FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Chelsea Kurnick
Community Lead
ch*************@tr****************.org
AVFILM 2022 IMPACT AWARDS LOCAL HONOREES REVEALED
The October 22 event supports the education programs of AVFilm. Educators may attend for 50-percent off.
Healdsburg, Calif. (October 6, 2022) – AVFilm announced two local honorees who will be celebrated at the 2022 Impact Awards on Saturday, October 22 at Rodney Strong Vineyards. Cloverdale High School Wendy Conner will receive the Jackie Hoffner Heart & Hope Award and Healdsburg Mayor Ozzy Jimenez will be honored for his historical impact on the Healdsburg City Council. These special guests will join Student Filmmaker Award winner Amelia Dublin and 2022 Impact Award winner Erica Milsom, who spent two decades as a filmmaker at Pixar Animation Studios.
Additionally, a selection of Milsom’s films are available to stream for free on demand all month long.
“Rodney Strong Vineyards is thrilled to partner with AVFilm, including hosting them for the upcoming Impact Awards fundraiser,” says Christopher O’Gorman, Director of Communication for the winery. “AVFilm’s commitment to community and arts education for local students echoes the vision of our founder, Rod Strong. As a dancer and producer, Rod sought and valued art throughout his life, and founding our winery in 1959 was an extension of that dream. AVFilm’s support of the arts perfectly represents what Rod envisioned for the residents of and visitors to Sonoma County.”
Jackie Hoffner Heart & Hope Award: Wendy Conner
The Heart & Hope Award is named after Jackie Hoffner, a founding AVFilm member who died in 2017. The award celebrates a community member who reflects key attributes Hoffner possessed – heart, passion, community impact, and optimism. This year’s honoree is Wendy Conner, who has collaborated with the local oral history organization Listening for a Change for 12 years, to bring the Neighborhood Listening Project into her Cloverdale High School classes. Students in Conner’s classes learn to conduct oral history video interviews of the adults in their community around themes including Cloverdale history, immigration, resilience, and more.
“One of her students later came to work for Listening for a Change,” says Phyllis Rosenfield, executive director of the organization. “He thought [Conner] was far and away the most influential teacher he had encountered.”
Special Recognition: Healdsburg Mayor Ozzy Jimenez
Healdsburg Mayor Ozzy Jimenez will join the Impact Awards to receive a special recognition for his groundbreaking service on Healdsburg City Council. When Jimenez was appointed in July 2020, he was only the third Latinx person on the city council in its 153-year history, and the first in almost three decades. He is also only the second openly gay person on city council in Healdsburg history.
Jimenez became Mayor of Healdsburg in late 2021. Jimenez’s proudest accomplishments during his tenure include the city council adopting an LGBTQIA+ flag raising policy, initiating a climate mobilization strategy, championing a universal basic income program, ensuring city communications and city council meetings have live Spanish translation, and building an equity task force with Acosta Learning Partnership.
2022 Impact Award: Erica Milsom
The AVFilm Impact Award honors a luminary in the film and media industry who exhibits exemplary professional grit and personal integrity. The inaugural honor goes to Erica Milsom, a Bay Area filmmaker who has dedicated her career to uplifting marginalized voices. As a friend of AVFilm and an AVFest alumnus, she’s visited Sonoma County to teach local students about her craft. After two decades as a documentary filmmaker at Pixar Animation Studios, Milsom left to launch her own forthcoming company, Ryzo Animation Studios.
At Pixar, Milsom directed hundreds of behind-the-scenes documentaries on the creative process for the studio’s top films. She co-ran the Emmy-nominated television series INSIDE PIXAR and wrote and directed the groundbreaking short film LOOP, which tells the story of a tender relationship emerging between two young teens, one of whom is a non-speaking autistic girl.
Selected works of Milsom, including LOOP, are available to stream on demand all month long. Viewers can access Milsom’s films by visiting:
https://truewestfilmcenter.org/events/theworkof2022impactawardwinnerericamilsom/
Student Filmmaker Award & Scholarship: Amelia Dublin
The Student Filmmaker Award & Scholarship recognizes and provides a $1,000 scholarship to an AVFilm student, nominated by their instructors, who demonstrates AVFilm’s core values. Amelia Dublin, a high school junior, participated in an after-school Future Filmmakers camp at Corazón Healdsburg. There, Dublin created her first film, a short documentary about her Syrian grandmother, named SITO. The five-minute film will be shown at the Impact Awards and Dublin will attend with her family.
Tickets & Educator Discount
Tickets are $250. Tables of eight are available starting at $2000. Educators may purchase tickets for 50% off, using the code avfilmheartsteachers. Tickets can be purchased here: https://truewestfilmcenter.org/impact-awards/
The 2022 Impact Awards are at Rodney Strong Vineyards on October 22, 2022 from 4pm-8pm. AVFilm is grateful to the winery and to VIP hosting partner The Madrona for their support.
