2005 Vail Film Festival Announces Winners

2005 Vail Film Festival Announces Winners

- BestLife Feature Film Award Presented to Luke Wilson's The Wendell Baker Story -

VAIL, Colo., April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2nd annual Vail Film Festival, presented by BestLife magazine, closed its festivities with an on-mountain awards celebration, doling out awards for best feature, short, documentary, TV pilot, and student film. Additionally, the festival honored actor Kip Pardue and legendary producer Edward R. Pressman.

Sixty-four films were screened over the four days of the festival (March 31 - April 3) in the following categories: features; documentaries; shorts; student films; TV pilots; and action sports. The 2005 festival awards went to the following films:

BestLife Feature Film Award -- The Wendell Baker Story Best Documentary -- Keeper of the Kohn (David Gaynes, dir.) Best Short -- The Doorstep (Brian Paul and Jason Nacey, dirs.) Best Student Film -- Automation (Todd Albright, dir.) Best TV Pilot -- Odd Todd (Odd Todd, dir.)

BestLife Editorial Director, David Zinczenko, and Publisher, Mary Murcko, presented the BestLife Feature Film Award to Luke Wilson for the comedy The Wendell Baker Story, which Luke stars in (with brother, Owen), and wrote and directed (with brother, Andrew). On the winning film, Zinczenko stated, "This best picture award is about achievement and success, which is exactly what the BestLife lifestyle is all about."

Aside from Luke Wilson, other celebrities in attendance included Tiffani Thiessen and Giancarlo Esposito. Additionally, Vail's mayor, Rod Slifer, presented the Mayor's Lifetime Achievement Award to prolific producer Edward R. Pressman, whose esteemed career includes films such as Badlands, Wall Street, Reversal of Fortune, American Psycho and The Cooler. Kip Pardue, star of Driven, Remember the Titans, and Loggerheads, accepted the Vail Film Festival Rising Star award.

The Vail Film Festival is produced by the Vail Film Institute, a non-profit arts organization that is dedicated to fostering independent cinema and creative filmmaking. The 2005 sponsors include presenting partner BestLife magazine as well as Subaru, Redwood Creek, L'Oreal Paris Men's Expert, Realities, and United Airlines. Community Partners include the Town of Vail, Vail Resorts, Landmark Theaters, the Vail Daily, the Vail Marriott, Manor Vail, Lionshead Inn, Larkspur, the Tap Room and the Red Lion.

About BestLife Magazine

The second-fastest growing magazine in the country, BestLife is a new lifestyle magazine from Rodale Inc. targeted to active, accomplished, discerning men that offers positive, practical advice about balancing family, career and self.

Rodale Inc. also publishes Men's Health, Prevention, Runner's World, Organic Style, Organic Gardening (OG), Backpacker, Bicycling, and Mountain Bike magazines. Rodale publishes nearly 100 new books a year, most recently New York Times Bestsellers The Abs Diet, The South Beach Diet, Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars, Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss and The Wrinkle Cure.

Source: Vail Film Festival

CONTACT: Suzanne Trantow of JohnstonWells Public Relations, +1-303-623-3366, ext. 111, Strantow@JohnstonWells.com, for Vail Film Festival; or Aimee Geller Promisel of BestLife, +1-212-573-0250, aimee.geller@rodale.com

------- Profile: Ent