wrap-up concludes, I can’t stop thinking about my experience at Vashon, especially having dedicated myself to a hefty schedule of film festivals this year, attending Sundance, Sun Valley, Filmfort, and Cannes. VIFF remains one of the best among boutique film festivals, filled with charm and inclusivity worth the entire adventure of planes, trains, boats, and automobiles.
It’s worth saving the date for 2025 for the 4th annual Vashon Island Film Festival, August 7-10, and to follow VIFF activities as much is in the works. Check it out and learn more at vashonislandfilmfestival.com.
