TIPTON, IA—The jury of the Hardacre Film Festival has announced its award-winning films in seven categories for the 2010 festival. The festival will take place at the Hardacre Theater in Tipton Aug. 6 and 7.

“We’re showing 24 films this year, out of more than 150 entries, and it was extremely difficult for our jurors to narrow it down for our two-day festival,” said Will Valet, festival director. “To make the schedule at all says a lot about a film, but our award winners had a little something extra. We’re really excited to show these films to the Hardacre crowd.”

The award-winning films are:

Best Narrative Feature

• WINNER—Between Floors, by director Jen White. Sometimes getting stuck is the only way to break free. Between Floors examines the human condition through a claustrophobic lens, cutting between five stuck elevators and the people trapped inside them. Each elevator becomes an existential purgatory, forcing its occupants to not only confront their isolation, but themselves and each other in varied and unexpected ways.
• RUNNER-UP—Big Font, Large Spacing, by director Paul Allen. In this film from Wales, slackers Tom and Steve discover one night that they have a 5,000-word essay due the next morning. If they don’t get it in, they’ll fail their degrees. Desperate, they steal a folder of notes from Debbie, the strange housemate of Tom’s girlfriend Sarah. But things don’t exactly go according to plan. Perhaps getting stoned wasn’t such a great idea after all.

Best Documentary

• WINNER—My Vietnam, Your Iraq, by director Ron Osgood. My Vietnam, Your Iraq tells the stories of Vietnam veterans and their children who have served in each generation’s war. Their stories examine the pride, challenges, fears, prejudices, and the myriad of emotions they have experienced during and after deployment.
• RUNNER-UP—World’s Largest, by directors Elizabeth Donius and Amy Elliott. Desperate for tourism, hundreds of small towns across the U.S. claim the “world’s largest” something—from 15-foot fiberglass strawberries to 40-foot concrete pheasants. Odd, funny and sometimes beautiful, the statues stand as testaments to the uniqueness and importance of their communities and their own existence. World’s Largest visits 58 such sites and profiles Soap Lake, Washington’s four-year struggle to build the world’s largest lava lamp. By documenting these roadside attractions, World’s Largest captures the changing landscape of small-town America.

Best Short Film

• WINNER—Kaya, by director Tony Leonardo. Kaya, 19, has grown apart from her roots in Iowa. She’s passionate about cycling but discouraged by her shallow friend Angela and her distant mother. Determined to find her own way, she leaves behind the sleepy Midwest for the electricity of New York City. New York is more dangerous than expected. Kaya becomes a bike messenger—a grueling job with little room for error. Despite the hardships, she is determined to fight her way to success—if success will come.
• RUNNER-UP—Plastic Bag, by director Ramin Bahrani. A plastic bag goes on an epic journey in search of its lost maker, wondering if there is any point to life without her. The bag encounters strange creatures, brief love in the sky, a colony of prophetic torn bags on a fence, and the unknown. To be with its own kind, the bag goes deep under the ocean into 500 nautical miles of spinning garbage known as the North Pacific Trash Vortex. Will he forget his maker there?

Best Student Film

• WINNER—Patient, by director Daniel Clements. A man and a woman meet at a coffee shop for the very first time. As if on an awkward blind date, they exchange timid and formal pleasantries. But as their conversation unfolds, the horrifying truth behind their meeting is revealed, and so is the gun under their coffee table.
• RUNNER-UP—Prayers for Peace, by director Dustin Grella. This film confronts the memory of the director’s younger brother, who was killed in the Iraq war. Drawn entirely with pastels on a slate chalkboard, the materials used to create the animation become a metaphor for the impermanence of life.

Best Animated Film

• WINNER—The Sandwich Movie, by director Sean Christensen. A sandwich travels around the world in this animated short, based on a true story.
• RUNNER-UP—Kidnap, by director Sijia Luo. A small chicken is late to school, but she has an excuse—she was kidnapped. And believe it or not, this chicken is a really good actress—and, uh, a kung fu master!

Best Iowa Film

• WINNER—Trophy Wife, by director Patricia Atkinson. Frank struggles with failure and rejection in his hobby and in his marriage. When the day comes that everything finally falls apart, Frank finds a way to resolve his taxidermy hobby and come to terms with his wife in a shocking manner.

The Hardacre also gives an Audience Award, which will be voted on by the audience and announced at the conclusion of the festival Saturday, Aug. 7.

Admission to any of the Hardacre’s three programs, Opening Night, Saturday Day or Closing Night, is $8 each. An all-festival pass can be purchased for $20. Films on Friday begin at 6 p.m. On Saturday, screenings will run all day from 9 a.m. through 11 p.m.

For a full schedule or more information about the Hardacre Film Festival, go to www.hardacrefilmfestival.com.