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NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL EMBRACES NON-FICTION WITH NEWLY ANNOUNCED FILM PROGRAM

Screenwriting festival opens and closes with documentary films With New Venues and New Programs unveiled for 2006 The Eleventh Annual Festival Takes Place June 14-18

Screenwriting festival opens and closes with documentary films With New Venues and New Programs unveiled for 2006 The Eleventh Annual Festival Takes Place June 14-18

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New York, NY – The Nantucket Film Festival (NFF) ® announced today the program of films and events for the 11th annual festival to be held June 14-18, 2006. The Opening Night film this year will be the documentary Al Franken: God Spoke from directors Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus. The Closing Night film will be the documentaryThe Heart of the Game from director Ward Serrill. The centerpiece film will be the documentary Ground Truth from director Patricia Foulkrod with never-before-seen footage.

“For NFF11, we chose to focus on the art of storytelling in the documentary form,” said Co-Founder and Executive Director, Jill Burkhart. “ What we find so exciting is that non-fiction filmmaking is borrowing the storytelling engines usually reserved for fiction films, giving docs an extraordinary power.”

Artistic Director, Mystelle Brabbée, said, “The fact that we have decided to celebrate the up-and-coming power of documentaries does not mean that we still are not foremost a festival devoted to the art of screenwriting.”

In response to the record-breaking sales and attendance at last year’s festival, the Nantucket Film Festival has added some new and larger venues, expanding its stretch and accessibility across the island. New for this year will be the 450-seat tent on the lawn of The White Elephant. The tent will be home to “Late Night Storytelling”, one of the audience favorites among NFF’s special events, and the “NBC Universal Screenwriters Tribute”. Also announced, the beautiful Sconset Casino will serve as one of NFF’s screening venues while the Dreamland Theater is under renovation. Among the programs dedicated to screenwriting, the Nantucket Film Festival introduces a new panel called "A Film is Written Three Times" to emphasize that screenwriting doesn’t begin and end with the script. A film is written a second time by the director and a third time in the editing room.

As previously announced, the writing team of Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne will be the NBC Universal Screenwriter Honorees for the 2006 Nantucket Film Festival. Paul Giamatti, Virginia Madsen, and Thomas Haden Church will be on island to fete Payne and Taylor. The tribute will be followed by an In Their Shoes® conversation on screenwriting with Mr. Payne and Mr. Alexander, hosted by Leonard Maltin on Sunday.

The Opening Night Film will be the documentary Al Franken: God Spoke directed by Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus. From Pennebake Hegedus Films, Al Franken: God Spoke is a cinema vérité pursuit of Al Franken from his highly publicized feud with Bill O’Reilly to his relentless campaign against George Bush and the Right Wing during the 2004 election, and beyond.

The Closing Night Film will be the documentaryThe Heart of the Game directed by Ward Serrill. From Woody Creek Productions, The Heart of the Game follows the Roosevelt Roughriders, a girls' high-school basketball team in Seattle, and one player in particular whose off-court struggles threaten to destroy her dream of being the first person in her family to get a college education.

The Films of the 2006 Nantucket Film Festival®:

Feature Films

Al Franken: God Spoke
Black Gold
The Chances of the World Changing
Conversations With Other Women
Disappearances
Dreamland
Edmond
F*ck
Ground Truth
Half Nelson
The Heart of the Game
Homefront
The House of Sand
The Illusionist
In Debt We Trust
loudQUIETloud
Man Push Cart
Opal Dream
Quinceañera
A Simple Curve
Today’s Man
The Trials of Darryl Hunt
Two Square Miles
The Undeserved
What Remains
Wide Awake
Wordplay
Wrestling With Angels
Wristcutters


2006 Nantucket Film Festival® Programs:

In addition to the NBC Universal Screenwriter Tribute and “In Their Shoes” interview, the Nantucket Film Festival will feature a line-up of its signature programs and events, including “Morning Coffee With”, “Screening on the Beach”, and “Late Night Storytelling”.

As one of the most popular events at NFF, “Late Night Storytelling” showcases five surprise storytellers and a handful of audience members who are given only five minutes to tell their “LOST AND FOUND” stories. Pete Farrelly and Ann Meara are returning to co-host this hilarious event.

Nantucket Film Festival® Awards
Among the awards given at NFF ® this year will be The Audience Award for Best Feature & Best Short, SHOWTIME’S TONY COX Awards for Best Screenwriting in a Feature Film and Short Film, Teen View on NFF® Award, Best Storytelling in a Documentary Film, and The Writer/Director Award.

In keeping with NFF® mission of spotlighting writers, the Festival will announce the winner of Showtime’s annual Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting in early June. The winner will be feted at the Showtime Award Ceremony at the Festival.

ABOUT NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL
The NFF was founded in 1996 to spotlight screenwriters, screenwriting and storytelling in today's cinema. The festival takes place over five days in June on the idyllic island of Nantucket, MA.

Now in its eleventh year, NFF has become a prestigious annual event within the international film industry. Screening over 50 feature-length and short films in all genres that highlight the art of storytelling, the NFF is significant attraction that draws over ten thousand attendees, screenwriters, producers, agents and development executives each year.

Screenwriting is further explored through panel discussions, a screenplay competition, an emerging screenwriter's mentorship with the Screenwriters Colony, an educational program for teens and community beach screenings. The Festival also hosts the popular evening of Late Night Storytelling (hosted by Peter Farrelly and Anne Meara and past stories told by Jim Carrey, Tina Fey, Mos Def and Paul Rudd) in addition to screenplay staged readings.

Past staged readings have included the hilarious SHOWSTOPPER by Anthony Barille & Geoffrey Nauffts including the talents of Ben Stiller and Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei. Last year’s reading, SPECTACLE, Part One of the Mark Rosen Chronicles by Stacy Weiss and Dan Chariton was directed by Ben Stiller and the cast included: Macaulay Culkin, Amy Sedaris, David Krumholtz, Lake Bell, Robert Sean Leonard, Ben Stiller and more. The coveted screenplay A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer was the centerpiece staged reading of NFF 2003 and featured Will Ferrell in the starring role with Alan Cumming, Mos Def, and Rosie Perez.

The NFF has been a showcase for some of the top independent films of the last decade. The festival was one of the first to find and platform such films as: The Full Monty, Next Stop Wonderland and Girlfight. NFF 2005 Featured the North American Premiere of Jim Jarmush's Broken Flowers as the Opening Night Film.