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Posts tagged with Truly Moving Picture Award

Chimpanzee is a new Truly Moving Picture Award winner!

We are excited to announce that the upcoming documentary Chimpanzee is the latest film to become a Truly Moving Picture Award winner. Tim Allen narrates the gorgeous adventure of a baby chimpanzee named Oscar and how he grew up in the dangerous world of the jungle. The movie is able to capture some of the most authentic moments of Oscar’s life like how he started to explore and struggled to break open those delicious nuts.

What our jury really responded to was the emotional connections between the chimpanzees in the tribe. When it seemed that Oscar would be lost and alone, there was a shocking turn of events that even surprised the experts. Everyone in the jury was awed by the natural beauty of the film from the cute little chimps to the glorious massive waterfalls. Chimpanzee is a film that was able to depict a new sort of family while giving an educational insight to a fascinating creature’s lifestyle that will inspire all ages through its wondrous images. Catch the film when it hits theaters on April 20!

The Way is a deserving Truly Moving Picture Award winner!

There is a story behind how The Way came to be the 2011 Heartland Film Festival’s Opening Night Event, and it starts just over a year ago. Last year, right before the 2010 Heartland Film Festival, producer David Alexanian dropped a copy of the film off to Ray Mills, the Festival Artistic Director. David had just come from the Toronto International Film Festival, and was hoping we could squeeze it into our line-up. It was impossible for us to adjust our schedule at that time, but it ended up working out in the end!

We had the TMPA jury screen the film, so that when it was picked up for distribution we could give it the attention it deserved. The jury loved the film. They appreciated the rolling landscapes and the meditative pace, but especially the story of a father yearning to reconnect with his estranged son in a powerful way. Bolstered by strong performances and a fitting soundtrack, they felt that it perfectly matched the requirements of a Truly Moving Picture Award winner.

Then came the wait. As their distribution timeline became clearer, it started looking like we might be able to really love on the film in a big way. As Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez and David Alexanian plotted their bus tour across the country, it all gelled perfectly and we had the chance to highlight the TMPA winner at our Opening Night Event!

Indy friends – If you weren’t able to attend one of the two sold-out showings during the Festival, be sure to catch it at either the AMC Castleton Square 14 theater or the AMC Showplace 17 theater on the south side. Coincidence that it’s playing at both of our Festival theaters? I think not!

Puss in Boots is a TMPA winner!

We’re excited to announce Puss in Boots as our most recent TMPA winner! This beautifully animated adventure film comes to us courtesy of Dreamworks Animation and Paramount Pictures, who last year brought us How To Train Your Dragon.

Puss in Boots tells the story of Puss, an adventurous rogue who is currently an outlaw. Only by embarking on a perilous journey with Humpty Dumpty and Kitty Softpaws can he hope to clear his name, and right the wrong that landed him in trouble with the law.

Our TMPA jury loved the film, laughing the entire time as they marveled at the technical wizardry capable of putting beautiful landscapes on the screen, particularly with 3D that enhanced rather than detracted from the experience. And while they were entertained by the story and characters, they felt that the story of reconciliation, second chances and the redemption of a troubled friendship was strong enough to meet the standards of the Award, particularly for the audiences that will enjoy the film. For those reasons, we are delighted to add Puss in Boots to our list of TMPA winners!

We recently chatted with the director of the film, Chris Miller. Click here to listen to the full interview!

Warrior recieves the TMPA!

Warrior, from Lionsgate, is set to be released on September 9, and we’re excited to announce it as our newest Truly Moving Picture Award winner! The film stars Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison and Noah Emmerich in a story about two disparate brothers who end up painfully reuniting in the violent world of MMA.

Our Truly Moving Picture Award jury was thoroughly impressed with the film, as it explores difficult issues like broken families in a thoughtful and meaningful manner. The acting and set design reeled them in and engaged them with the story. The tale of destroyed relationships slowly being rebuilt, while set against the violent backdrop of mixed martial arts, was ultimately redemptive and powerful. Simultaneously, the violence was never glorified or titillating, and was instead appropriate for the story while remaining brutal. This TMPA winner is much more than another retread through a violent sport, and is a powerful and engaging human story told on a basic, familial level.  We are very excited to announce Warrior as worthy of the Truly Moving Picture Award!

Sarah’s Key Expands Tomorrow!

The Truly Moving Picture Award-winning film Sarah’s Key is expanding to more cities on Friday, August 5! The film has made a splash in its limited release over the course of the past two weeks, and will be going to San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Austin, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs. Stay tuned for more cities on August 12, including Indianapolis!

Read more about Sarah’s Key and hear the TMPA jury’s thoughts on why the film received the Truly Moving Picture Award.

TMPA winners coming to DVD/Blu-ray in August

Three of this year’s Truly Moving Picture Award winners are coming to DVD and Blu-ray this month! Jane Eyre was released by Focus Features back in March, and now this evocative and atmospheric adaptation of the classic literary tale is hitting stores on DVD and Blu-ray on August 16! Pre-order it on DVD or Blu-ray today!

Another TMPA winner, which was released on April 15 by Roadside Attractions, is The Conspirator. This historical drama focusing on the trial of Mary Surratt, accused co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, will also hit store shelves on August 16. Pre-order it on DVD or Blu-ray now!

The Music Never Stopped, which released in March through Roadside Attractions, will be available on August 2. The music-focused drama about the relationship between a father and his son will be available on DVD!

Sarah’s Key Expands this Friday!

After a great opening week in NYC & LA, Sarah’s Key will expand to more cities nationwide this Friday. The film is scheduled to open in the following cities:

Batimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington, D.C. and West Palm. We hope to announce more cities in the coming weeks!

Read more about Sarah’s Key and hear the TMPA jury’s thoughts on why the film received the Truly Moving Picture Award.

The Help is a TMPA winner!

We’re excited to announce that The Help is a Truly Moving Picture Award winner! The film will be released on August 10 in theaters around the country. The Help is based on the explosive book of the same name, and is brought to the big screen by Dreamworks and Disney.

The Help revolves around the town of Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960′s. Skeeter (Emma Stone) is strongly determined to go to college and get a job, despite the pressure from her mother and upper crust friends to find a rich husband and settle down. As she begins writing for the local newspaper she becomes troubled by some of the blaring social issues in the town: the mistreatment and abuse of the black women who keep house and raise the children of the rich families. With the help of Aibileen (Viola Davis) she starts collecting the stories she’ll need to publish her book and set Jackson on fire.

Our Truly Moving Picture Award jury found the film absolutely delightful. The subject matter is necessary and still relevant today, and they were especially impressed with how sensitively the film handled such a difficult topic. The jury felt that there wasn’t a single weak performance from the ensemble cast, and rich period details helped involve them in the themes that were presented. For a film based on a book, it couldn’t have been done any better!

Sarah’s Key wins the Truly Moving Picture Award!

We’re excited to announce Sarah’s Key as our most recent TMPA winner! The film, released by The Weinstein Company, is currently playing in select cities and will expand in the coming weeks.

The movie tells two stories, the first being the story of a journalist, Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas) researching for an article about the Vel’ d’Hiv  Roundup in 1942. In Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War, French police arrested tens of thousands of French Jews to be sent off to various Nazi camps. As Julia delves deeper into the history she discovers her own personal connections to the events of 1942.

The second story is about Sarah (Mélusine Mayance), a ten-year-old girl living in Paris in 1942. Her family is rounded up by the police, and in desperation she hides her younger brother in the closet. As Sarah and her parents are moved to a camp, she realizes she must escape to free her brother. Both stories unfold as Sarah desperately tries to deal with the trauma of what she’s done and the events around her, and Julia tries to reconcile the awful history of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup with her own life.

Our TMPA jury was enamored with the film, even though the subject matter is heavy and difficult to process. In a rare unanimous vote they elected to give Sarah’s Key the Award. The gripping nature of the story engaged them while it educated them about this forgotten piece of history. The personal stories of Julia and Sarah give a face to the historical events. Strong period details combined with beautiful cinematography provide an engrossing mise en scène that allowed the jury to fully experience the story. They also found it fascinating how one story set in motion by a small girl, branched out and touched so many people’s lives, even decades into the future.  For all these reasons, and more, we are enthusiastic to announce Sarah’s Key’s receipt of the Truly Moving Picture Award! Check out the trailer below.

What is the Truly Moving Picture Award program?

Tim Irwin, TMPA Program Director

The Truly Moving Picture Award (TMPA) is one of Heartland’s three program areas, alongside the Heartland Film Festival and the Heartland Institute.  You might have seen the TMPA seal in various places, maybe on DVD’s or on the posters of certain films, or in the print ads that run in newspapers.  So what exactly is the TMPA program, and how is it different from the Festival?

The TMPA program focuses on theatrically released films. Whereas the Festival honors independent films that have not been picked up by a distributor (and therefore probably won’t make it to a theater near you), the Truly Moving Picture Award is given to films produced or distributed by the big (or medium-sized) studios.  Most of the films that receive the Award will play in a theater near you, or at least in select large cities.

So how do films receive the Award? Good question! Basically, we work with the studios and arrange an early screening of their films that are coming out (the earlier we see them, the better for you!). We have a jury located in Indianapolis that sees the film and discusses whether or not it should receive the Award.  The jury is comprised of people from a variety of backgrounds, and all of them go through our educational credentialing process. Our goal is to promote positive change in people’s lives through the transformative power of film, so the jury’s task is to determine whether or not each film aligns with that mission!



What happens after we award a film? We let you know! Our purpose is to keep you informed of all the upcoming films that align with our mission. As a result we help the studio promote the film by providing information to you on a consistent basis. We’ll let you know where and when each Award winner is playing, and will occasionally conduct audio interviews with the filmmakers so that you can engage with the film on a deeper level. We also create a discussion guide for each film that can help you fully explore the movie as you talk with family and friends after seeing it.  For a select few films that are geared for a youth audience and have an associated book, we create a full F.I.L.M. curriculum.

Stick around!  We’ll soon be providing information about each upcoming TMPA winner, with details about the film and why it was given the Award. We’ll also have more details about the TMPA program, who our jurors are, and the process through which they become jurors.

Heartland Truly Moving Pictures and Kiwanis International are a Perfect Match

We at Heartland are excited about our new partnership with Kiwanis International. Kiwanians are dedicated to making a difference one child and one community at a time, and Heartland believes that one film can make a difference in the world. In each case, both of our organizations believe that meaningful results begin with one person taking action.

That’s why Heartland has begun co-branding specific movie discussion guides with Kiwanis. We’re excited to offer Kiwanis members specific youth service ideas and character development activities rooted in the themes of some of our Truly Moving Picture Award-winning films.

To kick off our great new partnership we’ve worked with Kiwanis on the following discussion guides:

Service suggestions include ideas ranging from becoming a reading tutor in a local school to getting involved with an equestrian therapy program close to home to hosting a toy drive for a local children’s hospital or home. There are so many ways that movies can inspire us to get involved and we are so pleased to have such an active partner ready to use our resources to engage their members who are already making a difference.

While our co-branded discussion guides can be used by anyone, not just Kiwanis members, be sure to check out what Kiwanis is doing in your community and learn how you can get involved.

83rd Annual Academy Awards: Winners and Highlights

Hollywood’s big night has come and gone once again and we’re so excited for all of the TMPA and Festival winners and nominees!

Our #1 TMPA of 2010, The King’s Speech, was the big winner of the evening taking home Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. (Have you heard our interview with Best Director winner Tom Hooper?)

Toy Story 3 charmed the Academy and took home Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song for “We Belong Together”.

The most pleasant surprise of the evening was 2010 HFF Award Winner, God of Love, winning for Live Action Short film. Filmmaker Luke Matheny charmed the crowd with one of the most heart-felt and humorous acceptance speeches of the evening. Watch below!

Congratulations to all the other nominees including Winter’s Bone, Rabbit Hole, How to Train Your Dragon, Sun Come Up and Waste Land!

83rd Annual Academy Award Winners

Best Picture
The King’s Speech

Actor in a Leading Role
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale – The Fighter

Actress in a Leading Role
Natalie Portman – Black Swan

Actress in a Supporting Role
Melissa Leo – The Fighter

Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 3

Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland

Cinematography
Inception

Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland

Directing
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech

Documentary Feature
Inside Job

Documentary Short
Strangers No More

Film Editing
The Social Network

Foreign Language Film
In a Better World

Makeup
The Wolfman

Original Score
The Social Network

Original Song
“We Belong Together” – Toy Story 3

Animated Short Film
The Lost Thing

Live Action Short Film
God of Love

Sound Editing
Inception

Sound Mixing
Inception

Visual Effects
Inception

Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network

Original Screenplay
The King’s Speech