Cinequest Film Festival

Cinequest Film Festival
Location	San Jose, California, USA
Language	International
http://www.cinequest.org

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.

History

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.

Maverick Spirit Awards

The Maverick Spirit Award has honored the following artists over the years:

Year	Honoree
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

Notable debuts

Independent films that premiered at Cinequest that went on to further distribution by a major movie studio:

Year	Films
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

Oscar Nominees

Several short films shown at Cinequest have received nominations for Academy Awards. In recent years, these have included

Year	Films
2004	(A) Torzija
2005	Ryan Little Terrorist
2006	Cashback 9 The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello Our Time is Up

External links

• Official site