Film Festival to Give Buster Keaton Comedy Award in 2007

At the 2007 Muskegon Film Festival, one very funny film will receive the new Buster Keaton Comedy Award. This award will be given to what a panel of judges views as the best comedy from the films shown at the festival.

"We decided to give the Buster Keaton Comedy Award at the 2007 festival for two reasons, said Mark Williamson, President. "One, to honor the memory of one of the great comedy filmmakers who loved Muskegon and two, to attract more comedy submissions to the film festival."

By the time Buster Keaton became a professional performer and vaudeville star at the age of five, he had already lived a life as extraordinary and fanciful as his films would later become. By the end of his life, Keaton had advanced the art of filmmaking through his superb writing and direction, had developed technical camera innovations unsurpassed even today, and was universally acclaimed as a genius.

In the early 1900's, Buster Keaton, his parents and brother summered here in the Bluffton area just off Muskegon Lake. Keaton came to think of Muskegon of his favorite place in the world. His fondest childhood memories happened here. Even after his family moved to California to pursue the motion picture business, Keaton continued to occasionally visit Muskegon, stopping at the now-gone Pascoe's Tavern for lake perch and beer. He did so until shortly before his death.

In addition to the Buster Keaton Comedy award, the Muskegon Film Festival will also award Audience Choice and Best Short.

A premiere event of West Michigan winters, the Muskegon Film Festival, in two days, draws thousands of movie lovers and the curious public to see a wide variety of independent comedies, dramas, documentaries, animations and the like. Films are screened in the two auditoriums of the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts.

The 2007 Muskegon Film Festival is scheduled for February 2 and 3, 2007. All-Event Passes ($50), which give access to all film sessions throughout the weekend, and the new VIP All Event Passes ($75) are now on sale from Star Tickets Plus (800-585-3737) and the Frauenthal Center Box Office. The VIP All-Event pass includes access to a V.I.P. Lounge during the festival and a free film festival t-shirt.