The Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago announced the 2021 winners of the Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Black Harvest Film Festival Prize—a cash award given to both the best feature film and best short film screening at the 27th Annual Black Harvest Film Festival, as selected by a jury.
The prize awards $2,500 to the best feature film and $1,000 to the best short film screened during the Gene Siskel Film Center’s annual Black Harvest Film Festival.
The prize for best feature film will be awarded to Dave Wooley—the writer, producer and co-director (with David Heilbronner) of Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over. A press release described the movie as “an inspiring and vibrant documentary portrait of Warwick’s luminous six-decade (and counting) career and activism in the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities.”
The award will be presented in person to Wooley on Friday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. at the 27th Black Harvest Film Festival’s opening-night screening of his film. Warwick herself will also be present (via ZOOM) for the awards presentation and post-film Q&A.
The Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Black Harvest Film Festival Prize for best short film of the festival will be awarded to Caralene Robinson, director of Reopening—described as “the story of a young woman who ventures out for the first time after suffering months of depression during a lonely confinement as a recent transfer to a new city right before a pandemic.”
The short film award will be presented either virtually or in person to Robinson on Sunday, Nov. 21, before the 3:30 p.m. presentation of the shorts program Innovation in Motion, in which Reopening is featured.
See http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/blackharvest.