BEST FILM
BACKSTAGE FRIGHT | France | 2022 | 29’
Director: Alexandre Leroy
Writer: Alexandre Leroy
Producers: Alexandre Leroy, Pierre Bibloque
Cast: Délia Espinat Dief, Gilles Graveleau, Marie Benati, Antoine Vinck
Synopsis: Lily is a young actress going on stage for the first time. Unfortunately, she is late for the representation… but she faces stage fright, forgotten lines and battles with the people around her. That is only the begging of her nightmare.
BEST DIRECTOR
BACKSTAGE FRIGHT | France | 2022 | 29’
Director: Alexandre Leroy
Writer: Alexandre Leroy
Producers: Alexandre Leroy, Pierre Bibloque
Cast: Délia Espinat Dief, Gilles Graveleau, Marie Benati, Antoine Vinck
Synopsis: Lily is a young actress going on stage for the first time. Unfortunately, she is late for the representation… but she faces stage fright, forgotten lines and battles with the people around her. That is only the begging of her nightmare.
BEST SCREENPLAY
BACKSTAGE FRIGHT | France | 2022 | 29’
Director: Alexandre Leroy
Writer: Alexandre Leroy
Producers: Alexandre Leroy, Pierre Bibloque
Cast: Délia Espinat Dief, Gilles Graveleau, Marie Benati, Antoine Vinck
Synopsis: Lily is a young actress going on stage for the first time. Unfortunately, she is late for the representation… but she faces stage fright, forgotten lines and battles with the people around her. That is only the begging of her nightmare.
BEST LEADING ACTRESS
BACKSTAGE FRIGHT | France | 2022 | 29’
Actress: Délia Espinat Dief
Director: Alexandre Leroy
Writer: Alexandre Leroy
Producers: Alexandre Leroy, Pierre Bibloque
Cast: Délia Espinat Dief, Gilles Graveleau, Marie Benati, Antoine Vinck
Synopsis: Lily is a young actress going on stage for the first time. Unfortunately, she is late for the representation… but she faces stage fright, forgotten lines and battles with the people around her. That is only the begging of her nightmare.
BEST LEADING ACTOR
THE KNIGHTS | France | 2022 | 20’
Actor: Antoine Gillot
Director: Titouan Dumesnil
Writer: Titouan Dumesnil
Producer: Léa Wisniewski
Cast: Antoine Gillot, Rafael De ferran
Synopsis: In the great hall of a medieval castle, Jordi, an apprentice guide, finishes his day’s work. The visitors are leaving. Except for Antoine, his older brother, whom he has not seen for years.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BACKSTAGE FRIGHT | France | 2022 | 29’
Cinematographer: Pierre Nativel
Director: Alexandre Leroy
Writer: Alexandre Leroy
Producers: Alexandre Leroy, Pierre Bibloque
Cast: Délia Espinat Dief, Gilles Graveleau, Marie Benati, Antoine Vinck
Synopsis: Lily is a young actress going on stage for the first time. Unfortunately, she is late for the representation… but she faces stage fright, forgotten lines and battles with the people around her. That is only the begging of her nightmare.
BEST EDITING
Bellingham’s Belief | United States | 2022 | 09’
Editor: Tom Salvaggio
Director: Tom Salvaggio
Writer: Tom Salvaggio
Producer: Tom Salvaggio
Cast: Bob Bavnani, Megan Hamilton
Synopsis: 1954 – Panic erupts when the citizens of Bellingham, Washington notice strange cracks in their car windshields. What is causing this mysterious phenomenon?
BEST NARRATIVE
Uprooted | Ukraine | 2022 | 03’
Director: Andzej Gavriss
Writers: Andzej Gavriss, Konstantin Koval, Rick Dodds
Producers: Blake Powell, Thomas Bartl, Marc Haferbusch
Cast: Olya Shevchuk, Ivan Dorn, Olya Storozhuk, Anna Furdui
Synopsis: Displacement crisis has reached 100 million people globally. 60+ Ukrainian refugees were involved in making the film, sending a message of support to all refugees. The film focuses on the PTSD that people experience after fleeing the war.
BEST DRAMA
THE KNIGHTS | France | 2022 | 20’
Director: Titouan Dumesnil
Writer: Titouan Dumesnil
Producer: Léa Wisniewski
Cast: Antoine Gillot, Rafael De ferran
Synopsis: In the great hall of a medieval castle, Jordi, an apprentice guide, finishes his day’s work. The visitors are leaving. Except for Antoine, his older brother, whom he has not seen for years.
BEST COMEDY
Soundboys: at the river | Italy | 2022 | 07’
Director: Edoardo Pasquini
Writer: Edoardo Pasquini
Producer: Luciano Montesi
Cast: Edoardo Pasquini, Ivan Pellegrini
Synopsis: Being a Soundboy is not a simple job: it is a vocation. The real Soundboy searches for the right sound, sleepless and on an empty stomach, if necessary. But all this would be pointless without the most sacred element: silence.
BEST HORROR
INCUBUS | United Kingdom | 2022-05-06 | 17’
Director: Tito Fernandes
Writer: Tito Fernandes
Producers: David Elliot, Tito Fernandes
Cast: Malou Coindreau, Adam Ford, Emmanuel Berthelot
Synopsis: Trapped on a boat, a woman is haunted by fear itself.
BEST FANTASY/SCI-FI
The Lord of the Woods | Poland | 2021 | 28’
Director: Julia Bui
Writers: Julia Bui, Iwona Czapla, Karol Witenberg
Producers: Maciej Ślesicki, Siostry Bui, Karol Witenberg
Cast: Ada Nejman, Magdalena Kielar, Ewa Kasprzyk, Włodzimierz Dembowski, Bonifacy Gałka Gałka
Synopsis: Warrior Kriss meets a young girl in the forest, Mojmira, who escaped captivity. In the ruins of a hut, where they stop overnight, Kriss finds the Urobors, a magical object of time travel properties. Kriss is being entangled in a tragic love story of Mojmira-Valdemena and Derwan. The characters, constantly travel through time dimensions, trying to escape the vicious cycle and, in their own little ways, reverse the course of the tragedy.
BEST THRILLER/MYSTERY
Filter | China | 2022 | 12’
Director: Qianhang SHAO
Writer: Qianhang SHAO
Producer: Irene Gao
Cast: Ling Ling, Xiayu Lin
Synopsis: Xiaomei is a heavy user of the beautyCam/filter and cannot extricate herself from the world dressed by the BeautyCam/filter. However, the unexpected visit of her mother forces her to face reality. But what is the reality? Who are we without the filter? What is our real appearance? The anxiety and confusion of contemporary young people fermented in the digital space. Will it quietly reform who we are in real life?
BEST DANCE/MUSICAL
SAPHI | Spain | 2022 | 03’
Director: Javier Cano Larumbe
Writer: Javier Cano Larumbe
Producers: Martí Font, Cristina Herrera, Alejandra Zilvetti, Javier Cano Larumbe
Cast: Paula Losada
Synopsis: “Saphi” is an adventure to our origins, back to our roots and the deepest of our essence. A journey which connects our inner selves through nature and the world around us.
BEST STUDENT
The Clown Wars | Germany | 2021 | 05’
Director: Elenar Pila Nyffeler
Writer: Julia Dorit Mergel
Producer: Lisa Carstensen
Cast: Sandro Sutalo, Jing Xiang
Synopsis: When the venerable clown school of Claudia Clodetti calls for quietition, the talents show up to enter a rivalry with their like-minded. Likewise Konny and Dimples, two applicants, who soon enter an epic duel, blending reality and phantasy.
BEST YOUNG DIRECTOR
Flick-a-Cig | Germany | 2022 | 14’
Director: Elena Weiss
Writer: Julia Dorit Mergel
Producer: Lea Liya Wang
Cast: Marie Rosie Merz, Lea Media Schmidt
Synopsis: To escape from the void and the pain of her life, Carina fights everything and everyone that comes close to her. Even Nikolas, a man lying amidst his belongings, who seems to be as alone and lost as her. Until a tender bond begins to form between them.
BEST CHILDREN SHORT
Put It Back | United States | 2022 | 02’
Director: Diane Catsburrow Linnet
Synopsis: The boy is told he has to let the fish go.
BEST ANIMATION
THE SPRAYER | Islamic Republic of Iran | 2022 | 09
Director: Farnoosh Abeo
Writer: Farnoosh Abedi M.reza
Producer: Karimi Saremi
Synopsis: In the land occupied with the sprayers army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private. So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how dose a plant grows or look like, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Red Buoy | United Kingdom | 2022 | 28’
Director: Hannah Owen
Producers: Carolina Ratcliff, Spandana Patanaik
Synopsis: What’s the difference between growing up and growing old? Two parallel journeys explore time, age and memory.
BEST EXPERIMENTAL
DEAD DREAMS FALLING | France | 2022 | 13’
Director: Craig Murray
Writers: Amine Boucekkine, Craig Murray
Producers: Amine Boucekkine, Craig Murray
Cast: Adam Craigmile, Nevena White
Synopsis: Can a soul come alive without being both haunted and carried by a primal rip that keeps it torn between the irrepressible quest for a certain form of completeness and the equally incoercible feeling of being deprived of it forever ? This musical short movie evokes the life-and-death bond between two twins as a quantum entanglement explored through the interconnection of several levels of reality and temporality which are all versions of the same story. What is, maybe. What may have been. What could have been. What may have been deleted. So many dimensions that constitute a vast field of possibilities articulated according to a complex game. So what is real and what is fictional, since every version of reality keeps on haunting the others as an aborted alternative version of themselves ?
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
Ways To The Light | Russian Federation | 2022 | 05’
Director: Alexander Perfilyev
Writer: Tatiana Treglazova
Producer: Rodion Yudanov
Cast: Rodion Yudanov, Lev Trofimov, Anton Silaev, Roma Prosetsky
Synopsis: The story is about four different characters, friends, getting away from the city to a utopia of a pseudo soviet Russian village/country house lost somewhere in the past. Friends are taking part in different traditional country life errands. The plot combines all the positive traits of a Soviet Russia with its banned in soviet times roots Orthodox Christianity, folklore. etc. Makes the audience reminisce of the past in general and hope and look forward to a better times.
BEST MINI SHORT
Yeah I’m good thanks | United Kingdom | 2022 | 02’
Director: Hannah Lau-Walker
Synopsis: ‘Yeah I’m good thanks’ is a short film about the things we don’t say. Exploring the duality of what we present to the world and the reality of how we feel. In modern times, it can feel as though we’ve almost created automated responses to questions, rather than sharing our inner thoughts. This idea made me reflect on my first online chatrooms, well before what’s app and predictive text, where I would in some ways be my most honest; crudely divulging how I truly felt about the world to strangers from the safety of my bedroom desktop. Now with many working remotely and feeling the isolation that thing brings, it seems we discuss our inner thoughts less on online platforms and instead revert to our automated response “I’m good thanks, how are you?”
BEST SPORT
Swarmer | United Kingdom | 2022 | 20’
Director: David Ejins
Writer: David Ejins
Producer: David Ejins
Cast: David Omordia, Lloyd Morris
Synopsis: In the lead up to his final fight as an amateur, tensions flare between a young boxer and his coach over their differing opinions on his ability to succeed in the pros.
BEST FASHION
EXHIBITIONISM | Ukraine | 2021 | 02’
Directors: Jorj Jorburj, Igor Darovskyi
Producers: Irina Dzhus, Anatolii Elgert
Synopsis: The media epoch has been generating new codes of existence. Exposure is encouraged, fragility is celebrated, and a norm no longer exists. Artificial standards are set to be instantly reconsidered. In DZHUS SS22 collection of multi-purpose clothing and accessories, Irina Dzhus ironises equally the established stereotypes about human appearance and exaggeratedly optimistic new trends. DZHUS juxtaposes empowerment to the body cult in symbolically sexualised silhouettes featuring grotesque proportions. Exhibitionism coexists with introversion in all-covered outfits showing surreal, anatomic-looking details while being modified. While design of collars and pockets refers to breasts’ shape, pleated wig-like hoods are an allusion to hair obsession in the mass culture. The lingerie theme is boldly translated in the garments’ structure: 2 underwear bottoms merge into a top, whereas bra details are multiplied, forming a distorted biomorphic look. DZHUS deciphers sartorial patterns, meant to fit human body, and integrates recognisable cut elements in clothing details that, eventually, transform into bags and headwear. Created for both a procrastinating escapist and a media icon (possibly, same person), cosy DZHUS sweatpants turn into an appealing dress in a few seconds, and a skirt folds as a colossal shopper bag. DZHUS develops its concept of unified wardrobe items, inventing new, unprecedentedly variable ways of using seemingly basic pieces. This philosophy reflects the brand’s aspiration to fulfil a conscious approach to consumption with no limitation for creativity. The collection was produced with the support of Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. Music by EYIBRA Cruelty-free footwear provided by House Martin
BEST COMMERCIAL/AD/TVC
Visit Birmingham | United Kingdom | 2022 | 01’
Director: Ben Falk
Producer: CharacterShop Ltd
Cast: Darren Harriott
Synopsis: A cinema commercial produced in collaboration with Odelay Films and Leamington based agency rbl that showcases Birmingham & the West Midlands. The film features live-action shots of various West Midlands landmarks that were produced by Odelay Films, composited with our mix of traditional and cut out 2D animation. Designed by newcomer Steven Pascoe and animated by CharacterShop’s 2D team the film is a vibrant, colourful take on the West Midlands top visitor attractions. It includes hand-drawn animation at Warwick Castle and cut out 2D animations of multiple characters – Peaky Blinders in Digbeth and the host, top Brummie comedian, Darren Harriott – as well as Birmingham’s much loved Bullring Bull.
