GREENWOOD LAKE – The 14th Annual Hoboken International Film Festival celebrated its closing night and awards gala, Thursday evening, after a weeklong stay in Greenwood Lake.
Chairman Kenneth Del Vecchio said the week went very well and was sold out for the opening and closing nights. Del Vecchio speculates there were about 1,000 visitors on those two nights and hundreds in between.
Hosting the gala was comedian, actor and voice-actor Gilbert Gottfried and a special award for Excellence in Acting was given to co-star of the cult-film “Dazed and Confused” Jason London.
London has since done other features, such as “Poor White Trash” and has appeared on the Hallmark channel. He said he wasn’t sure why he’d received an award but was happy to be in Greenwood Lake supporting his friend Del Vecchio.
“I’m glad to talk about the award, I just don’t understand exactly what it is,” said London. “I’m so honored to be able to be here and be a part of the festival. I won best supporting actor for a film a few years ago with Ken, so when he got a hold of me and said they were doing this, there’s no way I could say no to it and coming back to this beautiful place.”
The final night’s awards gala supported 15 categories, including best actor, best actress, best cinematographer, best editor, best director, best short film, best supporting actor, best supporting actress and best screenplay, among others; but, the most drawing, he said, was for the award of best feature film.
Del Vecchio said much like the academy awards, there is a jury that determines which of the 1,500 films made it to the remaining 150 for nominations.
