Barry Sonnefield to Receive Maverick Film & Technology Lifetime Achievement Award

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Barry Sonnenfeld will receive the Maverick Film & Technology Lifetime Achievement Award at the eighth-annual Cinequest Film Festival. As a director and a cinematographer, Sonnenfeld has had a long list of films to his credit that have accomplished that rare combination of being both artistic and box office successes. Films such as Miller's Crossing, Raising Arizona, Misery, When Harry Met Sally..., Throw Mamma From the Train, The Addams Family, Get Shorty, and this past summer's mega hit Men in Black have demonstrated a keen sense of personal vision, innovation, and bravado. Cinequest is proud to recognize Barry Sonnenfeld whose career exemplifies the best utilization of film technologies to empower personal creativity and innovation. From former NYU classmate Joel Coen, "Sonnenfeld made his mark early (in the contemporary film noir Blood Simple 1984) as a dynamic cinematographer. Sonnenfeld followed with Compromising Positions and then cemented himself in the minds of independent film fans with the acrobatic camerawork of Raising Arizona (1987). Hollywood was also watching and nabbed him to lens the following hits: Danny De Vito's Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Penny Marshall's Big (1988), and Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally... (1989). Sonnenfeld returned to the realm of the maverick in 1990 by creating the somber hues of the gangster-film pastiche Miller's Crossing and the biting edge of Misery. Sonnenfeld made his directorial debut with The Addams Family (1991), an ornately stylish film adaptation of Charles Addams cartoons, which created a new generation of fans for the uniquely macabre family and for Mr. Sonnenfeld's obvious ability to use digital technology to enhance story, characters, and atmosphere. Get Shorty (1991), starring Travolta and Hackman, followed and showed that Sonnenfeld could handle the intricacies of a character driven comedy as well as the flamboyance of his previous work." Sonnenfeld's artistry is still in top form as demonstrated in the recent Men in Black, where once again technology enhances the humor and the story that anchor the film's wide appeal. Cinequest will honor Mr. Sonnenfeld at the Maverick Film & Technology Award Event. Cinequest will also screen the following Sonnenfeld films: Men in Black, Raising Arizona and The Addams Family.