By Terrell Sandefur, Macon Film Festival

“Sundance is thrilling, South by Southwest is rockin, Cannes is glamorous… but I still say that Macon Film Festival is one of the best experiences a filmmaker can have.” – Michael Dunaway, Paste Magazine

The 7^th annual Macon film festival is now a wrap. By all accounts it was the most successful one to date in terms of content and numbers of attendees. One hundred and five filmmakers came to Macon for the film festival.  The 105 filmmakers represented 42 of the 125 films that made it into this year’s festival. Filmmaker Lillane de Kermadec from Paris, France came the furthest.

Macon Film Festival’s partner hotels were the Macon Marriott City Center, Hilton Garden Inn & Fairfield Inn & Suites. Each offered a special rate for festival attendees and 2 of the 3 offered shuttle service to and from the venues. Fifty volunteers worked 332 volunteer hours during the 4 day festival. Admissions increased 36% from 2011. Over 500 people attended the festival each day, totaling over 2,000 people for the entire festival. This year we had more students attending the festival than in previous years. A number of students from Macon State College, Mercer University and Presbyterian Day School took advantage of free student Day Passes to attend the festival each day.

The Macon Film Festival, funded in part by a generous grant from The John S and James L Knight Foundation, was created to celebrate the art of the moving image and to give up-and-coming filmmakers an opportunity to showcase their work in Central Georgia. 125 films from 15 countries were selected to screen this year. The diverse subject matter of the films, ranging from innocent to provocative to very adult in nature, offers something for everyone and provides local movie buffs the opportunity to see films that will likely never be shown at Macon movie theatres. They also have opportunities to meet filmmakers from all parts of the world.

The 2012 Macon Film Festival winners were:

• Animation: THE JOCK STRAP RAIDERS (USA, director Mark Nelson) – Winner
• Experimental: GHOST OF OLD HIGHWAYS (USA, director Dan Bush) – Winner
• Student: MISSILE CRISIS (USA, director Jaye Davidson) – Winner
• Student: KWIK FIX (Australia, director Kelly Hucker) – Runner Up
• Documentary: MARGARET & EVERGON (Canada, director Donald Winkler) – Winner
• Documentary: GROW! (USA, director Anthony Masterson) – Runner up
• Narrative Short: THE KOOK (USA, director Nat Livingston & Gregory Mitnick) – Winner
• Narrative Short: SUBURBIA (Australia, director Antonio Orena-Barlin) – Runner up
• Narrative Feature: A WAKE (Canada, director Penelope Buitenhuis) – Winner
• Narrative Feature: WHO PAYS THE HITMAN (Austalia, director Rod Millner) – Runner up
• *Melvyn Douglas Best in Show: A WAKE (Canada, director Penelope Buitenhuis) – Winner

*Our Best in Show award is named after two-time Oscar winning actor Melvyn Douglas who was born in Macon, Georgia in the year 1901.