ASPEN FILM ANNOUNCES 28TH ANNUAL ACADEMY SCREENINGS AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS
January 9, 2020
Aspen, CO (January 9, 2020) – Aspen Film announced today its balloted Audience Award winners for the 28th Annual Academy Screenings which ran January 4-7 at the Wheeler Opera House and the Isis Theatre in Aspen.
JUST MERCY, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, was chosen to receive the Audience Award for Best Film and 1917, directed by Sam Mendes, was runner-up.
“The power of great storytelling and outstanding directing is evident with these two winning films,” says Susan Wrubel, Aspen Film’s Executive + Artistic Director. Both JUST MERCY and 1917 are incredibly compassionate stories that pack an emotional wallop. Audiences seem to connect to the humanness of both, noting their outstanding scripts and filmmaking. Keep an eye on these two as the Oscar® nominations come out.”
With Aspen being a longtime favorite winter destination for voting members of AMPAS, BAFTA, DGA, PGA, SAG-AFTRA, WGA and other applicable entertainment guilds, what began as an intimate and exclusive industry-only event has grown into a winter tradition. From buzzy, big-name features to fresh independent voices, Aspen Film Academy Screenings brings award season contenders to the mountains for a showcase of the year’s highest quality cinematic achievements.
Aspen Film will continue winter programming with the screening of the documentary SUSTAINABLE NATION in partnership with Jerusalem U and the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies on Sunday, January 12 at 7:30 PM at the Isis Theatre (406 E. Hopkins Ave.). The Aspen Film/Aspen Education Foundation IB Film Screening Series will then present FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF on Thursday, January 23 at 6:30 PM at the Aspen District Theater (199 High School Rd.)
For the complete list of Aspen Film programs and upcoming calendar of events, visit aspenfilm.org.
About the Winning Films:
JUST MERCY
Just Mercy is the true story of young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his history-making battles for justice in Alabama. Stevenson refuses to back down as he fights a legal system without mercy stacked against him and his clients at every turn. One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), a man whose clear innocence means nothing to the corrupt and compassionless forces Stevenson doggedly takes on.
DIRECTOR Destin Daniel Cretton
WRITTEN BY Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham, Bryan Stevenson
WITH Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson
DISTRIBUTED BY Warner Bros.
1917
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic’s George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers—Blake’s own brother among them. (USA, 2019)
DIRECTOR Sam Mendes
WRITTEN BY Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
WITH George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Claire Duburcq, with Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch
DISTRIBUTED BY Universal Pictures
Sponsors:
The 28th Annual Academy Screenings was made possible by the generous support of Alpine Bank, Aspen 82, Aspen Public Radio, The Aspen Times (Presenting Sponsor), and Modern Luxury/Aspen Magazine. Aspen Academy Screenings is also charitably underwritten by grants from AspenOUT, Colorado Creative Industries, Colorado Office of Film, Television & Media, Les Dames d’Aspen, Thrift Shop of Aspen, and the Wheeler Opera House (City of Aspen) Arts Grant Program.