Best Independent Filmmaker

Fitzgerald dropped out of sight for a couple years, while he was in Bucharest helming The Wild Dogs (part of imX’s Seats 3a & 3c digital feature series), an effort that won him the best direction award at the 2002 Atlantic Film Festival. Earlier this year he brought the likes of Parker Posey, Sarah Polley and Olympia Dukakis to town to film his latest feature, The Event. This is Fitzgerald’s second win in as many years.

Runner-up: Andrea Dorfman