I am one of the lead programmers for the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, IN. We just drew about 24,000 in attendance at our festival which ended a couple of weeks ago with 227 screening of 43 Features and 42 Shorts. Heartland awards 12 filmmakers every year with the Crystal Heart award Five dramatic feature filmmakers each receive $7500, five documentary feature filmmakers receive $5000 each and seven short filmmakers receive $2500. We give out one of the largest single cash awards of any festival or the grand prize. The top Dramatic Feature filmmaker receives $100,000 The documentary feature grand prize is 25,000 and the Vision award for shorts is $10,000.

2009 Winners:

Dramatic Feature: Philippe Lioret for WELCOME

Documentary Feature: Gabriel Noble for P-STAR RISING

Short: Dean Yamada for JITENSHA (BICYCLE)