WINNERS

MONTH OF AUGUST

The Curious Woods

Widowed and retired professor, Bernie lives a rather well-worn life in his house in the mountains. When a mysterious young couple moves in next door, his peaceful life is challenged as their constant brawls bring back painful memories of his past.
Driven by a burning desire to unearth the truth, he gathers the courage to follow the young couple into the forest one day hoping to find answers about his deceased wife. What happens there will change the course his life forever.

Best Director (Under 40min) - Sej Saraiya

Best Lead (Male) John Henry Richardson

Best Cinematography - Pavel (Pasha) Safonov

Stranded

After the loss of their mother, a group of estranged siblings set out to fulfill her request of scattering her ashes at their cabin outside Fouke, Arkansas. Along the way, the siblings are forced to hash out issues and reopen old wounds as they become stranded and stalked by a legendary monster that lurks in the woods.

Best Emerging Filmmaker (Above) - Shawn Burkett

Roads Of Fear

Elon Coretti is the only son of Sauveur Coretti, one of the mafia bosses in South of France. Suffering from bipolar disorder, his mood fluctuates between manic and depressive phases
While the Coretti clan reigns supreme on its lands, small Albanian dealers are increasingly involved in drug trafficking and various activities on this conquered territory.
Sauveur decides to make an example by organizing an almost military assault on the Albanians' site and murders without mercy, all the people who are there. Elon, who is trying to please his father, participates "in spite of himself" in this massacre. However, any action is followed by consequences and a hard price to pay.

Best Director (Above 40min) Emmanuel Saez

Pursuit of Freedom

Inspired by the true story of a Ukrainian woman who was abducted by Russian gangsters and sold into trafficking when her husband couldn't pay his gambling debts.

Best Film (Above 40min) - Directed by George A Johnson

Best Producer - Karen Johnson, George A Johnson, Lonnie Norris, Connie Norris, Stelio Savante

Best Lead (male) - Stelio Savante

Remembering Return to Oz

"Remembering Return to Oz" is a documentary look back on memories featuring the cast/crew of Disney's 1985 film, "Return to Oz". This film is the first time that the main cast/crew have been together in a feature talking about the 1985 film in over 30 years. 5 Years in the making, and the story about the broken yellow brick road - begins with a story that doesn't end when Dorothy gets back from Oz the first time.

With all new interviews including the director Walter Murch, producers Paul Maslansky, and Colin Michael Kitchens. Additionally, the late Gary Kurtz and Will Vinton are also included. Cast members featuring, Fairuza Balk, Emma Ridley Justin Case, Pons Marr are additionally included. Cast and crew share behind the scenes stories - many which have never been told about this cult-classic.

Best Emerging Filmmaker (Documentary, Above40min) - Aaron Presley Pacentine, Aaron Schultz

Panah

Panah, a Middle-aged transgender male parent, is trying to leave Iran, in order to have sex reassignment procedures. He receives a phone call that his visa and medical docs have been rejected. Now, his only hope and motivation is to once more see his son, and be accepted by him for his authentic true self.

Best Film (Under 40min) - Directed By Fatemeh Ghadirinezhadian

Best Producer - Amirhossein Norouzbaki

Best Lead (Female) - Nasim Adabi

Life Of 3

Story of Bharti a film academy student who directs and produces a horror flick. Strangely, those who watch this movie are haunted. As the mystery starts to unveil, it engulfs the life of all those around her with peculiar incidents. A crime entangles all the cast and crew of the movie and complicates their lives. The remaining half of the movie is about how she struggles and battles the challenges. It is a suspenseful crime investigative story.

Best Emerging Filmmaker (above 40min) - Sashi Preetam Pratapgiri

Best Editor - Anirudh Mantripragada

Water

A man is visited by a young woman, who wants to rent his apartment. But it seems like this apartment’s frontiers are as porous as the ones between dream and reality

Best Screenplay (Under 40min) - Cyrille Louge

Nobody Loves You and You Don't Deserve to Exist

An award winning working class art house movie charting solitude, sanity and suffering under the British State. As a contagion befalls the country, and millions reflect upon their lives, a grieving ex-English teacher, rotting away on welfare benefits, attempts to recover and make sense of the tragic-comic fragments of his shattered past as a boy and a youth inside the belly of Gothic Manchester.
Best Emerging Filmmaker (Above 40min) - Brett Gregory

Jake

A small-town man lives a life full of tragedy and triumph spanning nearly the entire 20th century.

Best Documentary (Under 40 min) - Directed By Jared Jacobsen

Eleutheromania

Sam finds out she’s pregnant in a world where Roe V. Wade is overturned. What goes through two young adults' heads when they hear about both of these? Money? Childhood trauma? Each other? The kid? The state? The government? Family? Enjoy the journey, keep hearts and minds open. After all, we all want love and freedom

Best Emerging Filmmaker (Under 40min) - Devin Bonomo

Co-Author

Cosmo, a lonely, aging author, fearing a genetic illness will rob him of his intellect, employs, Elle, an electronic assistant to help him write another best-selling masterpiece. Over time Elle becomes more than a well-matched writing partner - a lot more.

Honorable Mention - Mike Stinnett