Film Festival Winners

Best Animated Short

The Promotion

Description

A hapless salaryman navigates the absurd corporate hierarchy of his surreal office space in pursuit of a raise and a promotion.

Director

Jane Steele

Best Student Film

Evil Eye

Description

An anxious young woman tries to break out of her shell by going to a party but her fears are lurking beneath the surface.​

An anxious young woman tries to break out of her shell by going to a party but her fears are lurking beneath the surface.​

Director

Mia StarrFrank

Best Animated Feature

Spacetime Chronicles

Description

Spacetime Chronicles is a surreal, dreamlike tale that follows the inner journey of Fred, suspended between reality, dream, and limbo. From a departing airplane to claustrophobic school corridors, from visionary landscapes to cryptic dialogues with Freud — a cat embodying his unconscious — Fred confronts fears, desires, and unresolved memories.

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Director

Stefano Bertelli

Best Narrative Feature

Influenca

Description

A talented photographer on the verge of viral stardom disappears in 2015; two neurotic filmmakers attempt to document his career and sudden fall from both notoriety and existence.

A talented photographer on the verge of viral stardom disappears in 2015; two neurotic filmmakers attempt to document his career and sudden fall from both notoriety and existence.

Directors

Ian James Milheim
Justine Hope

Best Narrative Short

Potato Potato

Description

When Cynthia writes a letter to the baby growing inside her about her hopes for their future, the baby writes back.

When Cynthia writes a letter to the baby growing inside her about her hopes for their future, the baby writes back.

Director

Josh Locy

Best Documentary Feature

THEY FIGHT WITH CAMERAS

Description

THEY FIGHT WITH CAMERAS, a 55 min. documentary by Nina Rosenblum and Daniel Allentuck narrated by Liev Schreiber, is a long-overdue tribute to the little-known contribution made by the combat cameramen of the U.S. Army Signal Corps to World War II in Europe and to our collective memory of the conflict. What distinguishes this film from previous documentaries about the war is that rather than furnishing an overview it presents an eyewitness account of the war as seen through the lens of a highly decorated frontline soldier/cameraman who recorded the war in Europe from D-Day to the liberation of Dachau with skill, empathy, and unflinching courage.

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Directors

Nina Rosenblum
Daniel Allentuck

Best Documentary Short

The Spirit We Move With

Description

"The Spirit We Move With" explores the rich history and enduring culture of the Gullah Geechee community on Hilton Head Island. Descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans who gained freedom prior to Emancipation, the Gullah Geechee preserved deep cultural traditions along the coastal Southeast.

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Director

Andrew Maguire

Best Experimental Film

inthebalance…wanting

Description

We say we weigh our choices, but how do we really? Our choices have consequences that define our future, but how can we have all the information we need to make choices when our lives are so limited. Time and death circumscribe the tapestry of our lives, yet we must choose despite such limits on our understanding. Relationships end with a word leaving us to wonder how our lives are buffeted in the resulting storm. Even not deciding is a decision where the tide of life sweeps our inactivity away. Or we act with the best of intentions in the belief that we’ve considered the pros and cons of our actions carefully only to find the consequences to be upheaval and destruction. Time and distance sometimes seem to provide a measure of clarity, but on closer examination they simply offer less ambiguity. As a group we are no different. A company terminates a small number of employees to save the larger number. We drop bombs killing hundreds of thousands to save millions more; and we develop weapons that keep the peace through the threat of their use. inthebalance…wanting asks “are we choosing ‘the good,’ or are we simply accepting the lesser of two evils?” It reminds us that rather than making virtue of such decisions, we should recognize the evil in those choices. Time has a way of finding them wanting in the balance.

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Director

Eric Kunzendorf

Best Ohio Feature

My Name Is Robert Ruark

Description

My Name is Robert Ruark is a heart-wrenching documentary that uncovers the true story of Robert J. Ruark, an Ohio man unjustly convicted of murder and imprisoned for nearly half his life. Told through powerful interviews with legal experts, family members, and justice advocates, the film highlights the human cost of inadequate legal representation that has deprived Robert of his freedom since 2008—and the grassroots movement now underway to see him freed. This is a story of mercy, hope, and justice.

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Director

Si Paros

Best Ohio Short

That Night

Description

An undocumented worker in a small restaurant tries to support her family back home. When a stranger arrives and the police get involved, her life takes an unexpected turn.

An undocumented worker in a small restaurant tries to support her family back home. When a stranger arrives and the police get involved, her life takes an unexpected turn.

Director

Sina Mahdavi

Best Music Video

Sunbeam

Description

What if summer was a drug you could take? That’s the idea that inspired this psychedelic journey of a music video. “Sunbeam” is a summer dream of old San Francisco inspired by the hippie love-ins of the 1960s and the notion that love & friendship could be an act of political resistance. Come along with us, you miss 100% of the trips you don’t take.

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Director

Jacob Skaggs

Best AI film

Maji

Description

In the time it takes to watch this film (2 minutes) a child will die…
"Maji" is the Swahili word for water. Every day, 1000 children perish because they do not have access to clean and safe water due to climate change and human indifference to suffering.

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Director

jimi Hall