Cave Creek event highlights top films
Marc Buckhout ~ Managing Editor ~ 01/06/2010

Movie aficionados will get another opportunity to check out the Jury’s Picks from the 2009 Cave Creek Film and Arts Festival during a screening from 7 – 9 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center.
From 36 entries the field was narrowed to 13 entries during the fifth annual event, which took place in July.
“I remember thinking to myself, when the judges initially viewed the films, when we were only six films into it, that it was going to be really difficult to pick the winners,” Suzanne D. Johnson, the 2009 Film Chair said. “Each year the entries get better and better.”
After initially giving guidelines to the contest, the initial festival asked film makers to capture a Day in the Life of Cave Creek, the festival has been broadened the last couple years.
The main criteria for this year’s festival was that films be kept under 10 minutes in length. Other than that film makers were limited only by their imagination.
“The subject matter is totally across the board,” Johnson said. “By not being limiting with the subject matter we received entries from across the state.”
Admission to the Jan. 14 screening will be $5, with proceeds going toward the 2010 Cave Creek Film and Arts Festival. Along with film the contest includes photography, original song, visual arts, choreography and literary arts categories.
Overall the competition drew 400 entries split between a youth category, for ages 12-18 and an adult category for those 19 and over.
In the adult category a $1,000 prize was given to the winner with second place receiving $500 and third place receiving $250. In the youth category the prizes were $500 for first place, $250 for second place and $100 for third.
As the calendar changes to 2010 Johnson knows this year’s contest isn’t that far away.
“I’m already looking at candidates to be jurors for this year’s contest and the entry deadlines will be upon us before we know it,” she said. “We’ve gotten film makers that have entered in each year and then we always get a host of new ones as well. Technology has given the ability to make a movie into everybody’s hands, but a story well told is what it is all about.”
The entry deadline for this year’s contest is May 14. For information on the contest go to www.cavecreekfilmandartsfestival.com.
The Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center is located at 33606 North 60th Street, Scottsdale.