Independent cinema trailblazer Mark Duplass is slated to receive the first annual Fiercely Independent Award at the 15th annual Woodstock Film Festival. The award will be presented to Duplass on Saturday, October 18, at the annual Maverick Awards Ceremony at Backstage Studio Productions in Kingston, NY.
In addition to accepting this honor, Duplass will be seen in the film Creep, which will have its East Coast premiere at this year’s Woodstock Film Festival. The film, directed by Patrick Brice, is also co-produced and co-written by Duplass. Presenting the Fiercely Independent Award to Duplass is Tom Quinn, co-president, Radius – The Weinstein Company, the distribution company for Creep.
“I’ve been coming to the Woodstock Film Festival ever since my first foray into filmmaking and have always thought it to reflect the independent spirit–sans, you know, dropping acid and cavorting in the nude,” said Duplass. “I’m thrilled to come back this year not only as a filmmaker but as the recipient of the Fiercely Independent Award.”
One of the freshest and most prolific voices in independent cinema today, Duplass has produced, written, directed and starred in a string of award-winning and commercially successful films over the past decade. In 2014 two films produced by Duplass premiered at the Sundance Film Festival: Craig Johnson’s The Skeleton Twins, starring Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader; and Charlie McDowell’s The One I Love, starring Duplass alongside Elisabeth Moss. Also in 2014, Duplass served as co-writer, producer and co-star of Creep, which premiered at SXSW and is set to release in trilogy form in 2015 and 2016. The film tells a story of a videographer who answers a Craigslist ad for a one-day job in a remote mountain town and finds his client is not at all what he initially seems.
Duplass and his brother Jay–collectively known as The Duplass Brothers–have been a force in front of and behind the camera dating back to the 2005 Sundance breakout hit The Puffy Chair, which Mark & Jay wrote, directed and produced. The Puffy Chair was distributed by Roadside Attractions and Netflix in 2006. Baghead, their next feature film, was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics at Sundance 2008 and received an international theatrical release that year. In 2010 Fox Searchlight released Mark and Jay’s first studio feature, Cyrus, starring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei. Cyrus was followed by the acclaimed 2012 Paramount release of Jeff Who Lives At Home, starring Jason Segel and Ed Helms. Mark & Jay also re-teamed with Fox Searchlight on the 2012 release of The Do-Deca Pentathlon.
Other notable films Mark Duplass has produced and starred in include the award-winning 2011 films Your Sister’s Sister (directed by Lynn Shelton) and Safety Not Guaranteed (directed by Colin Trevorrow). Other Duplass productions include: Katie Aselton’s 2010 Sundance hit The Freebie as well as Aselton’s 2012 follow-up Black Rock; Bryan Poyser’s Independent Spirit nominated Lovers of Hate; and Jacob Vaughan’s SXSW comedy Bad Milo.
Duplass and his brother Jay are also producing, writing and directing the HBO show Togetherness which will premiere in early 2015.
This year’s festival will take place from October 15-19 in Woodstock and the neighboring towns of Kingston, Saugerties, Rhinebeck and Rosendale.
