Carolina Cavalli was born in Milan.
In 2017, she was the recipient of the San Francisco Film Society Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants. In 2018, Cavalli won the Italian screenwriting award Premio Solinas.
Her debut feature Amanda premiered in September 2022 at the 79th Venice International Film Festival and internationally at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival.
Amanda received 3 nominations for the Italian David di Donatello and was nominated for 2 Nastri d’Argento awards.
Cavalli co-wrote the film Fremont along with the Iranian film director and producer, Babak Jalali. Fremont premiered in January 2023 at the Sundance Film Festival.
In November 2022, her first novel, Metropolitania was published by Fandango Libri.
Presented to an outstanding entertainment contributor from the LGBTQIA+ community. Andrew Haigh has written and directed three award-winning feature films: Lean on Pete (2017), 45 Years (2015), and Weekend (2011). He was the executive producer and lead writer/director on the HBO show Looking (2014 to 2016). His latest TV project was a five- part adaptation of The North Water (2021) for BBC & AMC.
Haigh’s new film, All of Us Strangers will screen on Friday, Nov. 10th at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Haigh will participate in an on-stage conversation along with the award presentation.
Presented to an established creative, making their directorial debut. Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, and Tony Award® nominated actor Michael Shannon continues to make his mark in entertainment, working with the industry’s most respected talent and treading the boards in notable theaters around the world. Eric LaRue is his directorial debut.
Shannon will be presented with the award and participate in a post-screening Q&A of Eric LaRue on Monday, November 6th at the Sie FilmCenter.
Janie Geiser is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes cinema, performance, and installation. Geiser’s work is known for its recontextualization of abandoned images and objects, its embrace of artifice, and its investigation of memory, power and loss.
Her films have screened at the Museum of Moving Image, National Gallery of Art, MOMA, LACMA, the Guggenheim, the Whitney Museum, Pacific Film Archive, The Academy Museum, The Wexner Center, Centre Pompidou, Strasbourg Museum, Microscope Gallery, and others. Additionally her works have screened at the New York Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, London International Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, the Viennale, Fisura Festival, and others. Geiser’s single and multi-channel installations have been presented in galleries from Los Angeles to Tokyo.
Janie Geiser will be presented with the 2023 Stan Brakhage Vision Award at the Double Vision program screening on Sunday, November 5th at the AMC CO 9+10. A reception follows in her honor.
For the first time in its 46-year history, pay tribute to a filmmaking team with the Denver Film Festival 5280 Award.
The inaugural 5280 Award, honoring exceptional cinematic work and collaboration to achieve new heights, will recognize the creative team of filmmakers, writers, and producers from Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia Pictures’ SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE including writers and producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Executive Producer Bob Persichetti, Producer Christina Steinberg, and Senior Animation Supervisor Humberto Rosa.
The team will be honored following a special screening of the film on Nov. 7, at 5:30 p.m. at the AMC 9+CO 10.
Anthony Chen, a writer and director from Singapore best known for Ilo Ilo (2013), Wet Season (2019) and Ah ma (2007), will receive the Denver Film Festival Excellence in Directing Award and participate in a moderated discussion following the screening of THE BREAKING ICE on Nov. 4, at 4:45 p.m. at the AMC CO 9+10.
Chen is also the director of DRIFT, a Festival selection that will screen on Nov. 7 and 8.
Gabriela Cowperthwaite will receive the Denver Film Festival Barbara Bridges Inspiration Award, an honor bestowed upon a female-identifying entertainment industry leader, following the Closing Night screening of I.S.S., the high-stakes thriller set entirely in the confines of the International Space Station (ISS), Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m. at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science Infinity Theater.
Previous Inspiration Award honorees include Rita Moreno, Abigail Disney, and Donna Dewey.
Established by Lu and Chris Law and Dee Chirafisi and Jim Theye in 2011 to honor the memory of their friend, local jewelry-maker Randi Lee, the Rare Pearl Award highlights a film whose beauty and uniqueness stand out as finest of the year. This year’s recipient is Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field.
Previous Rare Pearl winners include The Whale, C’mon C’mon, and Lady Bird.
