8th Route 66 Film Festival 2009
The 8th Annual Route 66 Film Festival was held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in Springfield, Illinois on September 19-20, 2009. Winners of the Audience Choice awards for short films were Audience Favorite Debut Film, Sinnerman by Travis Pittman and Kelly Daniela Norris; Audience Favorite Comedy, True Beauty This Night by Peter Besson; Audience Favorite Drama, Dixons Girl by Fernando Rivero and Oscar Piloto and The Dying Western by Michael Kortlander (tie). Thirteen award winners chosen by the judges were Best Experimental Film, Cantata in C Major by Ronnie Cramer; Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Award, Scarecrow by Patrick Knipe; Best Documentary, Vietnam Long Time Coming by Jerry Blumenthal, Peter Gilbert, and Gordon Quinn; Best Debut Feature, Mysterious Ways by John Denn; Best Comedy Feature, My Name Is Jerry by Morgan Mead, David Hamilton, and Zach Baliva; Best Foreign Film, Euforia by Alfonso Corona; Best Animation, The Incident at Tower 37 by Chris Perry; Best Debut Short, The Caretaker by Darryl Kinson; Best Thriller, Crook by Daric Gates; Best Drama Short, Williams Christening by Josh Hume and Danny Vecchione; Best Comedy Short, Dream the Life by Rebecca Rocheford Davies; Best Western, Al s Beef by Dennis Hauck; and Best of Fest, Gone Fishing by Chris Jones. See 2009 Film Festival Schedule for more information.