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SHORT to the Point – November 2022 Award Winners


BEST FILM

The Smile | Netherlands | 2022 | 16’     

Director: Erik van Schaaik             

Writer: Erik van Schaaik

Producer: Anita van Dalen           

Cast: Claire King, Tim Gunther, Erik van Schaaik 

Synopsis: When a world-famous film star is accused of eating his female co-stars, his career goes down the drain. That wipes the smile off his face!


BEST DIRECTOR

Phase 9 | France | 2022 | 25’

Director: Souliman Schelfout                     

Producer: Quentin Brayer            

Cast: Quentin Dolmaire, Elie Salleron      

Synopsis: Pietro struggles at online poker so much that he gives in to the worst idea. He installs an artificial intelligence supposed to make him unbeatable.


BEST SCREENPLAY

The Smile | Netherlands | 2022 | 16’     

Director: Erik van Schaaik             

Writer: Erik van Schaaik

Producer: Anita van Dalen           

Cast: Claire King, Tim Gunther, Erik van Schaaik 

Synopsis: When a world-famous film star is accused of eating his female co-stars, his career goes down the drain. That wipes the smile off his face!


BEST LEADING ACTRESS

ENOMENA | Greece | 2021 | 19’             

Actress: Margarita Tasi

Director: Phaedra Vόkali              

Writer: Phaedra Vόkali  

Producers: Phaedra Vόkali, Orestis Plakias            

Cast: Margarita Tasi, Froso Papadopoulou, Flomaria Papadaki     

Synopsis: Anna is a gifted but insecure 17-year-old girl who is desperate to belong. During an aquarium school trip, her jockey boyfriend pressures Anna into entrapping his go-to target, tough Albanian classmate Jo, so that they can bully them later on. Anna accepts the mission only to find herself perplexed by her own feelings for Jo. Now Anna needs to decide if she’s brave enough to follow her inner voice or succumb to the need to be accepted.


BEST LEADING ACTOR

Phase 9 | France | 2022 | 25’

Actor: Quentin Dolmaire

Director: Souliman Schelfout                     

Producer: Quentin Brayer            

Cast: Quentin Dolmaire, Elie Salleron      

Synopsis: Pietro struggles at online poker so much that he gives in to the worst idea. He installs an artificial intelligence supposed to make him unbeatable.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Left On Our Own | Hungary | 2022 | 27’              

Cinematographer: Viktor Juhasz

Director: Akos Kovacs    

Writer: Akos Kovacs       

Producer: Jeno Habermann        

Cast: Janos Papp              

Synopsis: An elderly taxi driver, who happens to be a tireless storyteller, is a man of contradictions: a hopeless romantic and a crude observer of life who has lived through individual hardship and witnessed the despair of others. He doesn’t hold back while roaming the streets of Budapest: the route to the destination leads through the labyrinth of his own memories and emotions, which his words conjure. Friends and strangers, cheap décor, lonely buildings, a life-long correspondence that encapsulates a relationship, numbing melodies from an ancient music box all swirl and blend in this film’s poetic vision. Sensitive writing and emotional cinematography draws the attention to small details, to personal hopes and everyday tragedies. A hypnotic, haunting and tranquil soundtrack gives eerily gentle force to the old man’s tales.


BEST EDITING

Left On Our Own | Hungary | 2022 | 27’              

Editor: Viktor Juhasz

Cinematographer: Viktor Juhasz

Director: Akos Kovacs    

Writer: Akos Kovacs       

Producer: Jeno Habermann        

Cast: Janos Papp              

Synopsis: An elderly taxi driver, who happens to be a tireless storyteller, is a man of contradictions: a hopeless romantic and a crude observer of life who has lived through individual hardship and witnessed the despair of others. He doesn’t hold back while roaming the streets of Budapest: the route to the destination leads through the labyrinth of his own memories and emotions, which his words conjure. Friends and strangers, cheap décor, lonely buildings, a life-long correspondence that encapsulates a relationship, numbing melodies from an ancient music box all swirl and blend in this film’s poetic vision. Sensitive writing and emotional cinematography draws the attention to small details, to personal hopes and everyday tragedies. A hypnotic, haunting and tranquil soundtrack gives eerily gentle force to the old man’s tales.


BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1939 | Hungary | 2022 | 01’

Production Designer: Viola Cserkúti

Directors: Zsolt Magyari, Claudia Benkő

Writers: Zsolt Magyari, Alexandra Kocsis, Claudia Benkő

Producer: Patrícia D’Intino          

Cast: Anikó Für, Levente Molnár, László Gálffy, József Gyabronka

Synopsis: On 3 September 1939, a young woman mysteriously disappears. A private investigator is set to the case. What happened to Ilonka? Is she hiding from her abusive military officer husband? Did she engage in an illegal political movement? Or on the contrary, she fell in love and fled the country with a Jewish journalist? What if she became a spy, as the butler believes? This detective story lets us peek into a society divided to the extreme on the brink of a global cataclysm.


BEST NARRATIVE

The Benefactors | Switzerland | 2022 | 09’         

Director: Christophe Lopez-Huici                                              

Synopsis: A weary young man thinks he found the perfect patrons for his rickshaw tours, but he soon finds out that his new customers can be very demanding.


BEST DRAMA

Life is a state of chaos | Canada | 2022 | 14’      

Director: Yann-Manuel Hernandez          

Writer: Yann-Manuel Hernandez             

Producer: Yann-Manuel Hernandez        

Cast: Sarah Keita, Christian Paul

Synopsis: This is the legendary story of a woman who had never cried. She had lost everything and had to go into exile far from home. Where the cold kills. She had run away all her life. So much so that she became the ghost of herself. She was alive and dead at the same time. Until one day she hears again a melody forgotten in the depths of her memory. Inspired by the feeling of exile and the melody The Gentle Waltz by Quebec jazzman Oscar Peterson, director Yann-Manuel Hernandez creates a fiction that navigates between the melancholy of the lost country and the desire to make peace with her past.


BEST FANTASY/SCI-FI

Phase 9 | France | 2022 | 25’

Director: Souliman Schelfout                     

Producer: Quentin Brayer            

Cast: Quentin Dolmaire, Elie Salleron      

Synopsis: Pietro struggles at online poker so much that he gives in to the worst idea. He installs an artificial intelligence supposed to make him unbeatable.


BEST DANCE/MUSICAL

Into The Arms Of Sunshine | South Africa | 2022 | 05’  

Director: Craig Moore   

Writer: Craig Moore      

Producer: Liam Johnson

Cast: Sabine Van Rensburg, Brin Schoellkopf       

Synopsis: ‘Into The Arms of Sunshine’ is an experimental movement piece told through poetry and motion. Starring two circus artists from the Montreal Circus; Sabine Van Rensburg and Brin Schoellkopf.  Written and directed by Craig Moore, the film is a story about two lost lovers who are separated and longing to be together again, using a series of visual metaphors to convey the emotions attached with separation. Told through the female perspective, they look to the sun for comfort and guidance as they long to be back in each others arms again.


BEST STUDENT

Familiar Stranger | Switzerland | 2022 | 20’       

Directors: Sara Furrer, Fabian Lütolf        

Writers: Sara Furrer, Fabian Lütolf           

Producers: Edith Flückiger, Urs Augstburger                        

Synopsis: Sara’s grandfather has left a void in her family. Who is Kamran Taan? The filmmaker sets off in search of clues and travels to La Spezia – the coastal city where he is said to have lived. What does kinship mean when you’ve never met? Unexpected events and revelations gradually form a narrative. A road movie about family and identity.


BEST YOUNG DIRECTOR

Manchukuo, 1943, Summer | United States | 2022 | 13’              

Director: Yifan Xiang      

Writer: Yifan Xiang          

Producers: Nicole Shan, Yifan Xiang         

Cast: Angela Lin, Lawrance Luo  

Synopsis: 1945, Manchuria, a young Manchurian huntress tries to steal a rifle from an injured imperial Japanese soldier.


BEST ANIMATION

Tomato Kitchen| China | 2022 | 09’       

Director: Junyi Xiao                                                        

Synopsis: An escaped tomato interrupted Lee’s dinner with his colleagues. The dark truth of the Tomato Kitchen along with Lee’s hidden past were revealed by this unexpected incident… 


BEST DOCUMENTARY

Rangers of the Ulaan Taiga | United States | 2022 | 14’

Director: Eric Daft                           

Producers: Mark Fisher, Mongol Ecology Center                

Synopsis: A look into the lives of the Ulaan Taiga rangers who have dedicated their lives to the national parks and protected areas of Mongolia.


BEST MUSIC VIDEO

Destination | China | 2022 | 04’              

Director: Chen Lu            

Writer: Chen Lu

Producer: Weihang Wang

Cast: Lingguo Wang        

Synopsis: Official music video for Chinese artist 拜德盖Viigho.

A emotional shattering journey of an astronaut searching for his loved one throughout the universe.


BEST MINI SHORT

A Call for Love | Germany | 2022 | 03’  

Director: Pat Borriello    

Writers: Pat Borriello, Regina Ostertag  

Producer: Melis Celebi  

Cast: Layne Willis, Anna Tse        

Synopsis: Being the object of scorn is something we hardly get over. Left out. Dejected. Reminiscing good times that never were. Furiously blaming everyone and everything around – even the incarnation of love itself.


BEST NO/LOW BUDGET

Untitled Days | Germany | 2021 | 08’   

Director: Eva Rini May Cragg      

Writer: Eva Rini May Cragg          

Producer: Eva Rini May Cragg                     

Synopsis: A woman doesn’t quite want to come into frame. On the verge of invisibility, she tiptoes towards herself.


BEST DEBUT

ENOMENA | Greece | 2021 | 19’             

Director: Phaedra Vόkali              

Writer: Phaedra Vόkali  

Producers: Phaedra Vόkali, Orestis Plakias            

Cast: Margarita Tasi, Froso Papadopoulou, Flomaria Papadaki     

Synopsis: Anna is a gifted but insecure 17-year-old girl who is desperate to belong. During an aquarium school trip, her jockey boyfriend pressures Anna into entrapping his go-to target, tough Albanian classmate Jo, so that they can bully them later on. Anna accepts the mission only to find herself perplexed by her own feelings for Jo. Now Anna needs to decide if she’s brave enough to follow her inner voice or succumb to the need to be accepted.


BEST COMMERCIAL/AD/TVC

“Clean up” | Norway | 03’                                                                         

Synopsis: The app “Clean up” aims to make it even easier to get involved in cleaning up litter in nature. We made a video based on the somewhat unrealistic premise that the ocean will be completely free of plastic in the year 2050. That is actually the year it is estimated that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

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