Table at Luigi’s, the 2010 feature film by the University of Central Arkansas’s Digital Filmmaking program, won Best Romance Picture recently at the Bare Bones Film Festival in Muskogee, Okla.
The festival featured narrative and documentary features, short and student films, music videos, animation and live screenplay readings in its competitive program. According to www.barebonesfilmfestivals.org, the festival is for films made for less than $1million. Luigi’s was made for $4,000.
“The cast, crew and I are thrilled to be named Best Romance picture,” said Joe Dull, assistant professor of digital filmmaking who wrote and directed the film. “That our student-produced film can win awards over professional movies really says a lot about the love and talent our students put into their work. We’re immensely proud and, as always, so thankful to UCA and the City of Conway for making this film possible.”
Table at Luigi’s is a modern-day fairy tale about David, “Chef” to his friends, who creates “living dreams” for people through his cooking. That all changes for Chef the night Emily walks in and he begins to realize that the dreams he’s been creating have locked him in his own dream world.
The film also received Bonehead nominations for Best Student Feature and Best Actor in a Feature Film (Frank Romeo as Chef).
Although the film had been in the works for more than a decade, it was shot in one month, July 2009.
The Bare Bones Film Festival was named by livability.com as one of the 10 best small film festivals in the country.