Editor

WorldFest celebrated its Ninth Annual Panorama Italia collaborating  with The Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, CA. (IIC), The Italian Consul Fabrizio Nava and The Italian Film Festival USA, featuring Saverio di Biagio attending for his film, Scattered Clouds (Qualche Nuvola) plus 4 independently produced Italian films, La Madre, Are You a Pilgrim? Plus Sogni di Gloria, & The Italian Character. Closing weekend, April 12 & 13th, included Shorts matinees,  the Remi Awards Gala and Closing Cay festivities with a V.I.P Tour of NASA/Space Center Houston and The HYC / WorldFest / Consular Regatta & Barbecue. All WorldFest events are always open to the public.        

WorldFest, founded as an International Film Society in August 1961, became the 3rd competitive international film festival in North America, following San Francisco and New York.  Evolving into  a competitive International Film Festival in April 1968, WorldFest is proud of its long list of "discovered" film greats such as Spielberg, George Lucas, Coppola, David Lynch, Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, Randal Kleiser, Ang Lee, Robert Rodriguez, the Coen Brothers, Jon Lee Hancock and many others from their beginning efforts, early in their careers.  Multi award-winning producer/director, Hunter Todd, founded this special film festival to honor all categories of film and video production continuing his long dedication of "discovery," spotlighting emerging independent filmmakers who are to become "the Spielbergs & Ang Lees of tomorrow."

WorldFest's mission is to recognize and honor outstanding creative excellence in film & video, validate brilliant abilities and promote future filmmaking in Texas as well as enhance cultural tourism for Houston and environs. The 10-day festival ran to a strong finish with several sold-out screenings.  WorldFest highlighted independently produced cinema from all over the globe with a record 18 World Premieres, 49 Indie feature productions, 120 award winning shorts & over 550 USA & Intl. filmmakers in attendance. Special Retrospects included Casablanca & Singing In The Rain.

The WorldFest Remi Awards Gala featured Robert Loggia as Honored Guest and Remi Lifetime Acting Award recipient on Saturday, April 12th

The WorldFest 2014 Grand Remi Crystal Awards went to:

• BEST THEATRICAL FEATURE ~ Daydreaming (Sogni di Gloria), Patrizio Gioffredi directing, John Snellingberg Film Collective, Montale, Italy.
• BEST FILM & VIDEO ~ Honor Diaries, Dana Wilsey, Cherry Hill, NJ USA.
• BEST TV & CABLE PRODUCTION ~ Wild Thailand, Kanit Prukprakarn/Peter Ringgaard, GreenAsia/Peter Ringgaard, Denmark.
• BEST COMMERCIAL ~ Giving ~ TRUE MOVE H, Thanonchai Sornsriwichai,  Ogilvy & Mather, Thailand.
• BEST NEW MEDIA ~ AXI: Web Series (Avengers of Xtreme Illusions), Shawn Welling ~AXI, Houston, TX, USA.
• BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM & VIDEO ~ Globe Trot, Mitchell Rose, Worthington, Ohio, USA.
• BEST SHORT SUBJECT, Haleema, Boris Schaarschmidt, Heavy B Production, Los Angeles, CA. USA.
• BEST STUDENT FILM, I Remember the Future, Klayton Aaron Stainer, Swinburne University, Preshrank, Victoria, Australia.
• BEST MUSIC VIDEO ~ Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone, Interactive -Vania Heymann, Director, Pulse Films, London, UK.

WorldFest Best Actor Remi Awards went to: Best Actress, Chella Ferrow for African Gothic, Gabriel Bologna, director, South Africa; Best Actor to Nix Xhelilaj for Jamil Dehlavi's Seven Lucky Gods, London, UK; Best Supporting Actress to Olivia "Chachi" Gonzales for The Legend of DarkHorse County, Shawn Welling, director, USA and Best Supporting Actor to Carlton Bluford in Stop Pepper Palmer, Lonzo Liggins director, USA

About the 47th WorldFest & our Remi Awards!

The Russian-American Business Magazine/Publications sponsored The Best Foreign film award which went to A Million Colours directed by Peter Bichai, filmed in South Africa. The Best Houston Production Remi Award went to Critical Mass, One Riot One Ranger, Charles Probst, Jr., Houston, Texas. The Best Texas Production Remi Award went to James Baker ~ The Man Who Made Washington Work, John Hesse Productions, Houston, Texas.

All other award results from this year's WorldFest competition & Awards Gala are posted on our website at https://worldfest.org - Photos posted soon. There were more than 4,300 category entries in all film and video competitions, and around 16% of submitted entries placed for WorldFest Remi awards.  Dates for WorldFest-Houston 48th are April 10-19th, 2015.