27th Annual Nantucket Film Festival Announces Honorees, Signature Programs

The Nantucket Film Festival (NFF) announced today honorees for the 27th annual edition and the 2022 Screenwriters Tribute, as well as additional guests and Signature Programs for this year’s Festival. The 27th Nantucket Film Festival (NFF) will take place June 22-27, 2022, celebrating the vast diversity of human experience through the art of screenwriting and storytelling in cinema, on a beautiful island rich with history.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins will receive the Screenwriters Tribute Award at the 2022 Screenwriter Tribute Ceremony. Jenkins was awarded Best Director and Best Limited Series in the AACFA TV Honors 2021 for co-writing and directing all ten episodes of the award-nominated adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winner Colson Whitehead’s THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. In addition, Jenkins is the recipient of the 2022 USC Libraries Literary Achievement Award which recognizes his contributions to cinematic storytelling. Most recently, Jenkins was awarded the prestigious BAFTA Television Award for Best International Series. Jenkins’ feature films include the Independent Spirit and Gotham Award-nominated MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY, and the Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning Best Picture MOONLIGHT. His third feature, an adaptation of James Baldwin’s IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK went on to receive three Academy Award nominations and won Best Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards. Jenkins also received the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director. Jenkins’ upcoming work includes a follow-up to THE LION KING for Walt Disney Studios as well as a biopic of famed choreographer, Alvin Ailey, for Searchlight Pictures. Previous Screenwriter Tribute Award recipients include: Noah Baumbach, Nancy Meyers, Leslie Dixon, Tom McCarthy, Oliver Stone, David O. Russell, Judd Apatow, Paul Haggis, Aaron Sorkin, and Steve Martin, among others. The Screenwriters Tribute will take place on Saturday, June 25th at the Siasconset Casino.

NFF will honor Emmy Award-winning actor, screenwriter, director, and producer John Turturro with the Compass Rose Award for Career Achievement to celebrate his body of work which spans over 35 years. Turturro has performed in Spike Lee’s DO THE RIGHT THING, and JUNGLE FEVER, Martin Scorsese’s THE COLOR OF MONEY, Robert Redford’s QUIZ SHOW, Robert De Niro’s THE GOOD SHEPHERD, Tom DiCillo’s BOX OF MOONLIGHT, Nanni Moretti’s MIA MADRE, and THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Turturro won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and the David Donatello Award for his lead role in the Coen Brothers’ BARTON FINK. Currently, he can be seen in THE BATMAN playing Carmine Falcone. He received the Camera D’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival for MAC, his directorial debut. Other films as director/ writer include ILLUMINATA, ROMANCE & CIGARETTES, PASSIONE, FADING GIGOLO, and THE JESUS ROLLS. On Television, Turturro performed in the award-nominated series Monday Night Mayhem and The Bronx is Burning. He won an Emmy Award for Monk and was nominated for a Golden Globe, a SAG Award, and an Emmy for HBO’s The Night Of. He currently stars in the AppleTV+ series Severance as Irving Bailiff. Ben Stiller, who directed and executive produced Severance, will present Turturro with the Award. Previous recipients of this Award include: Molly Shannon, Meg Ryan, Kelsey Grammer, Robert Duvall, and Vera Farmiga.

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ramin Bahrani will be honored with the Special Achievement Documentary Storytelling Award. Bahrani was nominated for an Oscar for Adapted Screenplay for his film THE WHITE TIGER, and is also known for his films including CHOP SHOP, 99 HOMES, GOODBYE SOLO and MAN PUSH CART all of which he wrote and directed. His film 2ND CHANCE, an exploration of the life and legacy of Richard Davis, the sharp and brash inventor of the modern-day bulletproof vest who shot himself 192 times to prove his product worked, will screen at the Festival. Previous recipients of this Award include: Davis Guggenheim, Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Steve James, Liz Garbus, Morgan Neville, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady and more.

The New Voices in Screenwriting Award will be presented to Cooper Raiff, actor, writer, and director of the breakout hit film CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH, which will also screen at NFF. CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH, starring Raiff, Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, Brad Garrett, Vanessa Burghardt and Raúl Castillo, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to widespread acclaim and was the recipient of the Audience Award. Apple Original Films is releasing CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH on June 17, 2022 in theaters and on AppleTV+. Raiff’s debut feature SHITHOUSE, which he also wrote, directed and starred in won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival and was released later that year by IFC Films. Previous recipients of the New Voices in Screenwriting Award include: Recent Academy Award-winner Siân Heder, Mike Cahill, Leslye Headland, Michael Arndt, Ben Queen, Lake Bell, Geremy Jasper, among others.

“It is with great honor that The Nantucket Film Festival is able to recognize, in-person, the incredible work of the industry’s screenwriters, storytellers, actors, and filmmakers,” said Mystelle Brabbée, Executive Director of the Festival. “This year we are thrilled to be recognizing the talented honorees John Turturro, Ramin Bahrani, and Cooper Raiff for the impact their work has made on American Cinema. We are also thrilled to be singling out a truly gifted voice in Hollywood, Barry Jenkins, with our Screenwriter Tribute Award.”

NFF also announced additional Signature Programs, with the return of Late Night Storytelling on Friday, June 24th, hosted by comedian, writer, and host of NPR’s long running Ask Me Another Ophira Eisenberg. Guests will enjoy the hilarious and rollicking experience of stories with the theme of Keep Calm and Carry On. “The world has turned upside down. It’s nuts out here and we all feel it. Stories of madness, mayhem and meditation.”

On Friday, June 24th, 2022, actor, director, producer, and writer John Turturro will also present a staged reading from his new script Howard Beach, followed by an “In Their Shoes Conversation…®” with Turturro. John will also participate with Ben Stiller in a screening of an episode of Apple TV +’s Severance on Saturday, June 25th, followed by a Q & A.

NFF will host its annual “Morning Coffee With…®” from Thursday, June 23rd through Sunday, June 26th. On Sunday, there will be a Special Extended Morning Coffee With…® filmmakers Peter Farrelly and George Pelecanos interviewed by Chris Matthews. Festival audiences will start their day alongside some of the most talented writers, actors, directors and producers in the film industry at the brand new resort and restaurant Sister Ship at Faraway.

For the first time ever, the Festival has launched a program initiative that will showcase environmentally-focused films. The Green Carpet Cinema, will kick off with a conversation with Maria Mitchell Association visiting scientist, Dr. Rich Blundell, Sara Dosa, the director of FIRE OF LOVE and Cecil Barron Jensen of ReMain Nantucket, hosted by Marc Skivrsky. The talk will be followed by screenings in the Green Carpet Cinema program throughout the week starting with the Opening Night Film FIRE OF LOVE, FASHION REIMAGINED, TO THE END, and THE TERRITORY. This initiative will promote films and intimate conversations about new ways to aid and support sustainability and address climate change.

NFF will also host Women Behind The Words on Wednesday June 23, 2022, a conversation focused on the gender and equality shift in films, television, and the arts. Hosted by Bethany Van Delft. The event will bring fresh perspectives to the conversation along with stories “from the front.”

The festival will present a Skate Jam event on Saturday, June 25th, 2022. The event will feature US Olympic Skateboarder, star of the Feature Documentary SKATE DREAMS, and Massachusetts native Nora Vasconcillos, amongst others who will be in attendance. Guests can enjoy giveaways, ice cream, and skate-boarding at this free community event.

The Nantucket Film Festival Board of Directors will present The Screenwriters Roundtable with Lulu Wang, Barry Jenkins and Ramin Bahrani. This conversation will give the audience an in-depth and revealing glimpse into the work of these major screenwriters and film artists.

Last month, the Festival announced the Feature Film lineup for 2022 with over 60 feature and short selections. The festival will be opening with FIRE OF LOVE, directed by Sara Dosa; closing with LINOLEUM, written and directed by Colin West. The Centerpiece film will be 892, co-written and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin. The Festival will also be opening Family Day with the feature films LIGHTYEAR, written by Jason Headley, and MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, co-written and directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp.

The 27th Annual Nantucket Film Festival runs from June 22-27, 2022. Festival passes and ticket packages are on sale now. The schedule will be announced on May 18th and individual tickets will be on sale on Wednesday, May 25th. More information can be found on the Festival’s website.

ABOUT THE NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL
The Nantucket Film Festival was founded by brother and sister team Jonathan and Jill Burkhart in 1996 to celebrate the vast diversity of human experience through the art of screenwriting and storytelling. Since then, NFF has become one of the world’s premier destination film festivals. Visitors come from all over the world to experience new films, unique Signature Programs, and stand out hospitality on a magical island rich with history, a friendly atmosphere, and beautiful sandy beaches. In addition to its June festival, NFF presents Screenwriter Sessions, with partner Screenwriters Colony; and the Tony Cox Screenplay Competitions.
The Nantucket Film Festival is supported by White Elephant Resorts as Major Sponsor; A&E IndieFilms, Bank of America, Delta Air Lines, and Faraway Nantucket as Signature Sponsors; Douglas Elliman, Apple Original Films, The Inquirer and Mirror and WB Mason as Producing Sponsors; and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Barbour, Hertz, Tradewind Aviation, InterContinental Insurance Brokers, Montana Film Office, Nantucket Resort Collection, Polar Beverages, Seastreak and WGA East as Contributing Sponsors.