Best debut Fiction Film

DREAMLAND (DREAMLAND)

USA, 2005

Director:

Jason Matzner

Script:

Tom Willett

Camera:

Jonathan Sela

Producer:

Peter Heller, Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding

95 min., Farbe, E/N.N.

Cast:

Agnes Bruckner, Kelli Garner, John Corbett, Justin Long

18-year-old Audrey lives with her father in a remote community in the New Mexico desert. Though Audrey longs to attend college, she spends her days taking care of her father and her best friend Calista, who dreams of becoming Miss America but is struggling with a life-challenging illness. The summer after Audrey graduates from high school, her world is changed forever when an attractive young man named Mookie moves in next-door with his mother Mary. Knowing how much Calista longs for romance, Audrey encourages Mookie to ask Calista on a date. He obliges, and he and Calista soon become a couple. Audrey, however, finds herself developing feelings for Mookie, and as these feelings grow it becomes increasingly difficult for her to be the dependable, selfless person that her father and best friend have always counted on.