Cinequest Film Festival | |
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Location | San Jose, California, USA |
Language | International |
Official website |
The Cinequest Film Festival is an annual independent film festival held in San Jose, California. The festival highlights the work of new film makers.
Cinequest, a nonprofit 501(c)3 institute, produces the Cinequest Film Festival, Cinequest Distribution Label, and Cinequest Mentoring & Education Programs. Cinequest serves Maverick film artists, movie lovers and students. Each year, the festival awards its "Maverick Spirit Award" to honorees selected by the festival's organizers.
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Cinequest was founded in 1990 by filmmakers Halfdan Hussey and Kathleen Powell. The scheduled guest of honor that year was Jon Jost (director of All the Vermeers in New York), but he failed to appear. The festival occupied a single theater (the Camera 3 Theatre in San Jose) and showed 60 films during this debut event. In subsequent years, the festival has grown to an eleven-day event showing over 150 films and attracting over 80,000 attendees.
The Maverick Spirit Award has honored the following artists over the years:
Year | Honoree |
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1990 | Jon Jost |
1992 | Lena Stolze |
1993 | Paul Bartel Carl Franklin |
1994 | Russ Meyer Werner Herzog John Waters |
1996 | Luis Valdez |
1997 | Jennifer Jason Leigh |
1998 | Kevin Spacey Elmer Bernstein Jackie Chan Walter Murch John Schlesinger Barry Sonnenfeld |
1999 | Gabriel Byrne Rod Steiger |
2000 | Robert M. Young Dario Argento Alec Baldwin Wes Craven Peter Fonda |
2001 | Mia Trachinger |
2002 | Lalo Schifrin David Strathairn Lili Taylor Ian McKellen |
2003 | Ralph Bakshi Stephen Frears Lupe Ontiveros William H. Macy Val Kilmer James Woods |
2004 | Arnold Schwarzenegger Kurt Miller |
2005 | Blanchard Ryan Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah Ben Kingsley Jon Polito |
2006 | Edward James Olmos |
2007 | Stewart Copeland Minnie Driver Christine Vachon J.J. Abrams Christopher McQuarrie |
2008 | Kevin Pollak Louis Gossett Jr. Diablo Cody |
Independent films that premiered at Cinequest that went on to further distribution by a major movie studio:
Year | Films |
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2001 | Maze The Adventures of Barry Ween |
2002 | Blue Car |
2003 | Hukkle Robot Stories Suckers Spellbound |
2004 | I.P.O. The Agronomist The Praying Mantis One Man Show The Story of the Weeping Camel Imelda |
2005 | Accordion Tribe The Civilization of Maxwell Bright |
2006 | Edmond Water Thank You for Smoking |
2007 | The Namesake A Dog's Breakfast Sublime |
2008 | Sherman's Way The Village Barbershop The Sinking of Santa Isabel |
2009 | All About Dad Billy Was a Deaf Kid Blue Road Heart of Stone Historias Extraordinarias The Nature of Existence Rocaterrania Wake |
2010 | Anyone You Want Cost of a Soul The Desert of Forbidden Art Gabi on the Roof in July Hell is Other People Kill the Habit Krews Peepers Professor The Real Revolutionaries Tercer Mundo To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey |
Several short films shown at Cinequest have received nominations for Academy Awards. In recent years, these have included
Year | Films |
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2004 | (A) Torzija |
2005 | Ryan Little Terrorist |
2006 | Cashback 9 The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello Our Time is Up |