Actress and producer Jillian Bell (BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON, SWORD OF TRUST) will receive the festival’s third annual “Next Wave Award,” which recognizes those who have exciting and distinctive voices, take artistic risks, and have a passionate commitment to independent film. Bell will be in attendance to accept the award in conversation and in support of her film BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON, which will open the festival.
BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON is a dramatic comedy about Brittany Forgler (Bell), a woman known for being the life of the party finding real friends – and real life – by taking control of her herself, one city block at a time. The film premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. Bell and writer/director Paul Downs Colaizzo will be in attendance at the Opening Night Galaon Wednesday, June 12 at Provincetown Town Hall. Amazon Studios will release the film in theaters on August 23.
“Opening our festival with playwright-turned-director Paul Downs Colaizzo’s debut, starring the spectacularly talented Jillian Bell, features an original, smart, and very funny celebration of perseverance,” said Lisa Viola, PIFF’s Artistic Director. “Jillian Bell’s unparalleled comedic timing and empowering presence is precisely why she is so deserving of this year’s Next Wave Award.”