BEST FILM
BALLOON | United States | 2019 | 17’
Director: Jeremy Merrifield
Writers: Jeremy Merrifield, Dave Testa
Producers: Kate Chamuris, Christina Cha
Cast: Paul Scheer, Jonah Beres, Jaylin Ogle, Carson Severson
Synopsis: Exploring gender through the lens of the superhero myth, BALLOON questions how we raise boys when our concept of masculinity has become narrow. For fourteen-year-old Sam, surviving junior high means staying below radar. But that becomes impossible after he becomes the target of the school’s next viral video. He’s pressured to “hit back,” but Sam isn’t so sure—even if he does have super powers.
BEST DIRECTOR
Songlines | France | 2021 |19’
Director: Elise McLeod
Writer: Elise McLeod
Producer: Amélie Quéret (Respiro Productions)
Synopsis: After a car accident, JFC, rock singer of Algerian origin, wakes up, lost in the French countryside with no one around to help him; he has lost his memory and doesn’t know who he is anymore. Yet in the village everyone seems to know him …
BEST SCREENPLAY
Songlines | France | 2021 |19’
Director: Elise McLeod
Writer: Elise McLeod
Producer: Amélie Quéret (Respiro Productions)
Synopsis: After a car accident, JFC, rock singer of Algerian origin, wakes up, lost in the French countryside with no one around to help him; he has lost his memory and doesn’t know who he is anymore. Yet in the village everyone seems to know him …
BEST LEADING ACTRESS
Love hurts | France | 2020 | 30’
Actress: Noe Abita
Director: Elsa Rysto
Writer: Elsa Rysto
Producer: Pierre-Yves Jourdain (Yggdrasil Pictures)
Cast: NOE ABITA, ANDRANIC MANET
Synopsis: Sam is a mysterious and shy teenager girl. She meets Troy, an ultra-violent boy who does not feel pain and fear. She’ll enter into his world… a world filles of love, punches and Grunge music.
BEST LEADING ACTOR
BALLOON | United States | 2019 | 17’
Actor: Jonah Beres
Director: Jeremy Merrifield
Writers: Jeremy Merrifield, Dave Testa
Producers: Kate Chamuris, Christina Cha
Cast: Paul Scheer, Jonah Beres, Jaylin Ogle, Carson Severson
Synopsis: Exploring gender through the lens of the superhero myth, BALLOON questions how we raise boys when our concept of masculinity has become narrow. For fourteen-year-old Sam, surviving junior high means staying below radar. But that becomes impossible after he becomes the target of the school’s next viral video. He’s pressured to “hit back,” but Sam isn’t so sure—even if he does have super powers.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BALLOON | United States | 2019 | 17’
Cinematographer: Frances Kroon
Director: Jeremy Merrifield
Writers: Jeremy Merrifield, Dave Testa
Producers: Kate Chamuris, Christina Cha
Cast: Paul Scheer, Jonah Beres, Jaylin Ogle, Carson Severson
Synopsis: Exploring gender through the lens of the superhero myth, BALLOON questions how we raise boys when our concept of masculinity has become narrow. For fourteen-year-old Sam, surviving junior high means staying below radar. But that becomes impossible after he becomes the target of the school’s next viral video. He’s pressured to “hit back,” but Sam isn’t so sure—even if he does have super powers.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Wait for the Dog | United States | 2021 | 27’
Production designers: Ian Rowe, Dillon Petrillo
Directors: Ian Rowe, Dillon Petrillo
Producers: Ian Rowe, Dillon Petrillo, Brit Freece
Cast: Ian Rowe, Leon Jacobs, Emily Eichman, Carrie Drovdlic, Jason Joyce, Dillon Petrillo, Holly Seeley, Nick Seeley, Holden Temple, Micah Temple, Laurence Ferdi, Jake Staley, Breon Jenay, Mothica, Lola Blanc, Tessa Nesis, Valencia Stallings, Matt Baker, Kirah H., Jesse Harley, Hayley Seat
Synopsis: In this surreal, dark comedy, a misguided loner named Quincy is forced to abandon the comforts of his daily routine and re-examine his life after his elderly upstairs neighbor spontaneously combusts. “Wait for the Dog” explores grief, depression, and perseverance of the human spirit, as we try to triumph over those pesky voices that bring us down.
BEST EDITING
Young Love In a Dirty Place | Latvia | 2021 | 04’
Editor: Reinis Spaile
Director: Reinis Spaile
Writer: Reinis Spaile
Producer: Helvijs Finkis
Cast: Nikola Abola, Tomass Piternieks
Synopsis: A girl explores multiple ways of closing the door to save their first relationship crisis. A youthful love story in depressing surroundings depicts how it was when the first love blurs everything around you. Film captures the contrast between colorful highlights of the young couple and grim post-soviet environment that reminds about the dirty dumpster called routine.
BEST NARRATIVE
Stains | Spain | 2020 | 05’
Director: Roger Villarroya
Writer: Roger Villarroya
Producers: Roger VIllarorya, Irene Alfambra, Mario Rico
Cast: Edward J. Bentley
Synopsis: A man washes his hands.
BEST DRAMA
The Masterpiece | United States | 10’
Producers: Ben Richardson, Andrew Smith, Arianna Myzia
Cast: Cristian Fredrick, McKenna Musich, Bailey Rayne
Synopsis: The cinematic, dramatized, but true story of Cristian Fredrick — from a terminal diagnosis at age 15, to alive and thriving as an artist and therapeutic painter.
BEST COMEDY
The Swap | France | 2021 | 11’
Directors: Chloé Dumond, Ananda Henry-Biabaud
Writers: Chloé Dumond, Ananda Henry-Biabaud
Producers: Chloé Dumond, Ananda Henry-Biabaud
Cast: Frédérique Dufour, Sébastien Corona, Chloé Dumond, Matthieu Penchinat
Synopsis: Sonia, 40 years old, single, decides to exchange sperme for a thesis correction in order to have a child.
BEST HORROR
The Last Christmas | Canada | 2021 | 12’
Director: Ryan Port
Writer: Ryan Port
Producer: Ryan Port, Moe Rai, Mafalda Gugliuzzi
Cast: Madison Cheeatow, Miley Haik, AC Peterson
Synopsis: LOGLINE A mischievous 8-year-old girl unleashes a twisted Christmas nightmare, when her plans to capture Santa Claus go horribly wrong. SYNOPSIS ‘Tis the night before Christmas and all is peaceful. That is until High School Cheerleader, Kirsten, is awoken in the middle of the night by her mischievous 8-year-old sister, Alice. Teased at school for still believing in Santa, Alice’s plan to capture the mythical gift giver and prove his existence has gone horribly wrong. The living room is trashed and Santa lie dead amidst a gruesome Christmas crime scene! The girls argue over their predicament, but Alice has a plan and convinces her older sister they must work together to get rid of the evidence and bury the body before anyone finds out they killed Christmas! As the girls struggle to drag Saint Nick’s carcass across the back yard, they are pleasantly surprised to find he is still alive! But just as things are starting to look up for the trouble-making sisters, they soon discover that Santa Claus isn’t quite the beloved character we’ve all grown up to believe.
BEST THRILLER/MYSTERY
The Disappearance of Janusz Klarner | Poland | 2021 | 12’
Director: Franciszek Berbeka
Writer: Franciszek Berbeka
Synopsis: In 1939 Janusz Klarner reaches the Nanda Devi East peak in the Himalayas. Everything that happened later seems to be a consequence of this act. The avalanche of events comes back in the memories of hero like a terrible dream. Broken taboo cannot be forgotten in a country that is reborn in the new communist order.
BEST ROMANCE
Le Tournesol | France | 2021 |19’
Directors: Arnaud MIZZON, Anais AIDOUD
Writer: Anais AIDOUD
Producer: ARNAUD MIZZON
Cast: JoeyStarr, Danielle GRAULE, Anais AIDOUD
Synopsis: Voulzy, a 30 years old single woman without kids decides to give up everything to go on a misssion in the Antarctic. After months of exams and tests, an encounter is going to turn her project upside down
BEST DANCE/MUSICAL
Who am i? Who i am. | Estonia | 2021 | 06’
Director: Sofia Kruusamägi
Writer: Sofia Kruusamägi
Producer: Sofia Kruusamägi
Cast: Anna-Maria Laius, Kertu-Liis Rannik, Anastasia Masalova, Sofia Kruusamägi
Synopsis: In the game of life no player have an advantage, everybody have a chance to win, regardless of the role the player chooses. If it is a battle between two people, the winner might seem to be obvious. But if there are more participants, the game becomes even more complicated.
BEST STUDENT
First One Away | United Kingdom | 2021 | 08’
Director: Zak Harney
Writer: Billy Reed
Producer: Daniel Panyko
Cast: Dan Skinner, Angus Imrie
Synopsis: Paul (Dan Renton Skinner) desperately tries to get away from a lads night out. But in order to do so, he must play by the ‘rules’ and tell the group a story. Paul decides to tell the group a morbid story of an abandoned grave that he decides to tend, and the unexpected journey this took him on. Through a series of zany flashbacks we see a young Paul’s (Angus Imrie) plight to form a relationship with his deceased father’s cemetery plot neighbour.
BEST YOUNG DIRECTOR
Out of Play | Israel | 2021 | 20’
Director: Romi Menachem
Writer: Romi Menachem
Producers: Amit Gur, Gal Sharabi
Cast: Talma Tal, Netanel Bondi, Ori Sardam
Synopsis: Bar (12), a longtime member of the boys’ group and the class’s soccer team, dominates the field more than ever and scores the winning goal at her school’s semi-final soccer tournament. So when the team’s captain announces opening the fixed line-up for voting, she isn’t worried. Following their first sex education class, Bar senses a change in the group and feels the need to ensure her getting enough votes until the end of the school day. While going from one friend to another, having a hard time getting what she wishes for, she starts to realize that a deeper issue is at stake.
BEST ANIMATION
Out Of Touch | Canada | 2021 | 04’
Director: Yuhan (Henry) he
Synopsis: After falling from the sky, our character relives his early childhood memories with his grandparents – except, they aren’t his grandparents, and he’s not in his regular body. Out of Touch is a 2D animation short film created by Henry He.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Hill 314 | Israel | 2020 | 28’
Director: Omrie Levy
Producer: Omrie Levy
Synopsis: My childhood’s view – Latrun’s hills. “Oasis of Peace”, A settlement set on hill 314, has founded on coexistence between Arabs and Jews. Ibrahim, a herder Bedouin, lives there with his family for 51 years. Since 1999 the settlement and Silence Monastery, the landowners, has made an agreement therefore Ibrahim has been threatened to be deported.
BEST EXPERIMENTAL
Estella Cancels Cancer | Russian Federation | 2021 | 08’
Director: Kadriia Tuktamysheva
Producers: Ilya Grizenko, Kadriia Tuktamysheva, Dmitry Fadeev
Cast: Estella Shilnikova
Synopsis: The true story of a young lady. Once Estella found out she had stage 4 cancer. So she is learning how to live with it. Her life is very ordinary, but she is special, she is bright, stylish and open minded. And we can see how she gets through the challenges and what she feels about it.
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
Amour | United States | 2021 | 05’
Director: Andres Soler
Producers: Andres Soler, John Allen Stephens
Synopsis: Two astropilots travel through space and time.
BEST MINI SHORT
Minha Mãe Fazia | Brazil | 2021 | 03’
Director: Andrei Smoler
Producer: Andrei Smoler
Cast: Arlete Julio, Giovanna Chagas, Marina Ambrósio, Nina Coelho
Synopsis: A short documentary film about Arlete Julio, a black business owner, and cook, reminiscing on her biggest influence, the inspiration behind her personal and professional success: her mother.
BEST MOBILE PHONE
Carmen | Paraguay | 2021 | 07’
Director: Daniel Gómez
Writer: Daniel Gómez
Producer: Daniel Gómez
Cast: Jazmín Romero, Alejandro Ramírez, Joaquín Bejarano, Cecilia Rojas, Magaly Fernández, Karina Sánchez
Synopsis: In 2004, Carmen meets Martín through a blind date. What seems like a chance encounter between strangers ends up being an unprecedented family reunion.
BEST LOW/NO BUDGET
A very good impression | 2021 | 05’
Directors: David Nguyen, Safran Lecuivre
Writer: David Nguyen
Cast: David Nguyen
Synopsis: A young and clumsy boy learns dancing to impress his crush.
BEST DEBUT
Minha Mãe Fazia | Brazil | 2021 | 03’
Director: Andrei Smoler
Producer: Andrei Smoler
Cast: Arlete Julio, Giovanna Chagas, Marina Ambrósio, Nina Coelho
Synopsis: A short documentary film about Arlete Julio, a black business owner, and cook, reminiscing on her biggest influence, the inspiration behind her personal and professional success: her mother.
