Santa Barbara announces awards
Richie Mehta’s drama “Amal” won the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema, awarded to films made outside the Hollywood system. The awards were announced at the festival’s Closing Night ceremonies on Feb 3. Tao Ruspoli’s (pictured) LA odyssey “Fix” won the Heineken Red Star Award. Best Foreign Film went to Martin Theo Krieger’s “Beautiful Bitch” while best Spanish language film was awarded to Pavel Giroud’s Cuban coming-of-age film “The Silly Age.”
The Iconix Video Award for best docu went to “One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story,” Thomas G. Miller’s film on the Reverend’s scandal and supposed redemption. The Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice awarded Anne Slick and Danielle Bernstein’s doc “When the Clouds Clear,” about how international mining affects a small town.
Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit’s “Saving Luna” won the Independent Audience Choice for Best Feature.
Photo by Ray Mickshaw/Wireimage.
Michael Jones is the film festival editor at Variety.com. 
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