The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual

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film festival held each March in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

and

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

. The international festival combines the cinematic arts with

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’s innovation. It is produced by Cinequest, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that is also responsible for Picture The Possibilities and the distribution label Cinequest Mavericks Studio LLC. Cinequest awards the annual Maverick Spirit Awards. In addition to over 130 world or U.S. premieres from over 30 countries, the festival hosts writer's events including screenwriting competitions, a shorts program, technology and artistic forums and workshops, student programs, and a silent film accompanied on the

theatre organ A theatre organ (also known as a theater organ, or, especially in the United Kingdom, a cinema organ) is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Theatre organs have horseshoe-shaped arrangements o ...

. Founded in 1990 as the Cinequest Film Festival, the festival was rebranded in 2017 as the Cinequest Film & VR Festival and expanded beyond downtown San Jose to Redwood City. It took its present name in 2019.

History

Filmmakers

Halfdan Hussey Halfdan Hussey is the director and co-founder of Cinequest Inc, and the CEO of Cinequest Maverick Studio LLC. He is the author of ''To The Dogs'' and ''7 Powers of Creating'' and the film director, and producer of ''Life is Love'' and ''Seizing ...

and Kathleen Powell founded Cinequest in 1990. That year the festival showed 60 films in a single theater, the Camera 3 Cinemas in San Jose; 3,000 people attended. By 2013 there were 100,000 attendees. In 2014 the festival showed 84 world premieres, by film makers in 43 countries, including one filmed using an iPhone. The festival expanded to ten days in 2000, Cinequest Online was launched in 2004 and Cinequest Mavericks Studio in 2010. and in 2017 changed its name to the Cinequest Film & VR Festival, to reflect the major role of

in developing

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

. In 2019, the festival was rebranded as Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival and occurred March 5 – 17, 2019. That year it held events at the California Theatre, Hammer Theatre Center, Camera 3 Cinemas, Redwood City Century Downtown 20, and Fairmont Hotel. In 2019, the festival was again renamed to the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival in recognition of the many creative experiences presented each year including film, virtual and augmented realities, comedy, television, fashion, art and design, dance, and more. The 30th-anniversary 2020 festival, scheduled for March 3 – 15, 2020 in San Jose and Redwood City, has Elation as its theme; the second week was postponed to August because of the

COVID-19 outbreak The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. Cinequest Film Festival has gained a reputation as a discovery event:

Chris Gore Christopher Patrick Gore (born September 5, 1965) is an American speaker and writer on the topic of independent film. Life and career Gore was born in Big Rapids, Michigan and attended Kimball High School in Royal Oak, Michigan. Gore is the head ...

's ''Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide'' recommends it as showing "the future of film".

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readers voted Cinequest as the best Film Festival.

Awards

Cinequest offers several awards during the festival season. The Maverick Spirit Awards, the Maverick Innovator Awards, and the Media Legacy Awards highlight notable individuals in film and technology. The Maverick Individual awards are given to films at the conclusion of the festival via jury and audience voting.

Maverick Spirit Awards

The Maverick Spirit Award is given to influential individuals who embody the independent and innovative mindset. It is the most prestigious award given at the Cinequest Film Festival. Over the past 27 years, Cinequest has honored the following artists:

Maverick Innovator Awards

The Media Innovator Award honors technologists whose thoughts, methods and innovations have significantly advanced their industries, their careers, and the world. Cinequest has honored the following people:

Media Legacy Awards

The Media Legacy Award, inaugurated in 2014, honors film journalists, "the champions who provide audiences and, thus, life blood for artists and films". Cinequest has honored the following people:

Film Awards

Several awards are given on the closing night of the festival to individual films selected either by a panel of judges or by audience surveys and votes. The most noteworthy awards are: *Top Film - Awarded to the best film in any category *Best Documentary Feature *Best First Feature - Awarded for a director's first feature-length film *Best Short Narrative Film *Audience Favorite Narrative - Awarded to the most popular narrative film based on audience surveys and screening attendance *Audience Favorite Documentary - Awarded to the most popular documentary film based om audience surveys and screening attendance Listed below are all of Cinequest's awards: Maverick Film Competition *Maverick Spirit Award (Feature Film) *Best First Feature *Best Documentary Feature *Best Short Narrative *Best Short Animation *Best Short Documentary *Best Student Short New Visions Program *New Visions Award (Feature Film) Global Landscapes *Global Vision Award (Feature Film) Screenplay Competition *Screenplay Award (1st, 2nd, and 3rd places recognized) Audience Award *Audience Award Narrative Feature *Audience Award Documentary Feature *Audience Award Short Film Also awarded at Cinequest: Kaiser Permanente Thrive Award

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...

Thrive Award is given to the most inspiring and life affirming film. Virtual and Augmented Reality Awards * Best Immersive * Best VR Film * Best AR Experience * Best Game * Best Mixed or Volumetric Reality

Notable debuts

Independent films that premiered at Cinequest and went on to further distribution by a major

movie studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

Oscar nominees

Cinequest is a qualifying festival, with the Best Narrative Short and Best Animated Short both being eligible for an Academy Award. Short films shown at Cinequest that have received nominations for

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

include: Films shown at Cinequest that have received nominations for

include:

References

External links

Official site
{{coord missing, Santa Clara County, California Culture of San Jose, California Film festivals in the San Francisco Bay Area Film festivals established in 1990 1990 establishments in California Tourist attractions in San Jose, California Internet film festivals