Alternate fest honors first time directors who fund their films with a prayer and a stack of pre-approved credit cards

By Jeffrey Jolson

PARK CITY, UT (Hollywood Today) 1/26/08 — Sundance sister fest Slamdance for low-budget first-timers has given its top film awards to the Tom Quinn family drama “The New Year Parade” and the documentary about Neil Diamond tribute singers, “Song Sung Blue,” which also won the audience award for top doc.

The audience award for feature went to “The Project” from Ryan Piotrowicz .

“Our stated goal of premiering new films by first-time writers and directors working within the creative confines of limited budgets remains intact, said Slamdance president Peter Baxter. “Sepherding bright new talent is the main reason for our existence, and we could not be happier that many of our filmmaker’s efforts are paying off.”

The Slamdance winners list is as follows. The Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature was won by “The New Year Parade” directed by Tom Quinn; Special Jury Honorable Mention for Narrative Feature was “How To Be” directed by Oliver Irving; Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature went to “Song Sung Blue” directed by Greg Kohs and the Special Jury Honorable Mention for Documentary Feature went to “My Mother¹s Garden” directed by Cynthia Lester.

Other prizes went included the Grand Jury Award for Best Animated Short for “Blood Will Tell” directed by Andrew McPhillips; Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short, “The Ladies” directed by C.A. Voros; Grand Jury Award for Best Experimental Short, “Doxology” directed by Michael Langan; Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short, “Son” directed by Daniel Mulloy and the Special Jury Honorable Mention for Narrative Short went to “4960″ directed by Wing-Yee Wu.