Congratulations to the trophy holders, from near and far, and to all who were involved in any way with any of the 67 films that made the cut and were shown at NHFX 2006. No matter what anyone says, whether your film played at The Music Hall, as lofty and prestigious a cultural institution as our fair city can offer, or downstairs at the Muddy River, you were part of history in the making right here on the Piscataqua.

Congratulations to Everyone at NHFX for a spectacular event, staff and volunteers alike. And congratulations to everyone who came out to watch any of the films, especially those of you who had no connection to the films. It's likely that there were more Big Hollywood DVDs rented at places like Blockbuster and Movie Scene over the past four days then there were patrons at NHFX, but hey, to each his or her own. Those who attended a NHFX screening just might have seen the start of something big. We may not have been there in Derry in 2001 when it all began, but there was a palpable beat to the buzz that was here in Portsmouth this weekend. Here's to next year being even better. Congratulations NHFX — y'all rock!

And now, the envelope please ...


AND THE WINNERS ARE…
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The 6th Annual New Hampshire Film Expo Announces the 2006 Winners

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Oct. 16, 2006—Celebrating the sixth year, the New Hampshire Film Expo (NHFX) kicked off this year's festival with Portsmouth's Mayor Steve Marchand proclaiming October 12-15, "Independent Filmmakers & Screenwriters Film Appreciation Weekend," to a crowd of nearly 500 people on opening night.

Two new awards were added to this year' award ceremony, the NHFX Audience Award and the Grand Jury Award. The Audience Award is presented to the film that has garnered the most votes from the film's screening audience. The Grand Jury Award made up of five well regarded industry experts judged the best overall film of the entire festival. This award is an amazing new opportunity for filmmakers to have their work seen by highly successful members of the independent film industry. This year's Grand Jury were,

Chase Bailey, Executive Producer, The Libertine (starring Johnny Depp)
Mark Bell, Senior Account Executive/Acquisitions Manager, Film Threat
Buzz McLaughlin, Producer, The Sensation of Sight (starring David Straitharn)
Gina Carbone, Film Reviewer, Seacoast Media Group/Spotlight Magazine
Thom Cardwell, Executive Director, Philadelphia Film Society, Philadelphia Film Festival

After more than 65 films, numerous workshops, and all-access parties, winners from this year's film festival were announced at closing ceremonies on Sunday. And the winners are…

Best Feature Film: Johnny Was, directed by Mark Hammond and written by Brendan Foley
Best Short Comedy Film: Moosecock, directed by Will Hartman
Best Short Drama Film: Vacationland, directed by Lance Edmands
Best Documentary Film: Flock of Dodos, directed by Randy Olson
Best Animation Film: The Toll, directed by J. Zachary Pike and produced by Marc Dole and Hatchling Studios (Portsmouth, N.H.)
Best Student Film: Checkout, directed by Dan Eckman (Manchester, N.H.)
Best Screenplay: Unity, by Eugene L. Langalis III. (Amherst, N.H.)
NHFX Audience Award: Chasing Buckner, directed by Christoph Gelfand (Newburyport, Mass.).
Grand Jury Award: The Trials of Darryl Hunt, a documentary directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern.

"The Sixth Annual New Hampshire Film Expo was an unbelievable success this past weekend," said Nicole Gregg, festival producer for NHFX. "The community came out in droves to view some truly great domestic and international independent films. Our achievement this year was not only measured by the numbers of attendees, but more so by the overwhelming feeling by the filmmakers, directors, and producers that merely being selected for NHFX left everyone feeling like a winner."

The Sixth Annual New Hampshire Film Expo is the state's only event of its kind and is one of the largest in New England, screening an average of 50 films from more than a dozen states and many different countries each year. This year's filmmakers came from as far away as Spain and Australia to attend the festival. More than 3,000 people attended this year's films, seminars, ceremonies, and parties—the highest number of attendance recorded for NHFX in Portsmouth thus far.

NHFX presents the best in recent independent cinema from throughout the United States and around the world to New Hampshire and New England audiences. Astonishingly, nearly all of the films shown this year would never have screened in Portsmouth without the festival. For more information, please log on to www.nhfx.com. NHFX is located at the IOS Business Center, 155 Fleet St., Portsmouth, NH 03801. The telephone number is (603) 647-NHFX (6439); email can be sent to info@nhfx.com.

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