Jean-Marc Vallée Vanguard Award
A centerpiece program of the Orcas Island Film Festival is the annual Vanguard Award. This award was re-christened the Jean-Marc Vallée Vanguard Award in 2022 as a remembrance to director Jean-Marc Vallée to celebrate his impact on the festival and on the world with his unforgettable filmmaking accomplishments from his early film C.R.A.Z.Y. to his more recent films including Dallas Buyers Club, Demolition, Cafe de Flore and his perfectly realized limited tv-series Sharp Objects and Big Little Lies.
Prior to his unexpected passing, in December 2021, Jean-Marc came to almost every edition of the Orcas Island Film Festival. He was our annual guest director, presenting new works of his own along with bringing other filmmakers he supported in addition to DJ´ing at our evening festivities and eagerly seeing as many films as he could during his time on Orcas Island.
Jean-Marc was so enthusiastic to share his craft and to engage with audiences, filmmakers and future filmmakers alike.
This year's honoree is director Emily Atef. Emily has two strikingly different films in the festival.
MORE THAN EVER and SOMEDAY WE’LL TELL EACH OTHER EVERYTHING, showcasing Emily´s incredible talent and astute directorial range.
OIFF will present a $10,000 cash prize to rising filmmaking talent Emily Atef as part of the 2nd annual Jean-Marc Vallée Vanguard Award for Achievement in Filmmaking, Thursday, October 12 at 6:00pm at the Sea View Theatre.
Emily Atef´s Film Screenings at the Festival include:
SOMEDAY WE´LL TELL EACH OTHER EVERYTHING
Thursday | 6:00pm | OC Main
Friday | 3:30pm | OC BlackBox
The summer after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a young woman embarks on a taboo relationship with a charismatic farmer twice her age in director Emily Atef’s emotionally and erotically intense perspective of female desire based on Daniela Krien´s novel. (Germany / 129 min)
MORE THAN EVER
Friday | 6:30pm | OC BlackBox
Sunday | 2:30pm | Sea View
In Emily Atef´s complex, sensitive and layered story about soul-searching, Vicky Krieps (Corsage, OIFF22) is a woman taking control over the end of her life when she leaves her boyfriend in Bordeaux to travel alone to Norway. (France, Germany, Luxembourg / 123 min)
Emily Atef is a French-Iranian director born in Berlin. Her first feature film, Molly’s Way, won the Best Screenplay Award at the Munich Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the Mar del Plata Film Festival, as well as several other awards. Her second feature film, The Stranger in Me, about a young mother suffering from postnatal depression, also received several awards and screened in the Critics’ Week section at Cannes. She received a grant from Cannes’ Cinéfondation, which she used to write her next film, “Kill Me.” Atef’s film “3 Days in Quiberon” made its world premiere in the competition section of the Berlin International Film Festival and won seven Lolas at the German Film Awards, including Best Film and Best Director.
¨I am so touched by this award,¨ said Emily Atef, ¨I am extremely honored that you have chosen me, through my work, to receive the Jean-Marc Vallée Vanguard Award. Jean-Marc Vallée was an incredible filmmaker who left us much too soon, he would of had so many more cinematic stories to share with us! I feel truly privileged to receive an award holding his name!¨
“We’re thrilled that Emily is being recognized at this festival and in the name of a filmmaker that was so highly regarded,” said Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans of Strand Releasing.
Carl Spence, Festival Founder, Co-Director and Chief Curator said, ¨Emily has made original and distinctly different films in her career as evidenced by her two most recent films we are showcasing at the Festival. We are proud to bestow the Jean-Marc Vallée Vanguard to a director who has made powerfully entertaining films with an uncompromising vision and narrative style.¨
