SHORT TO THE POINT – JUNE 2019 AWARDS
BEST FILM
MAKR | United Arab Emirates | 2018 | 15’
Director: Hana Kazim
Writer: Hana Kazim
Producer: Hind Al Basti
Cast: Mansoor Alfeeli, Mohammed Ahmed, Madiya Humaid, Iman Tarik Synopsis: SHEIKH, a fake exorcist who recently lost his daughter and with it his trust in God, visits the home of KHALID, a man who claims his wife is possessed by a Djinn. He soon finds out that things are not as they seem.
BEST DIRECTOR
MAKR | United Arab Emirates | 2018 | 15’
Director: Hana Kazim
Writer: Hana Kazim
Producer: Hind Al Basti
Cast: Mansoor Alfeeli, Mohammed Ahmed, Madiya Humaid, Iman Tarik
Synopsis: SHEIKH, a fake exorcist who recently lost his daughter and with it his trust in God, visits the home of KHALID, a man who claims his wife is possessed by a Djinn. He soon finds out that things are not as they seem.
BEST SCREENPLAY
Lullaby | Spain | 2019 | 18’
Director: Roger Villarroya
Writers: Roger Villarroya, Verónica Navas
Producers: Irene Alfambra, Roger Villarroya, Mario Rico
Cast: Alba García, Aina Clotet, Josep M. Alejandre, Yann Labaye, Eva Llorach
Synopsis: In Laura’s dreams, a wound demands to be healed, deeper than anything that time and space define and reason explains.
BEST LEADING ACTRESS
Mano a mano | France | 2018 | 22’
Actress: NEUBERGER Abby
Director: COURVOISIER Louise
Writer: COURVOISIER Louise
Producer: MORAT Bruno
Cast: NEUBERGER Abby, BERNINI Luca
Synopsis: Abby and Luca, a couple of acrobatic artists, travel to perform from stage to stage. Their relationship is getting worse. The time of a trip by camper, they will have to face their problems and try to regain confidence in one another.
BEST LEADING ACTOR
Mano a mano | France | 2018 | 22’
Actor: BERNINI Luca
Director: COURVOISIER Louise
Writer: COURVOISIER Louise
Producer: MORAT Bruno
Cast: NEUBERGER Abby, BERNINI Luca
Synopsis: Abby and Luca, a couple of acrobatic artists, travel to perform from stage to stage. Their relationship is getting worse. The time of a trip by camper, they will have to face their problems and try to regain confidence in one another.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Échappé | United States | 2018 | 13’
Cinematogrpher: Beth Napoli
Director: Allison Mattox
Producers: Charlie Wilson, P.J. Walsh
Cast: Olesya Senchenko, Pavel Shatu, Nikolai Tsankov, Abigail Simon, Martin Harvey
Synopsis: While on tour in New York, a Soviet ballerina learns of her brother’s plan to defect.
BEST EDITING
Lost But Not Forgotten | United Kingdom | 2019 | 07’
Editor: Stuart Hackshaw
Director: Stuart Hackshaw
Writer: Stuart Hackshaw
Producer: Heeva Hamed
Cast: Stephan Chase
Synopsis: In the summer of 1930 the St Kildans had to evacuate their remote island home, severing an ancient tie and bringing to an end an incredible story of survival. Lost But Not Forgotten is a portrait of one such islander; a man out of time and place, desperately clinging to memories of a lost home to which he will never return.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
MONSTRUS CIRCUS | Francez | 2019 | 30’
Director: Jordan Inconstant
Writer: INCONSTANT JORDAN
Producer: INCONSTANT JORDAN
Cast: JORIS ADU , BERNARD FARCY , JORDAN INCONSTANT, TRISTAN TENARDIER, KEVIN LEGRO, DIDIER MORVAN , LOUIS DONVAL, OPHELIE VERRET
Synopsis: Leonard, a magician, decides to set up a circus troupe of unusual artists. His intention is not to show their monstrosity but rather to change people’s attitudes through the audience’s acceptance of them. However, not everyone is ready to welcome them and Leonard will stop at nothing when it comes to imposing his convictions …
BEST COMEDY
SHHHH | Israel | 2019 | 13’
Director: Jonathan Mordechay
Writer: Haim Zubida
Producer: Rechela Duetch
Cast: Noa Koler, Erez Drigues
Synopsis: It was supposed to be another ordinary evening for the couple who just had a cute baby. Father just came home from work, mother got up make dinner, but most importantly – don’t wake up the baby who just fell asleep because things can go wrong beyond imagination.
BEST DRAMA
Fish Cracker | Turkey | 2018 | 13’
Director: Yigit Evgar
Writer: Yigit Evgar, Melisa Kesmez
Producer: Yigit Evgar
Cast: Okan Yalabık, Demet Evgar, Alihan Türkdemir, Elif Dündar
Synopsis: A brother and sister aged 8 and 14, are forced to leave the place they once called home after the sudden break-up of their parents, and revisit as ‘guests’. The return is to bid farewell to their father before they move out of the city with their mother. However, they soon realise that neither their home nor their father is as it used to be.
BEST FANTASY/SCI-FI
Mariana 627 | United Kingdom | 2019 | 22’
Director: Finbarr Pine, Gareth Rowntree
Writers: Matt George Lovett, Chris Mitchell
Producer: Gareth Rowntree
Cast: Douglas Utting, Ryan O’Connor
Synopsis: In the unexplored depths of the galaxy, at the edge of the known universe, lies monitoring station Mariana 627. Distance from Earth: 235 light years Days Operational: 1523 Crew: 1 For Kurt, sole inhabitant of the distant station, every day is the same. He wakes up. He makes coffee. He waits for a signal he knows will never come. He rinses and repeats. His only companions are the black and white figures of old Earth cartoons and a faded pin-up girl named Gloria. One month is much like the next for the lonely spaceman until the surprise arrival of iZak, an integrated AI system sent to automate the facility… and replace Kurt aboard Mariana 627. With his time on the station finally drawing to a close, Kurt must teach his new companion everything he knows. But when the moment comes, will he really be leaving the facility in safe hands? ‘Mariana 627’ is a sci-fi short film about friendship, isolation and robots in the bleak abyss of deepest space.
BEST HORROR
The Care | Russian Federation | 2019 | 21’
Director: Dmitry Fadeiev
Writer: Dmitry Fadeiev
Producers: Dmitry Fadeiev, Ilia Grizenko
Cast: Lisa Varenikova, Nadia Ivchenko, Andrey Tregubov, Evgeny Zhenikhov Synopsis: Careless and reckless, she has the only chance to prove that she can look after another person, before social services remove her son. To her dismay, this person is completely paralyzed, but can move objects around.
BEST NARRATIVE
This happened to you…?/ Esto le paso a Usted…? | Peru| 2017 | 15’
Director: Ana Maria Estrada
Writer: Ana Maria Estrada
Producer: Ana Maria Estrada
Cast: Carlos Gassols
Synopsis: An old couple coming back to the country after 30 years and finding the reality that everything has change, also Fausto is obsses with the Alzheimer disease making this couple vulnerable for the scammers.
BEST STUDENT
Carrots | Iceland | 2019 | 15’
Director: Bergur Árnason
Writer: Bergur Árnason
Producer: Laura López
Cast: Sigurður Traustason, Sigríður Láretta Jónsdóttir
Synopsis: Based on the eponymous short story by Haraldur D Thorvaldsson, Siggi, a young man tries to deal with a world where he does not fit in and where everyone around him seem to be obsessed with carrots, forcing them upon him. An analogy that examines his relationship with love, family and isolation.
BEST YOUNG DIRECTOR
Bonsai | 2018 | 15’
Director: Sebastian Ortiz Wilkins
Writer: Mara Alvarez
Producer: Robin Macabulos
Cast: Cassandra Naud, Niki Wipf
Synopsis: Bonsai is a story about Frida, a teenager with a head full of leaves, who is deprived and neglected of the nurturing she should be getting. Frida, who was once a joyful teenager becomes a melancholic individual whom is faced with challenges after losing her mother. Frida faces problems in school, with herself, and at home where she is left behind to live under the parenting of her father whom does not support nor appreciate Frida’s passion for music due to the fact that it reminds him of his late wife. We tap into Fridas interior world where in we see her at her most comfortable state. We see her use of music and movement to help her find inner piece amidst the negativity in her exterior world. Paired with a melancholic piano piece, she is able to feel her mother’s love and touch. In here, Frida’s world is much more beautiful.
BEST CHILDREN SHORT FILM
Teddy Bear Rescue | Canada | 2019 | 03’
Director: Louis Bodart
Synopsis: A boy goes on an adventure to find his teddy bear stolen by a monster under his bed.
BEST ANIMATION
Duodrom | Switzerland | 2019 | 09’
Director: Basil Vogt
Writer: Basil Vogt
Producer: Saskia von Virág
Synopsis: We all have two sides. But if even the tiniest scare splits someone into a timid skin on the one hand and an overconfident skeleton on the other, that person has a lot of work ahead to bring their characteristics back into harmony again.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Small fish | France | 2019 | 25’
Director: Quentin Lestienne
Writer: Quentin Lestienne
Producer: Quentin Lestienne
Cast: Cyril Lestienne
Synopsis: Thinking about a quotation from Jean-Luc Godard : “We must make movies like a farmer makes his own organic vegetables and sells them on the market”, an investigation was necessary. Therefore I went to see my brother, organic farmer in the South of France. So what would be organic filmmaking ?
BEST EXPERIMENTAL
Bunker on Kummerstraße [Grief Street] | United Kingdom | 2018 |12’
Director: Susanne Dietz
Writer: Susanne Dietz
Producer: Ricky Stecker
Cast: Frauke Requardt, Kerim Butz
Synopsis: More than twenty-five over-ground bunkers can be found in the City of Duisburg, Germany. These concrete structures are an imposing reminder of an atrocious past. For decades they have been repurposed; some into flats, some occupied by musicians and artists, and some as accommodation for the elderly. ‘Bunker On Kummerstrasse [Grief Street] was filmed in a bunker built by the Nazis in 1943. An intimate cast of family, friend and people from the community participate in an abstract re-enactment of recurring memories and images, the film continuously moves through the floors of the bunker as scenes [re]visit moments of intensity. We just want something soft to fit between our heads and the earth.
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
Blauka – Fantazmat | Poland | 05’
Director: Mateusz Białęcki
Writers: Georgina Tarasiuk, Piotr Lewańczyk, Mateusz Białęcki
Producers: Georgina Tarasiuk, Piotr Lewańczyk
Cast: Georgina Tarasiuk, Piotr Lewańczyk
Synopsis: “Fantazmat” is a third music video of Polish indie band called Blauka. This 70’s-stylized song and ‘out of this world’ video inspired by retro-futurism is about searching for a perfect and imaginary lover, who is so ideal that he can’t be real.
BEST MINI SHORT
KA・TA・O・RI・HA | Japan | 2018 | 02’
Director: Kei Uehara
Writer: Kei Uehara
Producer: Masaki Shimamura
Synopsis: KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORI KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORI HAKATAORIHAKATAORI HAKATAORIHAKATAORI HAKATAORIHAKATAORI HAKATAORIHAKATAORI KATAORIHA KATAORIHA KATAORIHA HAKATAORI (Chorus) Hakata-ori, Japanese weaving passed down from generation to generation for 777 years. HAKATAORI
BEST MOBILE PHONE
The Broadcast | Russian Federation | 2019 | 19’
Director: Darya Sviridenko
Writer: Alya Farhat
Producers: Maxim Mussel, Boris Guts
Cast: Maria Trushkina, Sofia Shidlovskay, Mihail Fedorenko
Synopsis: The sincere wish of a teenager, with the help of a best friend, to wish mom happy birthday live, turns into an irreparable human tragedy and changes the fate of children.
BEST SERIES
Spice Frontier | United States | 2019 |8’
Director: Jalil Sadool, Adam Meyer Synopsis: Centuries after the destruction of Earth, Kent and his cyborg companion, C-LA, embark on a flavor-driven adventure across the dangerous intergalactic trade route known as the ‘Spice Road.’
BEST STOP-MOTION/TIME-LAPSE
The Freeway Man | United States | 2019 | 03’
Director: Paige Hurd
Producer: Sofia Perez
Synopsis: A stop motion film about a demon who feeds off fear running into a kid who’s indifferent to the demon’s scare tactics and is only concerned about his music.
