Winner Season - 6 (May 2020)
Jury Award
Categories Award
Back Stage Award
Front Stage Award
Jury Award
Best Short Film - Jury Award
Mantis
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Film Directed by: Hugo Fernández (Genre: Comedy, Drama, Women, Thriller, Crime)
"Mantis, a crazy bitch cruel and ruthless, moves around the country mercilessly hunting the names of her list. The identity of Mantis is still an absolute mystery and national authorities advise men not to leave home alone and to avoid talking to woman they don't know.
Lucas, indifferent to the news on the radio, finishes building one of his airplane models. Suddenly, there's a knock on the door..."
Trailer - Mantis
Best Feature Film - Jury Award
SHIRONAM
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Film Directed by: INDRANIL GHOSH (Genre: Feature)
"Immediately after joining a news channel as cameraman Abhin was assigned to cover Ronchordji, the most dreaded terrorist, accompanied by veteran reporter Sujit secretly. A bike-rider picked them up into the jungle from a specific spot. However the slated meeting was declared cancelled by two armed men on the way. They decided to stay back. Next day Abhin left the hotel to capture the landscape as it had a distinguished clarity, but didn’t return ; neither could he be contacted. Paranoid Sujit intimated his immediate senior. Concerned authorities conducted an emergency meeting and concluded the incident as abduction by the terrorist due to a previous threat on media. Actually authority was in a hurry to capture the moment for a sensational breaking news than to find out the truth. Next day their arc rival channel scooped out the news of his inglorious death in a road side red light area. Emotionally broken, mentally perplexed, socially ostracized Anandi, Abhin's wife, stood alone in this crossfire of truth, half truth and lie. Anandi seemed to be a classical media war victim, who finally started to fight her own battle."
Best Web Series - Jury Award
Kahdiak's Kitchen: Season 2 - Episode 1
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Film Directed by: Seng 2kx (Genre: Comedy, Cooking Show)
"Kahdiak learns a thing or two about a thing or two in the ways of traditional styled butchery. Then he takes some of that delicious steak to surprise his brother with a steak cooking challenge! Who will cook the better steak? You're just going to have to watch and find out!"
Best Music Video - Jury Award
#RÚŠKONIEJEHANBA / Mask is not a shame
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Film Directed by: Dominik Schmidt (Genre: Music Video, Student)
"Corona has struck us and we, at least in Slovakia, have to wear masks everywhere. This is an experimental clip to raise awareness of not only protecting yourself and others and being resposible, but also about showing empathy for people suffering from COVID-19"
#RÚŠKONIEJEHANBA / Mask is not a shame
Categories Award
Best Short Film - Less then $5000
Virginia, Forever
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Film Directed by: Daria Rountree (Genre: Short)
"A woman mourns the mysterious disappearance of her wife."
Trailer of - Virginia, Forever
Best Short Film - Between $5000 - $10,000
CRACK A SMILE
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Film Directed by: LEVY CLAUDE (Genre: COMEDY, ROMANCE)
"On a sunny day, the lives of 9 young people intertwine in Paris, against a backdrop of pop culture, passion about photography and relationships between men and women."
CRACK A SMILE
Best Short Film - More than $10,000
A Trip with Mom
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Film Directed by: Sophie SHUI (Genre: Drama)
"In order to take care of his old mother (played by Liou, Yiin-Shang), who has lost her intelligence and is disabled, Xia Changming (played by Yi-Wen CHEN) remains unemployed at home.
A family of four, who have been relying on the wife Xiaoling (played by CHIN, TZU-YEN), who is an insurance salesperson, for many years.
Under the multiple pressures of the complaints from her wife, economic loading, long-term care, and physical and mental bundling, Changming is always depressed and feels hopeless and helpless.
Finally, when the police brought the mother back, and his wife took his son away, after receiving a call, Changming mark the late summer with a red pen. He decided to take his mother to travel..."
Trailer of - A Trip with Mom
Best Feature Film - Less than $5000
Not Enough Entries
Best Feature Film - Between $5000 - $10,000
Not Enough Entries
Best Feature Film - More than $10,000
Devika
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Film Directed by: Jibin George James (Genre: Experimental, Feature)
"Devika, a model claims that she was sedated and raped during a film's audition. At the same time a model coordinator Naresh, a friend of Devika, comes forward and claims that he was with her that day and both had sex with each other's consent, and it wasn't a rape. The situation is again discussed through an interview session, revealing both of their characters and the truth. The movie demonstrates the common attitude of the Indian society towards women. Our society has defined woman's personality within the constraints of her form and dress and if anything, less than what is expected by them is seen in their petty vision, she is labelled as a slut. This perspective should be challenged.
Woman should be treated as an independent personality. She also has all the rights and freedoms of a democratic country. It’s not a generosity by men. Through Devika, we are trying to convey is the general attitude of people. When a person narrates or describes an event, he doesn't reveal certain details. Thus, the truth which being told will change. The truth is what we find while uncovering all the blind spots and angles. The real truth can only be identified by looking at it from all the sides."
Best Web Series
Trillo & Suede Web Series
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Film Directed by: Jonathan Geffner (Genre: comedy, parody, film noir)
"A film noir parody web series, set in Brooklyn, NY. Written, created, executive produced and starring ventriloquist Jonathan Geffner. Trillo & Suede are a ventriloquist/dummy detective duo. Episode 1 of 10 weekly episodes was released on Jan. 1, 2020.
In Episode 9, "Lisa Mona", the beautiful client of the title turns to Trillo & Suede to track down the source of horribly frightening text messages. Will Trillo & Suede be able to track down the culprit before the harassment escalates? And can a femme fatale find true love with a puppet?"
Trillo & Suede Web Series
Best Music Video
Six Day Back
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Film Directed by: Scott Cierski (Genre: Animation, Music Video, Short, Web / New Media)
"Three bodybuilders sing about a revolutionary new workout regimen."
Back Stage Award
Best Director
Award Goes To: "Jordana Valerie Allen-Shim" for the film
Gay as in Happy: A Queer Anti-Tragedy
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Film Directed by: Jordana Valerie Allen-Shim (Genre: Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student)
"An experimental autoethnographical documentary about queer joy, resistance, and resilience in the face of abuse, trauma, and transphobia."
Best Cinematographer
Award Goes To: "Sergio M. Lorenzana" for the film
Remembrance
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Film Directed by: Tom White (Genre: Drama, Triller, Suspense, Romance)
"Two broken souls find one another on the road to recovery that reveals they share an even deeper connection.
Part of the Bad Things, Good People anthology."
Trailer of - Remembrance
Best Editor
Award Goes To: "Elisavet Pirounia" for the film
Dukkha
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Film Directed by: Elisavet Pirounia (Genre: Documentary, Student)
"The endless peaks and green mountains are dotted with rapeseed fields. Hope is that the animals, plants and people, people and cattle and sheep still survive tenaciously in this barren soil. They live together in this field for generations. It is like a mission calling the descendants of this village, whose voice spans thousands of mountains and rivers. I returned to Yak boy (Zhang Xuerong). Here comes the beauty and hope of this field."
Award Goes To: "Shivaprasad Ramachandran Ikkara" for the film
Best Screenplay
Devika
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Film Directed by: Jibin George James (Genre: Experimental, Feature)
"Devika, a model claims that she was sedated and raped during a film's audition. At the same time a model coordinator Naresh, a friend of Devika, comes forward and claims that he was with her that day and both had sex with each other's consent, and it wasn't a rape. The situation is again discussed through an interview session, revealing both of their characters and the truth. The movie demonstrates the common attitude of the Indian society towards women. Our society has defined woman's personality within the constraints of her form and dress and if anything, less than what is expected by them is seen in their petty vision, she is labelled as a slut. This perspective should be challenged.
Woman should be treated as an independent personality. She also has all the rights and freedoms of a democratic country. It’s not a generosity by men. Through Devika, we are trying to convey is the general attitude of people. ......
Best Production Design
Behind High Walls
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Film Directed by: Frank Bartscheck II (Genre: Drama, Experimental, short)
"This short film is a collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students at the American University in Cairo (AUC). The students were supervised throughout the entire process by AUC Professor Tania Kamal Eldin in the Film Department.
Behind High Walls is an allegory of the demise of the Arab revolution. The protagonist, Karim, is a disillusioned young man who has passed away under enigmatic circumstances. His soliloquy is intercut with vignettes from his memorial.
Karim represents the dashed hopes of Arab youth as well as their precarious future.
"
Trailer of - Behind High Walls
Front Stage Award
Best Performances (Male)
To Be Announced
Best Performances (FeMale)
Award Goes To: "Alejandra Guilmant" for the film
Mantis
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Film Directed by: Hugo Fernández (Genre: Comedy, Drama, Women, Thriller, Crime)
"Mantis, a crazy bitch cruel and ruthless, moves around the country mercilessly hunting the names of her list. The identity of Mantis is still an absolute mystery and national authorities advise men not to leave home alone and to avoid talking to woman they don't know.
Lucas, indifferent to the news on the radio, finishes building one of his airplane models. Suddenly, there's a knock on the door..."
Trailer - Mantis