June 9, 2015 - 15:48 AMT
“The Dark Horse” named best film at Seattle Int’l Film Fest

James Napier Robertson’s “The Dark Horse”, an inspirational fact-based New Zealand drama starring Cliff Curtis as chess champion Genesis Potini, has been named the best film of the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival, SIFF organizers announced on Sunday, June 7, according to TheWrap.

The 25-day festival screened 450 films, with more than 90,000 votes submitted by audience members. It is the largest and most well-attended film festival in North America.

Runner-up films included Pixar’s “Inside Out” and the Sundance sensation “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.”

The audience award for best documentary went to Jason Zeldes’ “Romeo Is Bleeding,” while the directing award went to Alfonso Gomez-Rejon for “Me and Earl” and acting honors went to Nina Hoss for “Phoenix” and Curtis for “The Dark Horse.”

“The Dark Horse” will be distributed in the United States by Broad Green Pictures.

In separate jury awards, the winners included Károly Ujj-Mészáros’ “Liza, the Fox Fairy,” Greg Kohs’ “The Great Alone” and Pablo Valencia’s “Chatty Catties.”