Albuquerque, NM – July 11, 2011 – Now in it’s third year, The Albuquerque Film Festival
(August 18 – 21, 2011) is garnering some significant attention with an impressive lsit of confirmed
celebrity attendees and an attractive lineup of films and events for this year’s festival.
 
Most notably recognized for his role as “Mr. Blonde” in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs,
actor Michael Madsen will be attending to receive the 2011 AFF Maverick Award and
screen a retrospective of his work. “We are thrilled to welcome “Indie Icon” Michael Madsen
to the festival this year whose career has spanned over 25 years with more than 170 films
to his credit. We are dedicating a featured event in his honor entitled, Midnight Movies with
Michael Madsen where we will screen a collection of memorable favorites including Hell
Ride, which features AFF founding father (and close friend of Madsen’s) the late Dennis
Hopper, and of course Reservoir Dogs, which was Executive Produced by 2010 AFF Maverick
Award Winner, Monte Hellman,” says Film 4 Change and AFF Founder and Director,
Rich Henrich.
 
“Many people don’t realize that Michael Madsen is also an accomplished poet with an
international following,” says Henrich. “His first book Burning In Paradise (with foreword by
Dennis Hopper) won the Independent Firecracker Award and his last release, American
Badass was dedicated to the memory of another film legend, David Carradine, his friend
and Kill Bill and Hell Ride co-star.”
 
Albuquerque Film Festival Legend Awards: This year Henrich has also decided to re-title
three of the more prestigious festival awards as the Albuquerque Film Festival Legend
Awards. These distinctions recognize outstanding achievement in film and the related arts
and are awarded to an individual with a persistence of vision that reflects the independent
spirit of the award’s namesake. Dennis Hopper was the 2009 recipient of the AFF Lifetime
Achievement Award. Last year, in 2010, Henrich did not give out the award due to Hopper’s
passing on May 29th and in turn, renamed it The Dennis Lee Hopper Award in his honor,
the first of the AFF Legend Awards. This year, Henrich is proud to announce that Dean
Stockwell, a close friend to Hopper, has been selected as the 2011 award recipient.
 
“We’re delighted that Mr. Stockwell has agreed to accept this award and we are planning
to screen a retrospective of his work as well including his personal favorite Married to the
Mob, which he was nominated for an Academy Award and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet
which he stars opposite Dennis Hopper.
 
The second AFF Legend Award will be the accolade that Michael Madsen is set to receive,
and will actually be entitled The AFF Monte Hellman Maverick Award in honor of the legendary
auteur who was the AFF award recipient last year. “Monte constantly amazes us with his
brilliance,” says Henrich, referring to Helman’s current critically-acclaimed feature,
Road to Nowhere.
 
The third honor will be presented to cinematography legend and two-time Oscar winner,
Haskell Wexler, who is best known for his work on One Flew Over the Cuckoos’s Nest and
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf. “Haskell’s work seeks to elevate human consciousness and
to use the art form to foster community. We are thrilled to present him with the 2011 AFF
Legend Award in Cinematography.