Nantucket honours The Cove, Dabis and Deller

The award is for an emerging screenwriter, selected from more than 600 submissions. The jury was comprised of Fisher Stevens, Jessie Nelson and Lily Taylor.

In other awards, the festival’s third annual Adrienne Shelley Excellence in Filmmaking Award, with a cash prize, to Cherien Dabis, director of Amreeka.

Showtime’s Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting went to Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker. The award for screenwriting for shorts went to Adam Leon and Jack Pettibone Riccobono for Killer.

Louie Psihoyos’ Sundance hit The Cove won best storytelling in a documentary and the audience award for best feature.

Meanwhile, the audience prize for best short went to Mary Ann Kellogg’s Abuelo and the Teen View on NFF prize went to Bragi Schut Jr’s Charlie Thistle.

The four-day Massachusetts event also paid tribute to Harold Ramis with its annual Screenwriting Award. A new All-Star Comedy Roundtable featured Ben Stiller, Ramis, Peter Farrelly and Jon Hamburg.

Farrelly also hosted a Late Night Storytelling session with Anne Meara. Other special guests included Paul Giamatti, Meg Ryan, Cheryl Hines, Kathryn Bigelow and Oren Moverman.

Other festival highlights included a special 25th anniversary screening of Ghostbusters.

“We were genuinely worried at the beginning of this year about how the economy would affect festival attendance. We worked very hard to get the word out early and to aggressively promote our films and events,” said executive director Colin Stanfield. “The effort seems to have paid off; after the end of our first full festival day, we had already matched last year’s box office.”

Artistic director Mystelle Brabbee added: “It’s always thrilling to see everyone at the festival each year. We’ve had a wonderful turnout from veteran festival-goers and newcomers alike.”