By April MacIntyre Feb 10, 2009, 13:29 GMT
The 11th annual The Method Fest independent film festival, scheduled for March 26 - April 2, 2009 in Calabasas, Calif., celebrates character and story-driven films featuring strong acting performances.
Tanna Frederick
A total of 25 feature films and 45 shorts from American and international independent filmmakers will be selected for the 2009 Method fest. Named after a famous school of acting, The Method Fest is the only major film festival in the U.S. focusing on acting, celebrating breakout acting performances in story driven independent films.
The Method Fest film festival will present special awards to Peter Bogdanovich and Tanna Frederick in a special ceremony Thursday, February 26, at 7 pm at Pierce College’s Performing Arts Center, festival organizers announced.
Following the presentation of the awards, the Method Fest will announce the films selected to play in the March 26 – April 2 festival in Calabasas.
Bogdanovich will receive The Method Fest’s Auteur Director Award, while Frederick will be presented the “Performer to Watch” Award, according to Don Franken, the Method Fest Executive Director.
Bogdanovich directed “The Last Picture Show”, “What’s Up, Doc?” “Paper Moon”, “Daisy Miller”, “They All Laughed”, “Mask”, and “The Cat’s Meow.”
The Last Picture Show, which received 8 Oscar nominations, was named in 1998 to the National Film Registry, an honor awarded only to the most culturally significant films.
Director Quentin Tarantino listed “They All Laughed” as one of the Ten Best Films of All Time.
Bogdanovich directed six actors to Oscar-nominated performances, but he also is a Method-trained actor, and a prolific writer and film historian who befriended cinema icons like Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Renoir.
Frederick rose to prominence for her title role in Henry Jaglom's Hollywood Dreams, a mildly satirical view of the deceptions of the film industry, for which she received the Best Actress Award at the Montana and Fargo film festivals.
Frederick played the title role of Margie Chizek, a young woman from Mason City, Iowa who is desperate to break into the film business. The film debuted at the AFI festival to good reviews, and Frederick’s performance was characterized as “startling and touching” by the New York Times.
Frederick stars in Jaglom's new film Irene in Time, which opens theatrically on May 29 at several Laemmle theaters in the Los Angeles area. It is a film about the relationships of fathers and daughters, in which she plays the eponymous "Irene," a girl searching for a long lost father. Recently Frederick has begun work on her third film with Jaglom, Queen of the Lot, a sequel to Hollywood Dreams
Following the award presentations The Method Fest will announce the films selected for the 2009 festival.
Local filmmakers and star actors from the selected films will attend the event. The Method Fest (link) is slated for March 26 – April 2 in Calabasas.
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