Vote for Your Favorite #SheDoc by March 31st

Throughout March, we’ve been watching the 10 free films in the #SheDocs Online Film Festival for Women’s History Month. Now, with only one week to go, we’re asking you – our #SheDocs fans – to vote for your favorite festival film. Here is your chance to tell the filmmakers and the women and girl film stars that you appreciate them! Vote for your favorite #SheDoc until March 31st.

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Use your vote to tell us which story inspired you to do something, learn more, or take on a new challenge. Perhaps Cheryl Haworth motivated you to hit the weight room or Chahinaz compelled you to ask more questions. Maybe Jessie Little Doe gave you a new appreciation for language, Barbara Smith Conrad sparked a love for opera, or Rafea convinced you to take up tech. Or perhaps you learned something new about Patsy Mink, Leymah Gbowee, or Gloria Steinem.  It’s quite possible you even cheered out loud when Starr’s baby was born or when Sabere declared, “I will never bring tea to you again!” If our #SheDocs moved you in anyway, then vote! We’ll announce the winner on the Women and Girls Lead Facebook page on April 1st.

Although March is almost over, we think every month deserves an empowering selection of documentary films about women and girls. We plan to keep the #SheDocs page and Twitter hashtag live as a destination to find the latest documentaries from the Women and Girls Lead campaign available to watch temporarily online. Bookmark itvs.org/women-and-girls-lead/shedocs and visit us every month to find new films streaming online for free.

Beauty is Embarrassing: Gotham Independent Film Audience Award Contender

IFP and Festival Genius are in the midst of the first round of voting for their 3rd annual Audience Award for the 22nd Gotham Independent Film Awards. This award celebrates audience award winners from across the Top 50 U.S. and Canadian film festivals.

For those who hit the festival circuit this year, it is no secret that there were a bevy of fantastic independent films circulating the various festivals. From enlightening documentaries to heartwarming features, filmmakers had audiences laughing, crying, and reminiscing along with their characters on screen. None more so than Neil Berkeley’s Beauty is Embarrassing, which is up for the Gotham Independent Film Awards.

The ITVS-funded film, which is coming to Independent Lens this season, is a funny, irreverent, and inspiring documentary featuring the life and times of one of America’s most idiosyncratic artists, Wayne White. The film chronicles the vaulted highs and crushing lows of the Tennessean commercial artist, who got his big break when he helped create the marvelously unhinged children’s show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. His off-kilter style and self-deprecating sense of humor offer a peak into an imagination that refuses to grow up.

The first round of voting for the Audience Award is well underway, with the winner to be announced at the 22nd Gotham Independent Film Awards on November 26th, 2012.

ITVS Indies Showcase Audience Award Winner – A Panther in Africa

Your votes have been counted and the ITVS Indies Showcase Audience Award goes to  A Panther in Africa

To bring closure to the inaugural ITVS Indies Showcase festival which just wrapped up, viewers were asked to select a favorite film for the always-coveted Audience Award. Well, the votes have been tallied and the Indies Showcase Audience Award winner is A Panther in Africa.

The documentary by filmmaker Aaron Matthews, which originally aired on POV, tells the story of  Pete O’Neal, a Black Panther living in exile in Tanzania who commits his life to activism and community service.

Congratulations to the filmmaker and thanks to everyone who voted!

Click her to watch a trailer >>

Vote Early and Often for ITVS’s Indies Showcase Audience Award

The ITVS Indies Showcase is coming to a close on September 23, after streaming 20 of the organization’s groundbreaking documentaries free online. To bring closure to the festival, viewers are encouraged to select a favorite in the always coveted Audience Award.

At film festivals, the accolade that often most excites filmmakers is the Audience Award. Take the opportunity to stand up and be counted by rating each film throughout the duration of the festival. The highest-rated film will receive a special Indies Showcase Award.

Rate the films as you see them on the Showcase site and help us identify the audience favorite!

 

ITVS in the News

A sampling of coverage from Indiewire, Pop Matters, NCME and more…

Indiewire: Two Spirits Receives the Audience Award from PBS-Independent Lens
Lynda Nibley’s documentary Two Spirits has received the PBS-Independent Lens Audience Award, recognizing its status as the highest-rated film of the 2010-11 season by the measures of online voting and other forms of audience support.

Pop Matters: Cuba, An African Odyssey
El-Tahri’s fascinating documentary, produced in 2007 with the French-German television network Arte and premiering in two parts on ITVS’ Global Voices this month, traces the complicated history of Cuban efforts to help African independence movements during the Cold War.
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2011 Independent Lens Audience Award Winner!

Your votes have been counted! Find out who won the Independent Lens Audience Award.

At film festivals, the award that often matters most to filmmakers and their subjects alike is the Audience Award. They know they’ve struck a chord when the audience applauds their efforts.

The race for the most coveted award of the year for Independent Lens came down to the last 30 minutes of voting. Our top three highest-rated films with the largest number of votes pulled in nearly 5,000 votes between them. It was like the documentary version of American Idol.

Find out the winner of the Independent Lens Audience Award after the jump >>
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You Be the Judge: The 2011 Independent Lens Audience Award

Voting for the Independent Lens audience award closes Tuesday, June 28.

It’s a wrap!  The ninth season of Independent Lens is in the can, and what a fantastic season it was. We had nine months of eye-opening, jaw-dropping, gut-wrenching, and mind-blowing films. Now its the audience’s chance to vote for the films they liked the best.

Voting for the 2011 Audience Award is open for one more week, ending Tuesday, June 28 at 5pm PDT.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/award/

You can rate each film from one to five stars. You can rate any single film once every 24 hours, so vote early and often!

Best of luck to all of the filmmakers, and thank you for being a standout audience this season!

 

 

And the FUTURESTATES Audience Award Goes to…..

In May, ITVS launched the first ever FUTURESTATES Audience Award. Voting has now closed. Thousands of you watched; hundreds of you voted. And now we have a winner.

But first: we’re very happy to announce that ITVS has partnered with Telegraph 21 and The Big Screen Project to provide a very special Grand Prize to the winner.

In August, the winning film will be shown on the big screen, in the bustling heart of the Big Apple. Located four blocks from the Empire State Building, on the Chelsea/Midtown border, The Big Screen Project at the Eventi Hotel has become a magnet for New Yorkers seeking fine cuisine and food for thought. Learn more about the project here.

And so without further ado, we are pleased to announce the winner. Drum roll, please…
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Announcing the FUTURESTATES Audience Award!

You’ve watched the films. You’ve shared, commented, and liked. Maybe even loved. There have been ups and downs, laughter and tears. And this May, you get to decide who will take the laurels in our inaugural FUTURESTATES Audience Award.

From today until May 30 at midnight, the race is on to launch your favorite FUTURESTATES film into hyperspace. Head back to FUTURESTATES.TV, catch up on any films you missed, and check out the fan pages for each of the films.

You can vote once a day, and polling closes at midnight on May 30. We’ll announce the winner on June 1, 2011.
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Independent Lens Audience Award Winner Announced!

All season long Independent Lens fans have logged on to vote for their favorite film. Finally, we have a winner…..Mine by first-time filmmaker Geralyn Pezanoski.

The film tells the heartbreaking story of the thousands of post-Katrina pets who were rescued and then adopted into new homes across the United States. When residents slowly returned to try and rebuild their lives, these animals became the center of full-blown custody battles, with people on both sides struggling to do what was right in the midst of an impossibly complex situation (check out the trailer below).

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