MIFF Presents Tourmaline and Audience Favorite Awards
On Sunday July 19, the 29th Maine International Film Festival presented its Tourmaline and Audience Favorite Awards. The awards honor the best Maine feature, the best Maine short, and most loved new movie overall, regardless of where it was made. The awards were presented at the Waterville Opera House immediately before the screening of the festival’s closing film, Give Me the Ball!, a new documentary about tennis trailblazer Billie Jean King.
Now in their fourth year, the Tourmaline Awards give a $5,000 cash prize to the best made-in-Maine feature film at the festival and $2,500 to the best Maine-made short film. Each winner also receives a multicolored, translucent, light-up trophy that resembles a cluster of cut gems. The winners are chosen by a jury of three film industry professionals. This year’s jury comprised Julie Bradet, head of the Festival du Film de Knowlton, Québec; Julia Dunlavey, instigator of The Maine Playweek on Substack; and Trésor Senga, founder and head of the Mashariki African Film Festival in Kigali, Rwanda.
These year’s features winner was psychological thriller Mallory’s Ghost, which was shot in Greater Portland. Two other features, the drama In Transit and the documentary Downeast Hardcore: Stories from The Kave, were also in contention.
According to a MIFF press release, Mallory’s Ghost “traces the intricacies, jealousies, and obsessions of a couple’s relationship when the specter of an ex-girlfriend comes back to haunt them.” Although no one from the production team was able to accept the award in person, the film’s writer, director, and star Araballa Oz left a prepared statement: “Winning the Tourmaline Award is so incredibly special… Maine is a beloved character in our film. From the saturated summer hues and dramatic snowy blizzards, to the magical light at any time of day — this film only exists in relation to the beauty of this place and the extremely talented people here who helped make it.”
From the 16 eligible shorts, the jurors chose “Cloudbound Eagle,” commending its “awesome performances, realistic reflections on grief and acceptance, and overall excellence.” In the film, four young men return to their childhood summer camp in Maine to pay tribute to the recently deceased fifth member of their group.
In accepting the award, co-producer, cro-writer, and co-star Gavin G. Shaub stated that the film was dedicated to a dear friend who died in a jet skiing accident in 2022. “Making this movie in Maine was so important to me because a month after he passed away I spent my entire summer in Maine,” Shaub said. “I found through sharing this with people who grew up in Maine that that is a communal experience, going out into nature and processing grief. It means the world to me that people resonated with that story.”
The jury also gave “honorable mentions” to two other shorts: “Swine,” a 24-minute drama about a young woman passing through Maine after magical powers that she can’t control caused a tragedy in Arkansas, and “Tides,” a ruminative, wordless documentary shot on 16 mm, black and white film about the residents of a remote island, “where time is measured by tides.”
Since the festival’s early years, film goers have been invited to choose their favorite feature film. The manner in which the balloting for the Audience Favorite film is conducted has evolved over the years; currently audience members may rank each newly made feature film on a scale of 1 to 10. The film with the highest average ranking wins. This year’s winner was Child of Dust, with The Swallows of Kabul and Still Ohio as first and second runners-up, respectively. The winner of the Audience Favorite Award receives neither a trophy nor a cash prize, just bragging rights.
Before announcing the winners of the Tourmaline and Audience Favorite Awards, festival director Mike Perreault said, “At a time when humanity is seemingly not always valued or even considered, the people who come together to support and experience this festival demonstrate the importance and the power of the arts. I hope your experience in some way has helped you gain an understanding of other lives and other stories, and that you’ve built connections that you’ll carry with you.”
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