Someone to Watch Award
Fessenden bio | "Someone to Watch Award" | Fessenden press | Habit press |

Longtime Manhattan actor-editor-writer-director Larry Fessenden wins the 1997 Someone To Watch Award.

The "Someone to Watch Award," a $20,000 cash unrestricted grant sponsored by Swatch, is given out anually to "an independent filmmaker who has demonstrated unique vision and talent and has not yet received recognition."

Now in its third year (Previous winners, Lodge Kerrigan and Christopher Munch), the award is selected by the likes of Vogue film critic John Powers, former Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks executive Michele Forman, and Peter Broderick of Next Wave Films. The nomminees this year were Joe Brewster ("The Keeper"), Chris Smith ("American Job"), and Larry Fessenden("Habit").

Fessenden took the prize on March 22nd 1997 at the Spirit Awards in Los Angeles. He said the check would go to pay back his crew who "worked out of love" on his film HABIT

YouTube preserves the comments by Gabriel Byrne leading up to Fessenden's acceptance speach.