Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival facts for kids

Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival

Location	San Jose and Redwood City, California United States of America
Founded	1990
Language	English

The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an exciting yearly event held every March. It takes place in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California. This international festival brings together amazing movies made by independent filmmakers with the latest ideas from Silicon Valley.

Cinequest is a non-profit group that organizes the festival. They also have projects like Picture The Possibilities and their own movie distribution company called Cinequest Mavericks Studio. The festival gives out special awards each year, like the Maverick Spirit Awards. Besides showing over 130 new movies from more than 30 countries, the festival also has many other cool events. These include writing contests, short film programs, and workshops about technology and art. There are also special programs for students and even silent films shown with live music.

The festival started in 1990 as the Cinequest Film Festival. In 2017, it changed its name to the Cinequest Film & VR Festival and grew to include Redwood City. It got its current name, Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival, in 2019.

History of Cinequest

Filmmakers Halfdan Hussey and Kathleen Powell started Cinequest in 1990. In its first year, the festival showed 60 films in just one movie theater in San Jose. About 3,000 people came to watch. By 2013, the festival had grown a lot, with 100,000 people attending. In 2014, Cinequest showed 84 brand new films from filmmakers in 43 different countries. One of these films was even made using an iPhone!

The festival became ten days long in the year 2000. Cinequest Online, a way to experience the festival online, started in 2004. In 2010, Cinequest Mavericks Studio was launched to help distribute films. In 2017, the festival changed its name to Cinequest Film & VR Festival. This change showed how important virtual reality was becoming, especially in Silicon Valley.

In 2019, the festival was renamed again to the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival. This new name recognized all the different creative things shown each year. These include films, virtual and augmented reality experiences, comedy, TV shows, fashion, art, and dance. The 30th festival was planned for March 2020. Its theme was "Elation." However, the second week had to be moved to August due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Cinequest Film Festival is known for discovering new talent and films. Film expert Chris Gore said it shows "the future of film." Also, readers of USA Today voted Cinequest as the best Film Festival.

Cinequest Awards

Cinequest gives out several awards during the festival. These awards celebrate talented people in film and technology. They also honor the best films shown at the festival.

Maverick Spirit Awards

The Maverick Spirit Award is a very special honor at Cinequest. It is given to important people who are independent and creative thinkers. Many famous artists have received this award over the years.

Some of the people who have won the Maverick Spirit Award include:

Year	Honoree
2016	Rita Moreno James Franco
2017	Fred Armisen Jane Lynch
2018	Nicolas Cage Tatiana Maslany
2019	Bill Nighy Elle Fanning
2020	Hong Chau

Maverick Innovator Awards

The Maverick Innovator Award celebrates people in technology. These are people whose ideas and inventions have greatly improved their industries and the world.

Year	Honoree
2014	Marty Cooper

Media Legacy Awards

The Media Legacy Award started in 2014. It honors film journalists who help audiences discover new artists and films.

Year	Honoree
2014	Kenneth Turan
2015	Anne Thompson
2016	Owen Gleiberman

Film Awards

On the last night of the festival, several awards are given to individual films. These films are chosen by judges or by audience votes. Some of the main awards are:

• Top Film - Given to the best movie in any category.
• Best Documentary Feature - For the best non-fiction film.
• Best First Feature - For a director's very first full-length movie.
• Best Short Narrative Film - For the best short story film.
• Audience Favorite Narrative - The most popular story film, chosen by the audience.
• Audience Favorite Documentary - The most popular non-fiction film, chosen by the audience.

Other awards given at Cinequest include:

Maverick Film Competition

• Maverick Spirit Award (Feature Film)
• Best Short Animation
• Best Student Short

New Visions Program

• New Visions Award (Feature Film)

Global Landscapes

• Global Vision Award (Feature Film)

Screenplay Competition

• Screenplay Award (1st, 2nd, and 3rd places)

Audience Award

• Audience Award Short Film

Kaiser Permanente Thrive Award The Kaiser Permanente Thrive Award goes to the movie that is most inspiring and celebrates life.

Virtual and Augmented Reality Awards

• Best Immersive
• Best VR Film
• Best AR Experience
• Best Game
• Best Mixed or Volumetric Reality

Notable Debuts

Many independent films have premiered at Cinequest. Some of these films later became very popular and were distributed by major movie studios. This shows how Cinequest helps new films get discovered.

Some films that debuted at Cinequest and later gained wider attention include:

Year	Films
2006	Thank You for Smoking
2008	Dear Zachary
2010	The Desert of Forbidden Art

Oscar Nominees

Cinequest is a special festival because it is a "qualifying festival" for the Academy Awards. This means that the Best Narrative Short and Best Animated Short films shown at Cinequest can be considered for an Oscar nomination!

Here are some short films shown at Cinequest that later received nominations for Academy Awards:

Year	Short Films
2005	Ryan (Won)
2011	The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (Won)
2014	"Mr. Hublot" (Won)
2016	STUTTERER (Won)

Here are some full-length films shown at Cinequest that received nominations for Academy Awards:

Year	Films
2012	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2014	IDA (Won)