The Circuit

"Mermaid", Anna Melikyan's Russian coming-of-age drama, and Daniel Junge's and Siatta Scott Johnson's docu on the first female president of Liberia, "Iron Ladies of Liberia," won the Target Ten Filmmaker awards at the 2nd annual AFI Dallas International Film Festival.  Both films will pocket a $25,000 cash prize each.
 
David Pomes' drama of meth addiction, "Cook County," won $20,000 in cash, goods and services with the MPS Studios Texas Filmmaker Award.  Josh Tickell's doc "Fields of Fuel" won Current Energy Earth Friendly Award, which comes with $10,000 cash.
 
Audience awards went to Richie Mehta's "Amal" for best narrative and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' "The Black List" for best doc.
 
AFI Dallas artistic director Michael Cain said, "Having our award winners represent five different countries including Russia, Mexico, Canada and Congo speaks to the fact that we are bringing the best films from all over the world to the audiences here in Dallas."


Full awards list:

TARGET TEN NARRATIVE FEATURE: MERMAID 
DIR: Anna Melikyan (Russia)
Cast: Mariya Shalayeva, Yevgeni Tsyganov, Mariya Sokova

HONORABLE MENTION: BAD HABITS
DIR: Simón Bross (Mexico)
Cast: Ximena Ayala, Elena de Haro, Marco Antonio Treviño

TARGET TEN DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA
DIR: Daniel Junge (USA)

CURRENT ENERGY EARTH FRIENDLY: FIELDS OF FUEL
DIR: Josh Tickell

MPS STUDIOS TEXAS: COOK COUNTY
DIR: David Pomes
Cast: Anson Mount, Xander Berkeley, Ryan Donowho, Polly Cole

HONORABLE MENTION: CIAO
DIR: Yen Tan (USA)
Starring: Adam Neal Smith, Alessandro Calza, Ethel Lung

HDNET FEATURE: TRACING COWBOYS
DIR: Jason Wulfsohn (USA)
Starring: Eileen Dietz, Megan Edwards, Sacha Grunpeter

SHORT: THE SECOND LINE
DIR: John Magary (USA)

HONORABLE MENTION: A CATALOG OF ANTICIPATIONS
DIR: David Lowery (USA)

STUDENT SHORT: THE VULNERABLE ONES (LES VULNERABLES)
DIR: Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt (Congo/USA)

HONORABLE MENTION:    A DAY’S WORK
DIR: Rajeev Dassani (USA)

ANIMATED SHORT: KEY LIME PIE
DIR: Trevor Jimenez (Canada)


AUDIENCE AWARDS:

NARRATIVE: AMAL
DIR: Richie Mehta (Canada)
Cast: Rupinder Nagra, Naseeruddin Shah, Seema Biswas, Koel Purie

DOCUMENTARY: THE BLACK LIST
DIR: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (USA)
Featuring: Chris Rock, Lou Gossett Jr., Vernon Jordan, Thelma Golden

SHORT: A DAY’S WORK
DIR: Rajeev Dassani (USA)


Photo (left to right):  Rebecca Harrell & Josh Tickell (FIELDS OF FUEL), Diane Magary (THE SECOND LINE), Rupinder Nagra & Richie Mehta (AMAL), Tom Baker (COOK COUNTY), Scott Grunpeter (TRACING COWBOYS), Yen Tan (CIAO).