The Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival (TVIFF) announced its Jury Prize and Audience Winners on September 16, 2007 at their star-studded black tie awards gala hosted by "The Bold and the Beautiful’s" Schae Harrison and featuring appearances by Smokey Robinson and John Landis at the Pechanga Resort & Casino. Festival Executive Director Jo Moulton said “The jury awards selection was very difficult given the wide variety of exceptional films.” Below is a list of the winners:

JURY PRIZE WINNERS:

Shorts & Animation

Best Short Film: "A Little Light"
Writer/Producer/Director: Ben Zlotucha
Producer: Angie Hamilton
Exec. Producers: Greg Corbin, Michael Sagol, Tom Weissferdt
USA, 2006, 22min 30sec

Life is simple for Ernie, Parking Enforcer extraordinaire. Even gravity ‘flaking out’ and shooting random people into the sky doesn’t knock Ernie off his stride. Then he meets Alex, a no-nonsense beautiful bartender, and all bets are off. He is instantly smitten. Ernie’s life changes forever.

Best Animated Film: "One Rat Short"
Writer/Director: Alex Weil
Exec. Producer: Chris Byrnes
Producer: Bryan Godwin

The mesmerizing ballet of a discarded food wrapper leads a New York subway rat into an adventure of love and loss.

Special Jury Prize: "The Descendent"
Writer/Director: Bobby Glickert
Producers: Nick Anderson, Bobby Glickert, Rosemary Lambert
USA, 2007, 16 min, Chapman University

Two hit men are sent on a routine job to take out a target. Everything seems normal as they break into the target’s home, but they soon realize their target is more than it seems.

Special Jury Prize (international film): "Antes y Despues de Besar a Maria" (Before and After Kissing Maria)
Director: Ramon Alos
Writers: Ramon Alos & Javier Carneros
Spain, 2006, 7 min, 35mm

Before and After Kissing Maria narrates from the point of view of Raul, a 9 yr. old child from a small village in the Spanish countryside, his adventures to kiss Maria, his 12 year old cousin, who, like every summer, has come to the village to spend her holidays.

Special Jury Prize: "POP FOUL"
Producer/Director: Moon Molson
Exec. Producers: Moon Molson, Geneva Molson, Jennifer Handorf
Writer: Anthony Eleftherion
Cast: Sekuo Laidlow, Danielle K. Thomas, Steven Clark, Keith Bullard

Feature awards:

Best Picture- "Billo, Le Grand Dakhaar"
Director: Laura Muscardin
Producers: The Co producers
Writers: Marco Bonini, Mbacke Gadji, Laura Muscardin, Lucilla Schiaffino
Italy/Senegal, 2006, 110 min, 35mm

Billo is a young Senegalese man who smuggles himself to Italy. He has dreams of being a fashion designer and selling his garments to the couture market but ends up, like so many other immigrants, illegally selling CD’s and DVD’s. Billo gets arrested and is then charged with being an Islamic terrorist. He is subsequently released and gets a chance to work in the fashion industry, where he falls in love. But a life and a wife are waiting for him back in Dakar.

Best Documentary Film: "Unsettled"
Writer / Director: Adam Hootnick
Producers: Mickey Elkeles, Tony Feizen, Kevin Mangini, Yossy Tessone

During the Gaza withdrawal, three young Israelis will be forced out from their homes, two soldiers will be sent to evict them, and a one time activist will try to help her country avoid a war. Unsettled is a story about religion and democracy, soldiers and civilians, and the kids on the front lines of a battle where there is no enemy.

Special Jury Prize: "Gulf War Syndrome- Killing Our Own"
Director/Executive Producer: Gary Null
USA, 2007, 113 min

US soldiers sent to Iraq have been exposed to deadly chemicals, depleted uranium, and radiation, all causing severe and often irreversible health problems and death, while the government denies it all. Expose' on the truth about the war in Iraq, Gulf War Syndrome, and the secrets the US government is hiding from our soldiers and the world at large.

Honorable Mention: "Damned To Heaven"
Producers/Directors: Thomas Elliott, Pawel Gula

“Damned to Heaven” is the story about a polygamist religious sect located in the southwestern United States on the Utah and Arizona border, headed by self proclaimed prophet, Warren Jeffs. In May 2006, Jeffs was added to the FBI’s most wanted list. He was captured last September, and currently awaits trial in September, 2007, on two counts of first degree felony rape and the arranged marriage of a 14 year old girl to her adult cousin.

Special Jury Prize (for directing) – Jess Manafort of "The Beautiful Ordinary"

A comedy drama set in the late 90’s on the last day of school for a bunch of suburbanites

Special Jury Prize (acting) - Pascal Zullino for "Il Rabdomante" (THE WATER DIVINER)

Special Jury Prize (acting) - Douglas Smith for "Citizen Duane."

A comedy drama about a teenager in the small town of Ridgeway, who decides to try and squash years of harassment at the hands of local autocrats by running for Mayor.

AUDIENCE AWARDS WINNERS:

BEST FEATURE FILM: "Heber Holiday"
Writer/Producer/Director: McKay Daines
Writer: Cameron Daines
Producers: Michael Flynn, Brent Geisler
Cast: Torrey DeVitto, Erin Chambers, KC Clyde, Jimmy Chunga, Michael Birkeland, Thurl Bailey
USA, 2007, 95 min

The partying lifestyle of ‘high maintenance’ actress Sierra has spun out of control and her notorious on-set temper tantrums forced the director to have her whisked away to a clinic in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah – far from the urban jungle where her every whim is catered to. But she escapes and ends up in the small town of Heber, Utah. There she meets and gets to know the townspeople of Heber, and learns some of life’s most important lessons and simple pleasures. In doing so, she discovers who she really is inside, what really is important in life, and romance.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: "The Journey to Palomar" Presented by Palomar Observatory
Exec. Producers/Writers/Directors: Robin Mason, Todd Mason
USA, 2006, 38 min 24 sec

Five years in the making, the film traces the story of astronomer George Ellery Hale, considered the Father of Astrophysics, as he struggles personally and professionally to build the greatest telescopes of the 20th century at the Yerkes and Mount Wilson Observatories, and finally the 20-year effort to build the million-pound telescope on Palomar Mountain in the 1930’s. Hale’s observatories revolutionized our understanding of the universe, making headlines throughout the 20th century with revelations such as Edwin Hubble’s 1929 discovery of the expansion of the universe. The documentary includes rare archival footage and interviews with America’s top scientists and historians.

BEST SHORT: "Itsy-Bitsy"
Writer/Producer/Director: David May
Cast: Amanda Zarr, Brett Simmons
USA, 2006, 8 min 30 sec, Chapman University

Until David discovered a Goliath bird eating a spider in his kitchen, the only thing he feared was marriage.

BEST ANIMATION- "Exact Change Only"
Writer/Director/Producer: Chuck Grieb
Collaborator: Cliff Cramp
USA, 2007, 2 min 45 sec

The toll booth barrier is down; Lyle, in his ridiculously small car, cannot pass. Traffic stops, horns honk, and the world turns angry, but our mild-mannered hero has no change! It only takes one small choice, just one person, to reach out and provide the small sacrifice that will redeem the day.

In addition to announcing the festival winners, TVIFF presented awards to icons in film and music that have made significant career contributions in their fields. The awards went to soul and R&B legend Smokey Robinson, Rising star Kay Panabaker, acclaimed film actor Michael Madsen, film educator Robert Rosen, patroness of the arts Eve Craig, film composer Christopher Young, and Technicolor, the legendary company that brought color to the movies more than 90 years ago.

Smokey Robinson – Lifetime Achievement Award in Music

Kay Panabaker – Rising Star Award

Michael Madsen – Outstanding Career Achievement in Acting

Robert Rosen - Lifetime Achievement Award for Significant Contributions to Education and Film Preservation.

Eve Craig - Lifetime Achievement Award for Significant Contributions to the Advancement of the Arts and Culture in Temecula Valley.

Christopher Young - Outstanding Career Achievement in Film Composing.

Technicolor - Distinguished Institution Award.