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GI Film Festival.com      

The Fifth Annual GI Film Festival (https://www.gifilmfestival.com), the nation’s only film festival dedicated to celebrating the stories of our nation’s Armed Forces, wrapped on May 15 with an awards ceremony for its best films. The festival started on May 9 and included 31 film premieres, red carpet events, parties, musical performances and celebrity appearances.

The following are the GI Film Festival 2011 award-winning films:

Military Channel Award: “Shepherds of Helmand,” directed by Gary Mortensen
Best International Film: “The Telegram Man” (Australia), directed by James Khehtie
Best Student Film: “Thule,” directed by Robert Scott Wildes
Best Narrative Short: “A Marine’s Guide to Fishing,” directed by Nicholas Brennan
Best Documentary Short: “Last to Leave,” directed by Pat Clark
Best Narrative Feature: “Flag of My Father,” directed by Rodney Ray
Best Documentary Feature: “Patrol Base Jaker,” directed by David Scantling
Founder’s Choice Award: “The Wereth Eleven,” directed by Robert Child

The GI Film Festival also awarded actor Lou Diamond Phillips the festival’s GI Spirit Award, which is presented to an entertainer who embodies the spirit of an American GI in their creative and philanthropic work; and honored actor William Devane with The GI Choice Award, which is presented to an entertainer who has portrayed classic GI characters in film.

Also from the same website, different "headline":

West Va. filmmaker Kristin Seibert sees an under-serviced niche in the film marketplace, and she’s eager to fill it.
“We’re looking to make 100 percent family-friendly films hearkening back to the old times ... good, values-based films,” Seibert tells Big Hollywood.
So when she read the script for “Doughboy” she jumped at the chance to bring it to the screen.

Seibert is the executive producer behind the film, which will screen Sunday at the fifth annual G.I. Film Festival. “Doughboy” features a self-centered teen caught vandalizing a WWI statue. Sentenced to community service, the boy ends up helping out at a local veteran’s home where he meets old soldiers who impact his view of the world. The story marries memories of 9/11 with the timeless tales of men who risked everything for the country they love.
She used Facebook to find local talent to round out the cast, but finding the actor to play the sullen teen stood as the film’s big challenge. Barrett Carnahan previous film experience has been extra work on the film "Super 8," but his audition for "Doughboy" effectively ended the project's search.
“A lot of kids have been in theater, but it’s a completely different type of acting, over the top,” she says. “Barrett came in and just nailed it. He had a huge amount of talent. He heard about it through a janitor at his high school … he blew us away.”
Seibert, who just wrapped production on her second film “Random Acts of Christmas,” says she hopes the G.I. Film Festival will be part of a wider festival strategy meant to earn a theatrical release for “Doughboy.”
For now, she’s glad to let the story reach the public in as many ways as possible. The film’s message deserves to be heard, she says.
“Let’s really think about and appreciate your veterans and what they’ve done for us,” she says. “Your typical teens don’t necessarily think about those things … we wanted to make a film where parents and grandparents could take their kids to see it, and especially veterans, and open up a dialogue.”