"Hard Candy" Wins Top Honors at The Pollies

Las Vegas (PRWeb) February 26, 2007 -- While bigger stars and budgets usually mean box office success and Oscars for Hollywood, PollyStaffle.com chose to honor a low budget film that grossed a little over a million dollars as David Slade's directorial debut "Hard Candy" was named 'Best Movie' with the announcement of the 2007 Polished Apple Awards.

Starring Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page, "Hard Candy" deals with the sensitive topics of pedophilia, revenge killing and internet predators. It does so with no clear cut villain or hero.

"The movie was essentially two people in one room," PollyStaffle.com senior editor Chad Freeman said. "It has no CGI special effects, no big explosions, no nudity and very little blood. But what it does offer is a lot to think about and an extremely intense cinematic experience without being completely humorless, as it easily could have been. 'Hard Candy' has been the frontrunner for the Pollies since its theatrical run in April, and ultimately nothing could top it."

PollyStaffle.com is an entertainment site that celebrates individuality, diversity, creativity and empowerment. Their Polished Apple Awards, also known as The Pollies, coincide each year with the Academy Awards. Last year's top winner was Gregg Araki's "Mysterious Skin."

"The Oscars have become so out of touch," Freeman said. "They're no longer the best of the best and they're not a popularity contest either as most people haven't seen half of what's nominated. It's all a pat-on-the-back PR game. The Pollies cut through all the politics and recognize movies for entertainment value."

Other films receiving Pollies were Ariel Vromen's "Danika" for best direction, the Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg project "Dear Wendy" for writing, Rian Johnson's "Brick," which starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss, and Matt O'Leary, for acting.

Mike Davis and Jonathan Yudis' ode to Russ Meyer "Pervert!," which starred Mary Carey, took honors as "Coolest Looking Movie." "The Blair Witch Project" co-director Eduardo Sánchez's "Altered" received "Scariest Movie," the Wayans brothers' riot "Little Man" nabbed "Funniest Movie" and Christian Viel and John Fallon's revenge film "Deaden" was named "Most Action-Packed Movie."

In the "Best Use of" categories the sex/nudity honor went to underground filmmaker Shane Ryan's disturbing work "Amateur Porn Star Killer," the violence/gore praise went to Jeff Burr's surreal war picture "Straight Into Darkness" and music honors went to the Jared Hess directed Jack Black comedy "Nacho Libre."

"Best Concept-Gimmick-Hook" went to Jeff Stanzler's look at terrorism in "Sorry, Haters," best documentary went to Jeff Feuerzeig's "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" and the foreign language award went to Fabrice Du Welz's French horror throwback-to-the-seventies "Calvaire."

To be eligible for The Pollies a film must have been released on DVD during the current award cycle, which starts the month of the previous year's awards and ends the month before the current year's Oscars. As the site puts it, this includes "the movie you made with your mom in your backyard."

In keeping with that idea, a new award category was added this year for movies with budgets under $7,225. In honor of Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" the awards are called "The Little Mariachis That Could." The micro budget films recognized by PollyStaffle.com were Pamela Sutch's no-budget feature "Transformed," John R. Hand's $3,000 super-8 experimental work "Frankensteins Bloody Nightmare" and Kevin Strange's $200 horror comedy "Dream Reaper."

Pollystaffle.com also announced the results of a pinup of the year poll and inducted three new members into an entertainment hall of fame. Canadian rock star CJ Sleez was crowned "Pinup of the Year," while Doris Wishman, Edgar Allen Poe and Jayne Mansfield were named to the "Polly Staffle Hall of Fame." CJ was voted by the sites readers based on a "combination of looks, creativity, sense of humor, ambition and intelligence." When she was featured in August, CJ Sleez was described as having "the looks of porn star Traci Lords with the classic pinup flair of Bettie Page or Marilyn Monroe and the unapologetic attitude of a Suicide Girl." Wishman, Poe and Mansfield were inducted because of their contributions to the world of entertainment in the form of filmmaking, writing, acting and modeling. They join last year's inductees Herschell Gordon Lewis, Bruce Lee and Bettie Page.

Contact:
Chad Freeman, PollyStaffle.com senior editor
P.O. Box 751992
Las Vegas, NV 89136-1992
(702) 372-3581
http://www.pollystaffle.com/

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