The creators of one dozen films and videos will celebrate next Friday (July 27) at the Great Plains Film Festival 2001 Awards Ceremony as they receive a total of $15,000 in prize money. Two special awards-the Mary Riepma Ross Awards-will also be meted out as well: one to Omaha actor John Beasley and the other to Norman Geske, Director Emeritus of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. All of the award winning films will be screened on Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29. Schedules are available at the box office or on the web site.

This year's Grand Prize goes to Split Decision, directed by Marcy Garriott, the story of an immensely talented young boxer named Jesus Chavez who manages to turn his life around, only to be deported to Mexico in 1997 just as he is on the verge of a world championship. Back in the country he left as a child, Jesus finds himself facing two new battles: the fight for the right to return to his family and career in the U.S. and the struggle to be accepted in the country of his birth.

Honoring the film determined to best explicate the Latino/Great Plains ethic heritage, the Rainbow Award goes to Hector Galan's Accordion Dreams, which features yesterday's and today's squeezebox trailblazers who defined Texas Mexican Music. Narrated by singer/songwriter Tish Hinojosa, Accordion Dreams is a musical journey into the heart and soul of conjunto, an American music genre native to Texas.

Randy Redroad's The Doe Boy wins the award for Best Narrative Feature. The Doe Boy is a story about a half-Cherokee boy named Hunter, starring James Duvall, a hemophiliac in a culture obsessed with blood identity. In a tribe populated by "full-bloods," "half-bloods," and "mixed-bloods," what do we make of an Indian whose blood won't stay in his body?

The award for Best Documentary Feature is split between Bradley Beesley's Okie Noodling and Hybrid by Monteith McCollum. Hybrid tells the story of one man's love and obsession for hybrid corn. Through dry Midwestern wit, the film describes the sexuality of corn and delves deep into one family's complex relationships with an eccentric, alienated man who finds solace in the whispers of rustling cornfields. There's nothing like catching a 60-pound catfish with your bare hands, and there's nothing quite like Okie Noodling, a one-hour documentary which catches the excitement of hand fishing or "noodling" and the sense of community that has hooked three Oklahoma families on hand fishing.

Los Trabajadores (The Workers) by Heather Courtney receives the Nebraska Humanities Council Award. Los Trabajadores tells the story of immigrant day laborers, placing their struggles and contributions in the context of the economic development of Austin, Texas. "This is an important film whose social, political and economic implications are as timely in Beatrice, Lexington, Lincoln or Omaha, Nebraska, as they are in Austin, Texas, where the film was made. It starkly illustrates a universal struggle against poverty and discrimination," says Jane Renner Hood, Executive Director of the Nebraska Humanities Committee.

Short films are a staple of the Great Plains Film Festival repertoire and two excellent ones are tapped as best in their respective categories: The Perfect Babysitter by Robbin Shahani is declared Best Narrative Short and Eugene McCarthy: I'm Sorry I was Right by Mike Hazard is Best Documentary Short.

Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie by John Altman and Aimée Larrabee, a hauntingly beautiful film that tells the story of the disappearing prairie, and how scientists warn of the implications, is the winner in the Made for Public Television category.

Three winners are being honored in the new Youth Media category: Leadbelly and Irene: Heartbeat of the Musical Frontier by Megan Stewart, the story of Huddie Ledbetter's life. Smashing the Myth by Listen Up!, a compilation of young women's work from all across the United States. Taking on sexuality, feminism, consumerism, racism, diversity, self-identity and other critical issues, these young women are smashing the stereotypes they've been assigned by the mainstream media. Taff-E by Robert Yanike and Shawn Gourley, a modern day version of the Mother Goose nursery rhyme "Taffy was a Welshman".

Final jury members, who selected the winners, include Kate Davis (Southern Comfort), Timothy Linh Bui (Green Dragon), Cinammon Hunter (Chain Camera), and Douglas Greenfield, Director of Dolby Laboratories in Hollywood.

John Beasley, the highly acclaimed Chicago/Minneapolis based stage, film, and television actor who lives in Omaha, Nebraska, is this year's Mary Riepma Ross Award recipient. He is joined by Norman Geske, also receiving that award, who began the film exhibition program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the early Sixties shortly after the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery was opened.

Listed below are the featured categories for the Great Plains Film Festival. Click on any one of the links to view the category selections.

Great Plains Film Festival Categories and Information
Narative Short	Narrative Feature	Latino	Youth Media
Documentary Short	Documentary Feature	Nebraska Films	Special Screenings
Made for Public Television	Schedule Award Showings*	Sponsors	Film-Maker Contact Info

*Note: You must have Acrobat Reader 5.0 in order to view the schedule. Click the link above to download Acrobat Reader 5.0

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Visions of the Great Plains will be shimmering on the screen of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater, along with a plethora of special guests gracing the stage, as the sixth edition of the Great Plains Film Festival, co-presented by the Nebraska Film Office, unspools beginning on Thursday, July 12th and continuing through Sunday, July 29th.

Over forty films and videos are screening in this year's competition section of the Great Plains Film Festival, all vying for cash awards totaling $15,000, along with special retrospectives honoring Latino culture and featuring films and videos made in Nebraska.

The Nebraska on Film Seminar culminates with the Nebraska première of The Truth About Tully screening at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 14. Tully director Hilary Birmingham, producer Annie Sundberg, and star Anson Mount (who just completed co-starring in a new film City by the Sea with Britney Spears) will all be participating in the seminar and appearing at the screening.

Highlighting the festival are presentations of films and appearances by special guests and final jury members Kate Davis (Southern Comfort), Timothy Linh Bui and Forest Whitaker (Green Dragon), and Cinammon Hunter (Chain Camera), who will be present for question and answer sessions with the audiences. Also serving on the final jury is Douglas Greenfield, Director of Dolby Laboratories in Hollywood, who will join the other jury members in a special panel discussion on Saturday, July 21 at 1 p.m.

John Beasley, the highly acclaimed Chicago/Minneapolis based stage, film, and television actor who lives in Omaha, Nebraska, will be this year's Mary Riepma Ross Award recipient. Augmenting the competitive segment of the festival is a tribute, The Mary Riepma Ross Award, to an established film or video artist whose roots or artistic concerns are grounded in the Great Plains region and culture, who will attend the festival.

The competition screenings will also be complemented by a special selection of films by, for, and about Latino peoples, conceived to honor the richness of Latino culture by celebrating the strength of the Latino spirit and providing positive images of Latino peoples, with the hopes of building bridges of understanding amongst the diverse cultures extant in the Great Plains. This year the Rainbow Award will be bestowed upon the entry determined by the jury to best explicate the Latino heritage of the Great Plains.