‘My Dead Friend Zoe,’ ‘Porcelain War,’ ‘Brooklyn, Minnesota’ Among Big Winners At 25th Woodstock Film Festival
deadline.comKyle Hausmann-Stokes’ directorial debut My Dead Friend Zoe took the Grand Jury prize for Best Feature Narrative Saturday night as the Woodstock Film Festival presented awards for its silver jubilee edition.
The film stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, and Morgan Freeman in a tale of a female veteran of the war in Afghanistan who “comes head to head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family’s ancestral lake house.” The feature grew out of a short film directed by Hausmann-Stokes, himself a U.S.
Army veteran who served in Iraq. The jury, comprised of Oren Moverman, Roger Ross Williams, and Debra Granik, wrote, “For a standout central performance that delves into the darkness of the human psyche in the aftermath of its most extreme brutality, and for shining a light on the tragic consequences of war on those who are sent in our name to fight, we the jury unanimously award the Best Feature Narrative film at the 25th Annual Woodstock Film Festival to My Dead Friend Zoe.” My Dead Friend Zoe also won the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography, recognizing the work of DOP Matt Sakatani Roe.
Richard Rowley served as the jury for the cinematography award, writing of My Dead Friend Zoe, “With clear eyes and precision, this film unearths the buried guilt and trauma of a war that we as a country have still failed to come to terms with. “With light, composition, and careful lensing, the camera balances the film’s delicate mix of levity and weight, grace and cruelty, the documentary and the hallucinatory.” My Dead Friend Zoe further earned an Honorable Mention for Best Narrative editing, recognizing the contribution of editor Ali Greer.
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