Five ashland independent film festival Film Selections Receive Academy Award Nominations

Of the over 80 documentary, feature and short films to be included in the 2007 ashland independent film festival,four were nominated for Academy Awards. Two films featured in the 2006 AIFF were also nominated for Oscars. The full slate of films for the April 12-16 festival will not be announced until late February.

In the Best Documentary Short Subject category, two of the four films nominated for Oscars are programmed at the 2007 AIFF - The Blood of Yingzhou District and Recycled Life. In the Best Animated Short Subject category, the festival's The Danish Poet, and The Little Match Girl were both nominated. For the first time, films from previous festivals have also been nominated. Last year's Binta and the Great Idea and West Bank Story and were both nominated for 2007 Best Live Action Short Films. See more information on 2007 films below.

This a sensitive portrait of a hidden AIDS epidemic in China, a country not commonly associated with the disease. The film focuses on a young AIDS orphan, Gao Jin, who reveals his resolve to live while his extended family weighs whether or not to keep him. The documentary tells the story of traditional Chinese obligations of family and village colliding with terror of infection, and how these forces play out in the lives of children in the country’s remote areas. The Blood of Yingzhou District won Documentary RX Global Health Documentary Grand Jury Prize and was an official selection at the United Nations Association Film Festival, SILVERDOCS: The AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and Mill Valley Film Festival.

This powerful film illuminates the lives of the thousands of families who live and work in the Guatemala City Garbage Dump. For over sixty years, children have been born and raised there. Thousands of people have thrived in the largest and most toxic and dangerous area in Central America. The dump, and its inhabitants who recycle the city's trash, have been shunned by society and ignored by the government. Then a disastrous methane explosion forever changed this landfill and the people who call it home. Recycled Life won the Best Short Documentary at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival and was an official selection at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin Texas; the Human Rights Festival in Bologna, Italy; and the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Do little things matter? Best animated nominee The Danish Poet traces life's peculiar coincidences. In this Canada/Norway production, Kasper, a young poet in search of inspiration, travels to Norway to meet the celebrated writer, Sigrid Undset. Animator Torill Kove's quirky love story is narrated by Liv Ullmann and drawn on paper with computer rendering in the same signature style Kove displayed in her My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, nominated for an Academy Award in 2000. The Danish Poet won the Audience Favorite Award at the Aspen Shortsfest and the C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures Award for Best Animated Short at the Worldwide Short Film Festival and Best Animated Short at the New York City Short Film Festival. The film has been featured at 30 film festivals around the world.

The Little Match Girl is an animated short based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a poor young girl with a burning desire to find comfort and happiness in her life. Desperate to keep warm, the girl lights the matches she sells, and envisions a very different life for herself in the fiery flames filled with images of loving relatives, bountiful food, and a place to call home.

These winners will be celebrated at the AIFFs annual Oscar Night Gala and Silent Auction at the Historic Ashland Armory, Sunday, February 25, 4-9p. Celebrate in style on Hollywood's biggest night with the Academy Awards broadcast projected on two 30 ft screens and concert quality sound. Food from Pilaf Restaurant is included and wine and beer will be available at the no host bar. The evening will also feature a Silent Auction offering a vast array of items donated by businesses from the Rogue Valley and beyond. The Oscar Night Gala has sold out in the past. Gather nine friends to reserve your own table or purchase individual tickets by calling 541.488.3823.