2008 Festival Recap:

From Tacoma News Tribune:

Documentaries, short drama win Tacoma Grandies

SOREN ANDERSEN; soren.andersen@thenewstribune.com

And the Grandie goes to …

Three documentaries and a dramatic short film. Hollywood has its Oscar. The Tacoma Film Festival has its Grandie, named after the Grand Cinema, the festival's headquarters. On Thursday night the festival honored its top films in an awards ceremony at the Temple Theatre attended by around 100 movie lovers. The event wrapped up the third annual edition of the fest, which began Oct. 2. The best documentary prize went to the opening-night film "On Paper Wings." It tells the tale of a little-known episode from World War II in which the Japanese military attempted to attack the U.S. mainland with bombs attached to large balloons made out of a special kind of paper. It was made by Portland-based filmmaker Ilana Sol. Another documentary, "Memorize-you-saw-it," won the Grandie in the best local film category. Made by Jon Betz, who is also based in the Portland area, it chronicled his experiences as a college student working with a U.S. aid agency at an orphanage in Uganda.  The winner in the best short film category was a 13-minute minidrama titled "Verlaine," about a man on the run who wants to hide out under a new identity.  All three films were selected by members of the staff of the Grand Cinema and its board of directors. The audience had its say in the audience award category, and it spoke loud and clear. Moviegoers voted "Wiener Takes All: A Dogumentary" as the festival's top dog by a wide margin, said Grand Cinema executive director Philip Cowan, the festival's chief programmer. The hilarious documentary about the odd world of dachshund racing sold out two scheduled screenings at the Grand, which prompted Cowan to add a third showing Tuesday night. More than 80 films were screened during the weeklong event, with documentaries and short films making up the bulk of pictures on the program.