SAFFORD — Stefan Gill walked away the big winner at the inaugural Gila Valley Film Festival.
The filmmaker was on hand at the festival to bring home four awards won by his film, “Remember to Forget,” including the Best of Festival Award.
“I submitted my film to a lot of film festivals and they were one of the ones that said yes,” Gill said. “In an ideal world, you’d be able to go to all of them, but I kind of told myself whoever said yes first, or the first one outside of Texas, where I shoot, if it was doable, I would definitely try to go.”
His film, about a couple who meet at a bar and share a dream, also won best direction for a feature, was named the audience choice for best feature and the lead actress, Sara Roan, was named best actress in a feature.
More than 180 feature, short, student and documentary films from nearly two-dozen countries were submitted, and organizers Joseph Carpenter and Jacob Lauritzen narrowed that down to a showing of 37 films over the two days of the festival at the Historic Safford Theatre.
“We did get people together, we did watch movies, we had a great time, I met a lot of great people . . . I don’t know what else I could ask for,” Carpenter said.
2022 Gila Valley Film Festival Winners:
● Best of Festival — Remember to Forget
● Best Feature Film — You and Him and Me
● Audience Award Best Feature Film — Remember to Forget
● Best Acting in a Feature Film — Sara Roan, Remember to Forget
● Best Direction Feature Film — Stefan Gill, Remember to Forget
● Best Short Film — Backyard Blackbird
● Audience Award Best Short Film — Tony’s Tale
● Best Acting in a Short Film — Christopher Studenka, Father’s Day
● Best Direction Short Film —Joshua M. Thomas, Yesteryear
● Best Student Film — Voice On
● Audience Award Best Student Film — Macchiato
● Best Acting in a Student Film — Gianfranco Barili, Macchiato
● Best Direction in a Student Film — Seyed Morteza Sabzeghaba, A Trivial Thing
● Best Documentary Feature — One Last Drop
● Best Direction Documentary Feature —Ross Taylor, Mango House
● Best Documentary Short —Dajla: Cinema and Oblivion
● Best Direction Documentary Short —Arturo Duenas Herrero, Dajla: Cinema and Oblivion
● Best Student Documentary — Trial By Fire
● Best Direction Student Documentary — Radheya Jegatheva, Pacing the Pool
