DALLAS, TX – The Dallas film Festival organizing committee has announced Amber Heard as the first recipient of the DALLAS Shining Star Award. The lineups for the DALLAS IFF Talk/Show panels and Film Industry Speakeasy panels with stars, filmmakers and industry veterans such as Karen Black, Garry Brown, Doug Jones, Jeff Lipsky, Stephen Nemeth and Neville Page were also announced along with the addition of Raul Inglis’ TRANSPARENCY starring Lou Diamond Phillips.
Frank Darabont has also been announced as a recipient of the DALLAS Star Award. Mel House’s’ horror thriller WALKING DISTANCE joins the film festival’s lineup and the Dallas Film Society announced the organization has received a $200,000 challenge grant.
Amber Heard will receive the DALLAS Shining Star Award prior to the screening of her film THE JONESES on Saturday, April 10 at The Angelika Film Center. The award was created with an eye toward celebrating actors, filmmakers and film artists who have delivered exceptional performances or works on film in their brief careers as well as exhibiting the potential for greater achievements to come.
At a time when most film festivals are content, if not relieved, to roll out their film program and events as scheduled, the DALLAS IFF staff has continued to announce additional honorees and highlighted films to the Film Festival leading up to the eve of the anticipated Opening Night Gala celebration encompassing the entire Angelika Film Center and all of its screens on Thursday, April 8.
Frank Darabont will receive the DALLAS Shining Star Award during “The Dallas Film Society Honors” presented by the Gail L. & Arthur E. Benjamin Foundation event on Friday, April 16 at Hotel Palomar. DALLAS IFF will also screen one of Darabont’s films followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker on Saturday 4/17 at the Studio Movie Grill.
Nominated for an Academy Award (for Best Screenplay Adaptation) for the classic THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) and twice nominated (Best Picture and Best Screenplay Adaptation) for THE GREEN MILE (1999), Darabont’s work as both writer and director for those films as well as for THE MAJESTIC (2001) and THE MIST (2007) have placed him in elite company within the filmmaking community. Darabont is currently at work on AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”
photo L-R: Amber Heard, Frank Darabont
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