ActionFest | |
---|---|
Status | Active |
Genre | Film festival |
Location(s) | Asheville, North Carolina |
Country | United States |
Organized by | Carolina Cinemas and Aaron Norris and Bill Banowsky |
ActionFest was an annual film festival in Asheville, NC, started by Carolina Cinemas and Magnolia Pictures founder Bill Banowsky and action director/producer Aaron Norris (Missing in Action III, Walker, Texas Ranger), along with Dennis Berman and Tom Quinn. ActionFest [1] was the first film festival in the world devoted exclusively to action film. It was also the only film festival in the world that honoring stunt performers, filling a void caused by the decision of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences not to recognize stunt men and stunt women in its Academy Awards. ActionFest's stated mission was to "recognize, honor and appreciate the remarkable efforts of these amazing people who risk their lives every day to make Hollywood films look exciting and great."
The first annual festival took place at The Carolina Asheville cinema April 15–18, 2010, opening with the world premiere of director Neil Marshall's bloody sword and sandal epic, Centurion. The 2010 festival featured over 25 films from around the world, including the world premiere of Undisputed III: Redemption. Legendary martial artist and action movie superstar Chuck Norris was on hand to receive ActionFest’s Action Star of the Decade Award, [2] but he actually presented the award to his long-time creative partner, his brother Aaron.
In addition to screening action movies, ActionFest also showcased movie stuntmen, stunt coordinators and other technical experts, who gave two live stunt performances with improvised fights, three to four story falls, rappelling, sky-diving and a flying jetpack demonstration.
In its inaugural event, ActionFest began the tradition of giving out awards for achievement in areas of action cinema such as stunt work, 2nd unit directing, and stars on the screen. The ActionFest Awards included:
Lifetime Achievement Award: Paul Weston: Motion Picture Stunt Coordinator / 2nd Unit Director (multiple Bond films, Robin Hood, Aliens, Superman 1-3)
Lifetime Achievement Award: Kinnie Gibson – Stuntman (Walker, Texas Ranger, Robocop 2, Delta Force 2, Jet Pack Operator
Action Star of the Decade Award: Chuck Norris
Stunt Coordinator/2nd Unit Director of the Decade: Jeff Habberstad (The Last Airbender, Spiderman)
Rising Action Star: Marko Zaror (Mandrill, Undisputed III: Redemption)
There were also awards given to films at the festival, chosen by a jury. The winners of the ActionFest 2010 Jury Awards were:
Best Fight Scene: 14 Blades - Teahouse battle between Green Dragon (Donnie Yen) and the Judge of the Sky Eagles (Chen Wu)
Best Fight Choreographer: - Larnell Stovall (Undisputed 3)
Best Director: - Isaac Florentine (Undisputed 3)
Best Film: - Merantau (Directed by Gareth Evans)
Drew McWeeny (Hitfix.com)
Devin Faraci (chud.com)
Colin Geddes (Toronto Midnight Madness)
Todd Brown (Twitchfilm.net)
Jury President: Chuck Norris
ActionFest returned to the Carolina Cinemas Asheville for its second year on April 7–10, 2011 and to shine a light on action films and the stuntmen and women who perform in them.
The ActionFest Award winners for 2011 were:
Lifetime Achievement Award: - Buddy Joe Hooker (First Blood, Deathproof, The Wraith, Hooper, and many others)
Stunt Coordinator of the Year Award" - Russell Towery (Machete)
Man of Action Award: - Michael Jai White (Never Back Down 2, The Dark Knight, Black Dynamite)
Action Film Of The Year Award: - Machete (Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis)
Producer of the Year Award: - Somsak Techaratanapresert (Sahamongkol Film International) (Chocolate, Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior)
ActionFest Recognition Award: - Stunts Unlimited, for 40 Years in the Action Business
The 2011 Jury Award winners for ActionFest 2011 were:
30 Seconds of Action: Evan Pease’s Action Figures
Best Action Sequence: The nocturnal garbage truck/dune buggy chase in Tomorrow, When the War Began
Best Stuntwork: Bangkok Knockout‘s stunt team
Best Director: Julian Gilbey for A Lonely Place to Die
Best Film: A Lonely Place to Die
The Jury in 2011 consisted of:
Katrina Hill (actionflickchick.com)
Tim League (Founder and CEO, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema)
Russell Towery (Stuntman, Stunt Coordinator, 2nd Unit Director)
Scott Weinberg (Writer: Twitch, FEARnet, Movies.com, and more)
Freakin' Jay Deacon (Program Director, 105.9 The Mountain)
The third annual ActionFest was held on April 12–15, 2012, and honored legendary stunt man Mickey Gilbert with the third annual Lifetime Action Achievement Award.
The inaugural Chick Norris (Best Female Action Star) Award was given to MMA and Action Film Star Gina Carano. Carano received the award in person at ActionFest 2012. The Chick Norris award will be given to "a woman working in film today who best represents the spirit, attitude, athleticism and grit of Hollywood legend Chuck Norris." [3]
Festival Director Colin Geddes returned this year to program the festival. The festival saw the regional premieres of Solomon Kane on opening night, and Dragon on closing night. [4]
The ActionFest Award winners for 2012 were:
Lifetime Achievement Award: - Mickey Gilbert (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch, The Last of the Mohicans
Fight Choreographer of the Year Award: - JJ Perry (Mortal Kombat, Haywire, Get the Gringo, Django Unchained)
Man Of Action Award: - Jack Gill (Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazzard, Fast Five)
Producer of the Year Award: - Courtney Solomon (After Dark Action, Dragon Eyes, Transit)
Chick Norris Award: - Gina Carano (Haywire)
Rising Action Star Award: - Cung Le (Bodyguards and Assassins, True Legend, Dragon Eyes)
Best Car Stunt Of The Decade Award: - Tom Elliott (President, Stunts Unlimited, Criminal Minds)
Best Young Stuntman Of The Year Award: - Trevor Habberstad (The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, After Earth)
30 Seconds Of Action - Tim McGaren (Operation C)
Best Action Sequence - The Lost Bladesman
Best Director - Felix Chong & Alex Mak, The Lost Bladesman
Best Picture - I Declare War
Best Screenplay - I Declare War
Best Villain - James Frain, Transit
Spirit Of ActionFest - Manborg
Best Fight - Opening Fight Scene in Dragon Eyes
Mitch Davis - Fantasia Film Festival
Dan Guando - The Weinstein Company
Borys Kit - The Hollywood Reporter
Marc McCloud - Orbit DVD
Eric Vespe - Ain't It Cool News
Sadie - The Mountain
Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently featured in training scenes and other sequences in addition to fights. Martial arts films commonly include hand-to-hand combat along with other types of action, such as stuntwork, chases, and gunfights. Sub-genres of martial arts films include kung fu films, wuxia, karate films, and martial arts action comedy films, while related genres include gun fu, jidaigeki and samurai films.
The Stunt Man is a 1980 American satirical psychological anti-war action comedy film starring Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback and Barbara Hershey, and directed by Richard Rush. The film was adapted by Lawrence B. Marcus and Rush from the 1970 novel by Paul Brodeur. It tells the story of a young fugitive who hides as a stunt double on the set of a World War I movie whose charismatic director will do seemingly anything for the sake of his art. The line between illusion and reality is blurred as scenes from the inner movie cut seamlessly to "real life" and vice versa. There are examples of "movie magic", where a scene of wartime carnage is revealed as just stunt men and props, and where a shot of a crying woman becomes, with scenery, props and soundtrack, a portrait of a grieving widow at a Nazi rally. The protagonist begins to doubt everything he sees and hears, and at the end is faced with real danger when a stunt seems to go wrong.
A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer-generated imagery special effects, these depictions were limited to the use of models, false perspective and other in-camera effects, unless the creator could find someone willing to carry them out, even such dangerous acts as jumping from car to car in motion or hanging from the edge of a skyscraper: the stunt performer or stunt double.
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed to a daredevil, who performs for a live audience. When they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles.
Hal Brett Needham was an American stuntman, film director, actor, writer, and NASCAR team owner. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in films involving fast cars, such as Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Hooper (1978), The Cannonball Run (1981) and Stroker Ace (1983).
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on niche, low budget movies in various genres, from horror to sci-fi. Regularly held in July/August, by 2016 its annual audience had already surpassed 100,000 viewers and outgrown even the Montreal World Film Festival.
Richard Norton is an Australian martial artist, actor, stunt performer, stunt coordinator, security consultant, and fight choreographer. He holds a 5th dan black belt in Gōjū-ryū karate, a 6th dan black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, an 8th dan black belt in Chun Kuk Do, and a level 6 ranking in American kickboxing. After high school, Norton worked as a bodyguard in the entertainment business before pursuing an acting career.
Buddy Joe Hooker is an American actor, second unit director, stunt man, and stunt coordinator. He is known for his expertise in designing and performing vehicle stunts for movies and television.
Aaron Dee Norris is an American stunt performer, director, occasional actor, and film and television producer. He is the younger brother of action film star Chuck Norris.
The Taurus World Stunt Awards is a yearly award ceremony held midyear that honors stunt performers in movies. It is held each year in Los Angeles. The first awards were given out in 2001. The deciding committee has been around since the year 2000. The awards were created by Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull. The awards statue was sculpted by Austrian artist Jos Pirkner, and is a figure in the form of a winged bull.
Peter Hein is an Indian action choreographer and stunt coordinator who works in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada language films. He is best known for his action sequences in the films such as Anniyan (2005), Athadu (2005), Chatrapathi (2005), Sivaji (2007), Ghajini (2008), Magadheera (2009), Enthiran (2010), Ranna (2015), 7aum Arivu (2011), Baahubali (2015), Pulimurugan (2016), Odiyan (2018), Madhura Raja (2019), Jack & Daniel (2019), and Kalki 2898 AD (2024). Stunt masters such as Ram Laxman, Anal Arasu, Silva, Dhilip Subbarayan, Anbariv, Hari Dinesh and Pradeep Dinesh have worked as fighters and assistants to him.
Isaac Florentine is an Israeli film director. He is best known for his martial arts and action genre films, namely Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006), Undisputed III: Redemption (2010), Ninja (2009), Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013) and Close Range (2015) and for launching the career of British actor Scott Adkins. Florentine completed his degree in Film & Television from Tel Aviv University.
Jordan Andrew "J. J." Perry is an American action director, martial artist, actor, and stuntman.
Merantau, released in some countries as Merantau Warrior, is a 2009 Indonesian martial arts action film written, directed and edited by Gareth Huw Evans, and starring Iko Uwais. The film marked Uwais' debut as an actor and was the first collaboration between director Evans and star Uwais. It also marks the acting debut of Yayan Ruhian, who, along with Uwais, Evans met while shooting for a documentary in Indonesia. It was this documentary which introduced Evans to the martial art of Pencak Silat.
Patrick E. Johnson was an American martial artist and actor. He was a 9th degree black belt in American Tang Soo Do and was the president of the National Tang Soo Do Congress, which was originally created by Chuck Norris in 1973.
Uwais Qorny, known professionally as Iko Uwais, is an Indonesian actor, stuntman, fight choreographer, and martial artist. He is best known for acting in the action films Merantau (2009), The Raid (2011), The Raid 2 (2014), Headshot (2016), Mile 22 (2018), The Night Comes for Us (2018), Stuber (2019) and the Netflix series Wu Assassins (2019–22).
Undisputed III: Redemption is a 2010 American action film directed by Isaac Florentine and starring Scott Adkins, Mykel Shannon Jenkins, Mark Ivanir and Hristo Shopov. It is the sequel to Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2007), and the third installment overall in the Undisputed franchise. The movie's events take place several years chronologically after the events Last Man Standing.
Film Fest Gent, also known as International Film Fest Gent, is an annual international film festival in Ghent, Belgium. The festival held its first edition in 1974, under the name Internationaal Filmgebeuren Gent, and has since grown into the largest film festival in Belgium. The festival also puts the spotlight on film music; since 2001, Film Fest Gent has hosted the World Soundtrack Awards, a series of prizes for the best soundtracks for film and television.
Jung Doo-hong is a South Korean action director, martial arts choreographer, stunt coordinator, and actor.
Hafez Awards is an annual awards ceremony which honors achievements in Iranian cinema. The awards, first presented in 1997, are presented by Picture World Magazine which is why they are also known as Donyaye Tassvir Awards. It is the only non-governmental ceremony among the cinematic festivals and awards held in Iran. Mehran Modiri and Asghar Farhadi with 9 Hafez statues each have jointly been the most frequent recipients of this award.
Notes