Indie Star Award is given annually at the American Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland to established independent US filmmakers to serve as signposts to new emerging talent. The first two awardees were directors Todd Solondz and Jerry Schatzberg.
At this year's event (22-27 Oct 2013), the Award will be given to Christine Vachon, producer and co-founder of the cult production company Killer Films, who has been called the "godmother to the politically committed film". Among Vachon's best-known productions are Larry Clark's controversial film Kids; Kimberly Pierce's Boys Don't Cry, which included an Oscar-winning performance by Hilary Swank; and Solondz's film Happiness as well as all Todd Haynes' works from Poison, through Velvet Goldmine to Far From Heaven;. Her productions have included a number of groundbreaking films of contemporary American cinema, often dealing with LGBT issues, and breaking taboos. In 1994, Vachon was awarded the Frameline Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Media and in 1996 she was honored with the Muse Award for Outstanding Vision and Achievement by New York Women in Film and Television. In 1999 Vachon received the IFP's Gotham Award for producing.
As a guest of the festival, Vachon will speak about her career during a master class on Saturday, October 26, and she will also meet with audiences at the American Corner on Friday, October 25. As part of Vachon's mini retrospective in Wroclaw, there will be screenings of Haynes' Velvet Goldmine and John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch as well as new productions: John Krokidas' Kill Your Darlings, Ramin Bahrani's At Any Price and Lance Edmands' Bluebird, which Vachon executive produced.
In summing up Vachon's career, Polish critic Błażej Hrapkowicz emphasized her unique position as a producer: "Putting a film's artistic value at the top of her list of priorities, Vachon likes to work on productions that promise to be subversive, that involve an original treatment of dominant patterns, or at least an original way of navigating within the framework of well-known conventions."
International PR contact:
Jan Naszewski, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
American Film Festival
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© Stowarzyszenie Nowe Horyzonty
