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Congratulations to our July 2021 Award Winners

SHORT TO THE POINT JULY 2021 AWARDS


BEST FILM

Feeling Through | United States | 2020 | 19’     

Director: Doug Roland   

Writer: Doug Roland      

Producers: Doug Roland, Phil Newsom, Susan Ruzenski, Luis Augusto Figueroa    

Cast: Steven Prescod, Robert Tarango

Synopsis: Feeling Through, the first film to star a DeafBlind actor, is a coming of age story that follows Tereek, a teen wandering the streets of New York, desperate for a place to crash when he encounters Artie, a DeafBlind man in need of help getting home. From an awkward meeting between strangers emerges an intimate bond, and a journey that forever changes Tereek.


BEST DIRECTOR

Feeling Through | United States | 2020 | 19’     

Director: Doug Roland   

Writer: Doug Roland      

Producers: Doug Roland, Phil Newsom, Susan Ruzenski, Luis Augusto Figueroa    

Cast: Steven Prescod, Robert Tarango

Synopsis: Feeling Through, the first film to star a DeafBlind actor, is a coming of age story that follows Tereek, a teen wandering the streets of New York, desperate for a place to crash when he encounters Artie, a DeafBlind man in need of help getting home. From an awkward meeting between strangers emerges an intimate bond, and a journey that forever changes Tereek.


BEST SCREENPLAY

Quarantine | Russian Federation | 2020 | 15’   

Writers: Vlad Malakhov, Aleksandr Khant             

Director: Aleksandr Khant           

Producers: Irina Bondarovich, Igor Kuznetsov     

Cast: Irina Pegova, Roman Fomin             

Synopsis: Irina works as an accountant. In the middle of a coronavirus pandemic she decides to go to the office to transfer salaries to the company’s employees. However, her plan falls apart when she meets Boris, the paranoid security guard who protects the office not only from robbers but also from the virus itself.


BEST LEADING ACTRESS

The School Bus | Turkey | 2019 | 15’     

Actress: Ezgi Ay

Director: Ramazan Kılıç 

Writer: Ramazan Kılıç     

Producer: Ramazan Kılıç

Cast: Ezgi Ay, Muttalip Müjdeci, Hüseyin Yıkılmaz              

Synopsis: Nebahat, a teacher in her 20s, has just been appointed to a rural village school in Anatolia. She realizes that her students are struggling to arrive at school, hitchhiking tractors, using whatever means they can find. She asks the Ministry of Education for a shuttle, but without a driver, the vehicle is useless. So, she decides to be the bus driver for her students but she does not know how to drive!


BEST LEADING ACTOR

Feeling Through | United States | 2020 | 19’     

Actor: Steven Prescod

Director: Doug Roland   

Writer: Doug Roland      

Producers: Doug Roland, Phil Newsom, Susan Ruzenski, Luis Augusto Figueroa    

Cast: Steven Prescod, Robert Tarango

Synopsis: Feeling Through, the first film to star a DeafBlind actor, is a coming of age story that follows Tereek, a teen wandering the streets of New York, desperate for a place to crash when he encounters Artie, a DeafBlind man in need of help getting home. From an awkward meeting between strangers emerges an intimate bond, and a journey that forever changes Tereek.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

V=(4/3) πr^3 | China |  2020 |  20’         

Cinematographer: Zhang Chaoyi

Director: Ruiqi LU            

Writer: Ruiqi LU                               

Synopsis: In the winter, a ballerina tripped over two glass beads whilst dancing and then gave birth to a baby whose eyes are marbles. When the baby grows up, two children took her eyes by mistake.


BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

New Year’s Eve | United States | 2021 | 13’

Production Designer: Zhiqiang Gao

Director: Zeyingtai Steven Lyu   

Writer: Zeyingtai Steven Lyu      

Prodcers: Zeyingtai Steven Lyu, Lu Huang, Chen Lv           

Cast: Tingqi Han, Chengxuan An, Ming Zhang, Shuo Xu, Hanxu Zhang, Zeyingtai Lyu           

Synopsis: In the morning of New Year’s Eve, the old man is writing Chinese calligraphy when he oversees a man in the suit talking to his son and daughter-in-law about selling the old courtyard house. As the dark falls, the family gathered in the dining room for dumplings. The old man’s last attempt to persuade his family that he prefers to live in the old house instead of migrating to America fails.  Reveling in the nostalgic memory of lighting firecrackers with his departed wife and juvenile son, he decides to take his grandson to shoot off some forbidden fireworks as a commemoration for the lost time. Their secret plan is exposed when his son comes to call them for dinner. After a long moment on his own, he decides to proceed with his unlawful action and makes fireworks blooming in the sky once again. The sound of fireworks is soon blended with the police siren at far.


BEST EDITING

Yoshi Funabashi | Italy | 2021 | 04’        

Editor: Gigi Giallini

Director: Mattia Ramberti           

Writer: Mattia Ramberti                                               

Synopsis: A stylised portrait surrounding Yoshi Funabashi, founder of Studio Ypsilon: a luxury atelier designing Italian classics with a Japanese touch. By mixing his sophisticated heritage with a fascination for Italian music, Yoshi’s character becomes the embodiment of the “Opera Connoisseur”.


BEST NARRATIVE

Buona Notte | France | 2021 | 10’          

Directors: Victor Bindefeld, Grégoire Bensimon 

Writers: Victor Bindefeld, Grégoire Bensimon    

Producer: Alexandre Dahan                        

Synopsis: On Halloween night, three thugs are on their way to a burglary, they’re about to break into an old house. They get caught by an armed owner, holding a shotgun.  One of their phones starts to ring. It’s showtime…


BEST DRAMA

The Gambling City | Sri Lanka | 2020 | 16’          

Director: Prageeth Maniyangama            

Writer: Mola Senevirathne         

Producer: Nuwan Alwis

Cast: Daya Wayaman, Chamara Priyasad, Kumari Dissanayake    

Synopsis: “The Gambling City” short movie unveils the unflinching reality behind a funeral taking place within a highly underprivileged lumpen working class community, settled in the shanty shelters of the coastal belt in the city of Colombo. They live in the ghettoized outskirts of a futuristic dreamscape, with just a walking distance to the largest economic urban project of South Asia; ‘The Port City’ and to which the gigantic shadows of all the noble ministers’, judges’ and president’s fall, whereas these humans are born even without the right for fulfilling the basic exigencies of their lives, except their innate right for voting for their rulers. An old man in the community suddenly passes away and a petty bourgeois merchant in the coffin selling business, along with his helping hand grabs the opportunity of organizing his funeral on behalf of his family members. Eventually, the funeral turns out to be a ‘great gambling feast’ of the ‘merchant-vultures’ and the wily gamblers of the area. The corpse of a dead man claims a great capitalistic value in the gambling city. On the other hand, life leaves no choice for the living, other than bidding even the last thousand notes left in their pockets for the mega gamble in order to survive till tomorrow. As the police seize the place, the gamblers flee away while at last the inert corpse of the dotard gets arrested as the accused for the illegal gambling business. Thereupon, the old man’s wife and the son engage in a relentless struggle with the symbolic law of the police institution for granting the bail for their beloved’s body before it rots inside the jail, delineating the tragedy of such disadvantaged social outcasts who are victimized within the contemporary socio-legal structures in the country.


BEST COMEDY

Quarantine | Russian Federation | 2020 | 15’   

Director: Aleksandr Khant           

Writers: Vlad Malakhov, Aleksandr Khant             

Producers: Irina Bondarovich, Igor Kuznetsov     

Cast: Irina Pegova, Roman Fomin             

Synopsis: Irina works as an accountant. In the middle of a coronavirus pandemic she decides to go to the office to transfer salaries to the company’s employees. However, her plan falls apart when she meets Boris, the paranoid security guard who protects the office not only from robbers but also from the virus itself.


BEST ADVENTURE/ACTION

Thinking of a Masterplan | Canada | 2021 | 18’

Director: Nin Meyboom

Writer: Nin Meyboom  

Producers: Nin Meyboom, Ethan Fetterly             

Cast: Michael Scott, Jessica Myrie, Michael Perotti, Harris Bailey, Mazz Amini       

Synopsis: A robbery takes a turn for the worse.


BEST HORROR

Drip | Australia | 2021 | 09’       

Director: Sidney Fenton

Writer: Sidney Fenton   

Producer: Sidney Fenton             

Cast: Elle Harris, Yuliya Napier   

Synopsis: Logline: All she wanted was a quiet night at home. The home had other ideas.  Brief synopsis: When the strange sounds in her new home prevent Elle from enjoying a relaxing night alone, she begins to suspect an evil presence. As she discovers the true intentions of her tormentor, her night  becomes a fight to survive.


BEST THRILLER/MYSTERY

99 PROBLEMS | United States |  2021 |  17’       

Director: Michael G Kehoe          

Writer: Michael G Kehoe             

Producers: Michael G Kehoe, Tori London, Richard Joel, Rob Harper         

Cast: Richard Leacock, Tori London, Michelle Allaire, Will Dixon, Sala Baker, Yan Birch, Dennis Keiffer, Teva Dresbach-Barnea 

Synopsis: A stranger offers people an opportunity to change their immediate future, an offer that could save them from danger.


BEST DANCE/MUSICAL

Cascades | France | 2021 | 15’       

Director: Dorian Migliore  

Writers: Dorian Migliore, Simon Lemonnier 

Producers: Dorian Migliore, Simon Lemonnier            

Cast: Yann Miettaux, Simon Lemonnier, Lucie Langlois, Lucas Nicolella 

Synopsis: Trapped in his daily life, an individual embarks on a symbolic journey to encounter his deepest fears.


BEST STUDENT

Mother’s Day | Poland  | 2021 | 11’       

Director: Patryk Kaflowski           

Writer: Patryk Kaflowski              

Producer: Krystyna Doktorowicz

Cast: Alina Szczegielniak, Wiesław Kupczak          

Synopsis: A short story about mothers in oppressions. The fox travels through the forest in search of food. When she reaches the edge of the forest, she comes across a lonely farm where she witnesses the stormy events involving a young woman expecting a baby.


BEST YOUNG DIRECTOR

Maks | Slovenia | 2021 | 18’     

Director: Martin Draksler             

Writer: Martin Draksler

Producer: Jožica Blatnik

Cast: Maj Kralj, Nina Rakovec, Gregor Zorc           

Synopsis: In the absence of his mother, seven years old Maks decides to find company at the basketball court. Lack of warmth and attention forces him to take matters into his own hands.


BEST CHILDREN

Colourful feathers | Mexico | 2021 | 04’              

Director: Maribel Suárez              

Writer: Maribel Suárez 

Producer: Esteban Azuela                            

Synopsis: A group of white chickens cackle in a pastureland with their chicks, when they see a blue chicken arrive. They show their discontent and refuse to share their shelter. But when a fox prowl near the place, the white chicken finally accept the blue chicken in the group.


BEST ANIMATION

Save Ralph | United States | 2021 | 04’

Director: Spencer Susser              

Writer: Spencer Susser 

Producers: Jeff Vespa, Lisa Arianna, Spencer Susser         

Cast: Taika Waititi, Ricky Gervais, Zac Efron, Olivia Munn, Pom Klementieff, Tricia Helfer, Liv Tennet

Synopsis: Save Ralph is a stop-motion animated documentary-style short film written and directed by Spencer Susser and produced by Jeff Vespa in partnership with Humane Society International (HSI) and the Arch Model studio of puppet maker supreme Andy Gent. The film features HSI’s campaign spokesbunny Ralph, voiced by Taika Waititi, as he goes through his daily routine as a “tester” in a lab. In addition to Taika Waititi as Ralph, the film stars Ricky Gervais, Zac Efron, Olivia Munn, Pom Klementieff and Tricia Helfer, with additional versions in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Vietnamese with Rodrigo Santoro, Rosario Dawson, Wilmer Valderrama, George Lopez and others voicing the characters in those languages.


BEST DOCUMENTARY

Queen for a Day | Germany | 2020 | 19’              

Director: Inna Knaus      

Writer: Inna Knaus                                         

Synopsis: Going towards her final exam Inna, a film student, realizes, that she has a creative block and doesn’t have a film to present to her professors Wim Wenders and Pepe Danquart. She reflects on her life and her studying years and comes up with a plan to somehow pass the exam.


BEST EXPERIMENTAL

V=(4/3) πr^3 | China |  2020 |  20’         

Director: Ruiqi LU            

Writer: Ruiqi LU                               

Synopsis: In the winter, a ballerina tripped over two glass beads whilst dancing and then gave birth to a baby whose eyes are marbles. When the baby grows up, two children took her eyes by mistake.


BEST MUSIC VIDEO

TOST | Russian Federation | 04’               

Director: Mikhail Gasimov           

Writer: Mikhail Gasimov              

Producer: Tasha Deeva 


BEST MINI SHORT

{Be Authentic_ | United Kingdom | 2021 | 02’

Director: Michael Coppola           

Writer: Michael Coppola              

Producer: Nicci Brighten              

Cast: Nicci Brighten        

Synopsis: {Be Authentic_ is a 90-second micro-short film combining retro visuals and enchanting sound design with a modern diary-entry voiceover.  We follow curious and free-spirited Bea on a solo day trip along the coast of North-East Italy as she escapes the pressures of urban living to reconnect with her authenticity and creativity. The snapshot story unfolds in the form of a sensory journey that inspires us to contemplate and appreciate the simple wonders of life. After all, it is these experiences and memories that make us who we really are.  When getting away from it all and slowing down becomes a movement beyond Covid-19 lockdown and quarantine, it reminds us of the restorative benefits of much needed alone time as a pathway to true happiness and a way to collect material for those all-important memory banks.   But is everything as it seems? And can we really believe our senses, or is our mind’s eye simply deceiving us?


BEST LOW/NO BUDGET

Bogdan and Rose | Poland | 2017 | 15’

Director: Milena Edyta Dutkowska          

Writer: Milena Edyta Dutkowska              

Producer: Milena Edyta Dutkowska         

Cast: Maria Ciunelis, Jerzy Rogalski

Synopsis: Borden and Rose are an old marriage. They have been living together in one room, working at the same schools canteen, but they don’t speak to each other. Their live is filled with silence and daily reciprocal malice.


BEST AMATEUR

Seule | Canada | 2021 | 05’       

Director: Abigail Whitney            

Writer: Abigail Whitney

Producer: Abigail Whitney

Cast: Jasmine Ward        

Synopsis: Seule is a fashion film about a young woman arriving in Toronto for the first time. But the city’s on lockdown-there’s no one to be found anywhere, she’s now left on her own in the empty streets of Toronto.


BEST FASHION SHORT

Nostalgia | Portugal | 2021 | 05’             

Director: Anastasia Raykova       

Writers: Anastasia Raykova, Angela Franklyn       

Producers: Anastasia Raykova, David Royzengurt              

Cast: Rina Grishina, Elizaveta Moryak, Alina Nizova          

Synopsis: ‘Nostalgia’ is a short study of female friendship.  After many years away, Adele returns to her hometown and meets her childhood friend, Nina. Growing up together they shared all their most joyful, happy and crazy moments. But the meeting turns out to be just a figment of Adele’s imagination as she passes by the familiar house filled with happy memories.


BEST COMMERCIAL/AD/TVC

JUST BREAK AWAY | Canada | 2021 | 05’            

Director: Sean Kalra        

Writer: Sean Kalra           

Producers: Yael Carnet, Laura Carnet      

Cast: Denzel Onaba, Mansa Aki Gibbs, Benjamin Ayesu  

Synopsis: A young boy finds the inner strength to prevail over his surroundings by walking in his late father’s footsteps.


BEST STOP-MOTION/TIME-LAPSE

A Flower and Two Chicks | France | 2021 | 05’ 

Director: Alice Thibault 

Writer: Alice Thibault, Pierre Delort                                        

Synopsis: In an egg box, two birds and a flower live together. But sharing the place is not easy for everyone…


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