Optimus scored big at the Midwest Independent Film Festival‘s 2011 Best of the Midwest Awards (BMAs), which took place on Dec. 6 in Chicago. Optimus editor/partner Randy Palmer took home the Best Editing award with Brooks Ruyle for their work on Ballhawks, the documentary by Mike Diedrich, who took home the Best Director BMA for his role on the film.
Ballhawks tells the story of the ballhawks who have been chasing baseballs and dreams just outside the ivy-covered walls of Wrigley Field for the last 90 years. It was a passion project for Diedrich, Palmer, and all those involved in the film, which began development in 2004.
“The BMAs for our work on Ballhawks were a testament to the years of dedication and commitment that went into this documentary,” said Palmer. “It truly was a labor of love, and we’re honored to have been recognized by the Midwest Independent Film Festival for our work on it.”
The BMAs recognize the premier films and filmmakers featured during this year’s Midwest Independent Film Festival, which holds its screenings every first Tuesday of the month in Chicago. This year-round film festival sits proudly at the center of the independent film scene in Chicago and the Midwest, and is dedicated to celebrating and strengthening that community. BMA winners were chosen via online balloting from both the public and the festival’s Awards Jury.
ONE at Optimus directors Logan Hall and Mark Pallman also were nominated for BMAs in the Best Music Video category.
Stage and Film Actor Tony Roberts Dies At 85
Tony Roberts, a versatile, Tony Award-nominated theater performer at home in both plays and musicals and who appeared in several Woody Allen movies โ often as Allen's best friend โ has died. He was 85.
Roberts' death was announced to The New York Times by his daughter, Nicole Burley.
Roberts had a genial stage personality perfect for musical comedy and he originated roles in such diverse Broadway musicals as "How Now, Dow Jones" (1967); "Sugar" (1972), an adaptation of the movie "Some Like It Hot," and "Victor/Victoria" (1995), in which he co-starred with Julie Andrews when she returned to Broadway in the stage version of her popular film. He also was in the campy, roller-disco "Xanadu" in 2007 and "The Royal Family" in 2009.
"I've never been particularly lucky at card games. I've never hit a jackpot. But I have been extremely lucky in life," he write in his memoir, "Do You Know Me?" "Unlike many of my pals, who didn't know what they wanted to become when they grew up, I knew I wanted to be an actor before I got to high school."
Roberts also appeared on Broadway in the 1966 Woody Allen comedy "Don't Drink the Water," repeating his role in the film version, and in Allen's "Play It Again, Sam" (1969), for which he also made the movie.
Other Allen films in which Roberts appeared were "Annie Hall" (1977), "Stardust Memories" (1980), "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982), "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) and "Radio Days" (1987).
"Roberts' confident onscreen presence โ not to mention his tall frame, broad shoulders and brown curly mane โ was the perfect foil for Allen's various neurotic characters, making them more funny and enjoyable to watch," The Jewish Daily Forward wrote in 2016.
In Eric Lax's book "Woody... Read More