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Mila's Journey - Grand Jury Award
Directed By Annie Perkins
Mila's Journey follows her decision to return to India after more than 30 years. The film juxtaposes modern images with the old 8mm footage & pays homage to romance, adventure, spirituality, freedom and female independence.
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Minnie Loves Junior - Special Jury Award
Directed By Andy Mullins
What does a girl have to do to get a boy's attention? 'Minnie Loves Junior' is a heart-warming tale of a little boy who loves the ocean, and a little girl who loves the boy. Minnie lives in a seaside-fishing village. Junior lives there too. Little does he realize Minnie's unrequited love will soon save his life!
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Lychee Thieves - Special Jury Award
Directed By: Kathleen Kwai Ching Man
In Hawaii, the highly prized lychee tree blooms only once a year. Arnie and Ethel's feelings of suspicion are stirred when a Hawaiian stranger named Keoki offers to harvest their lychee. When Arnie's selfish impulses drive him to hire professional pickers for the task instead, Keoki realizes that their lives are being dictated by fear, and attempts to set things right. Paranoid Arnie and Ethel vow to protect their fruit from lychee thieves...at any cost!
The Story - Special Jury Prize - Originality of Vision
Directed By: Steve Bellamy
Disguised as a ski documentary, The Story is actually a riveting examination of what compels us to excel when facing the most extreme circumstances. Along the way, we meet amazing and eccentric characters: heroes, misfits, heroes who are misfits, and in the process we learn more than we could have imagined about ourselves.
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Little Gobie - Special Jury Award
Directed By: Tony Tang
As Gobie and Kuma set off, they meet Old Nic, an old mischievous hippie, who is also on his way to Santaland. Each saves the other during their adventurous journey that has them being chased by angry farmers, hatching astro-fish, climbing endless stairs, chasing a playful angel, traveling by hot air balloon, and getting a donut to save them from the Postmaster Ogre.
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Down This Road - Jury Prize
Directed By: Vinz Feller
As 12-year-old Rodney rummages through his mother’s safe in the basement office of the bar she runs, he discovers a change of address notice from family court indicating his estranged father’s new address. He decides to visit his father without his mother’s consent. During his short trip from downtown Manhattan to Harlem, we learn about this family’s tragic loss of their youngest son. Both father and the surviving son feel guilt and a tremendous amount of sadness. But ultimately Rodney wishes for nothing more but to get his father back in his life. He sees no other way but to confront him.
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OnAir - Jury Prize
Directed By: Carsten Vauth & Marco J. Riedl
A hobby-psychologist (Markus Knuefken) runs the pirate radio Nighthawk from the basement of his house, and every night he goes On Air as Doc Rock. Unexpectedly a serial killer The Night-Slasher (Charles Rettinghaus) calls in on his show, and now...Doc has to stop him from killing his next victim (Silke Natho). The struggle for survival is ON...AIR.
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The Buck Johnson Story - Jury Prize
Directed By: Blake McCray
Pork Pen employee and aspiring writer, Dave, struggles with his social distractions, mainly his party-animal best-friend Fred and his feelings for his longtime crush Stella. He finds inspiration during his wild night out that he uses to write the crazed story of the nutty redneck Buck Johnson who cuts his sandwiches with an axe. This combines with whiskey from the 'saddle', a hooker that dreams of being a stripper, and some hot redneck loving for a fast paced comedic short film.
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5th & Alameda - Best Feature Film
Directed By: Richard Friedman
Sara Nassari, an abused and pregnant woman, is the innocent bystander in a deadly robbery committed by reluctant criminal, Derek Trotter. After being accidentally shot in the robbery, Sara loses her unborn child. Returning from the hospital, Sara is shocked to find Derek in her apartment with a gun. At first assuming the worst, Sara believes that Derek is there to finish the job, but things are not as they seem. Determined to do penance for a lifetime of bad choices, Derek places himself in Sara's power, and Sara, who has been viciously abused by men in the past, takes the opportunity for vengeance. But as they begin to grow and understand one another, Derek and Sara form a surprisingly unorthodox bond that may prove redemptive for them both and ultimately save their lives.
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The Green Tie Affair - Best of Hawaii
Directed By: Dane Neves
'The Green Tie Affair' is a short musical about accepting your identity. Hickey Pine is a puppet living in a human world. Every day, he sports a flashy green necktie and receives nothing but great compliments from his friends and neighbors. One day, an admirer of his, Vixie, takes a snapshot of Hickey wearing his green tie and publishes it in a local newspaper. Days go by and Hickey begins to notice that everyone around him is now wearing a green tie on a regular basis, causing Hickey to go into a state of depression, rudely rejecting Vixie's harmless advances towards him.
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Dryerthèque - Best Actor
Lead Actor: Trevor Wissink-Adams
Directed By: David Turner & Alexandra Behles
Steve, a young mid-20s man, is drying his clothes at the laundromat. Upon pressing start on his dryer and turning around, he begins to hear the distant thump of club music. Spinning back around, the man is surprised to find that a line of young, well-dressed people have formed inside the laundromat, and are being let in to his dryer one by one by a large burly bouncer. A flirty femme makes eye contact with him, and then disappears within the dryer. Will he be able to make it into the Dryertheque before time runs out?
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An Affair with Dolls - Best Actress
Lead Actress: Alexandra Chalupa
Directed By: Hans Montelius
Hanna is left alone in a penthouse apartment with a box of dolls that her boy friend has left for her to play with. She hesitates, but tries it out, and she takes her frustrations out on the dolls. She ends up replaying the relationship with her boy friend with the dolls. And when the he comes back, she's ready for him and the game takes a serious turn.
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For a Fistful of Snow - Best Animation
Directed By: Julien Ezri
A long time ago, terror, loathing and power reigned over the Wild Wild North. The foolishness of the inhabitants led them to battle for anything, even... For a Fistful of Snow
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The Two Escobars - Best Cinematography
Directed By: Jeff Zimbalist & Michael Zimbalist
The Two Escobars is a riveting examination of the intersection of sports, crime, and politics. For Colombians, soccer was far more than a game: their entire national identity rode on the success or failure of their team. Jeff and Michael Zimbalist's fast and furious documentary plays out on an ever-expanding canvas, painting a fascinating portrait of Pablo, Andrés, and a country in the grips of a violent, escalating civil war.'
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Fast Times and Fast Food - Best Coming of Age
Directed By: Kyle Niemier
In this coming-of-age comedy, Alex is a high school senior who works at Burger Mania, the quirky fast food job he took years ago. As if Alex doesn't have enough on his plate, wearing an embarrassing hamburger costume while dealing with annoying kids to difficult senior citizens, he has the added stress of keeping his circus-like job a secret at school. The false sense of self-value Alex derives from his job title grows out of control and when his facade finally comes crashing down, he's in for an embarrassing life lesson.
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Das Tub - Best Director
Directed By: James Cunningham
Lost in the frozen depths of the Atlantic a German U-Boat crew find themselves on a collision course with objects stranger than they can fathom. The truth leaves them bathed in confusion in this submarine drama of domestic proportions.
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Hollywood, 90038 - Best Documentary Feature
Directed By: Jennifer Kes Remington
'Hollywood, 90038' is a documentary that follows five twenty-somethings who live in the same building over a period of four years through their struggles as they try to make it big in Los Angeles. This is a real story about people following their dreams. It is about the struggles they undergo, their loves, their enemies, their financial hardships, and their perseverance as each person strives to 'make it big' in Hollywood.
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Greenwashers - Best Documentary Short
Directed By: Bret Malley
Yes Men meet the Ad and the Ego. In the spirit of the Corporation and Nothing so Strange, the two characters in this film have been termed as the Borats of the green world. Greenwashers blurs the line between green and greed, truth and believability, environmentalism and marketing. Following a pair of Greenwashers, the film illustrates the various strategies, sins, and consequences of greenwash.
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Mental - Best Drama
Directed By: Joy Gohring
After receiving his PHD in Psychology from Harvard University and marrying his college sweetheart, Dave thought he had it all together. That is, until the past came back to haunt him. His traumatic childhood and socially destructive behavior in college were suppressed and forgotten, as he instead focused his attention on exploring the deep-rooted issues of the patients he dealt with daily. When something occurs in his life that triggers the past, Dave suddenly realizes he’s in over his head. He ironically finds himself sitting on the opposite side of the couch as he wonders – is being “normal” possible, or is he in too deep?
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Out of the Darkness - Best Educational Film
Most of the world's blind people live in remote, impoverished areas. The majority of doctors able to cure them work in cities. Dr. Sanduk Ruit from Nepal, and his American partner, Dr. Geoff Tabin, have made perfecting a portable low cost surgery to restore sight their life's work. They trek to Nepal's remote Northeast, carrying an entire hospital on porter's backs. Their mission is to bring the needlessly blind out of the darkness.
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Dog That Runs in Rough Water - Best Environmental Film
Directed By: Mary Piller
The critically-endangered Hawaiian monk seal, is the most endangered pinniped in U.S. waters and the Official State Mammal of Hawaii, with rare and exclusive footage of a week-old female monk seal pup named Kai swimming and playing (with trash!). An ancient species, there are only about 1,100 of them left. This is not just a case of 'natural selection' when you consider the factors that have severely impacted their numbers - war, marine debris, overfishing and global warming.
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My Father, Joe - Best Family Film
Directed By: Nikila Cole
Set in the garment district of 1940's Montreal, My Father, Joe takes a heartfelt look at a family who has escaped the Nazis in Paris and arrived penniless in Canada. As Noah struggles to provide for his family in this bewildering new world, 10 yr. old Jacov has the shock of his life when he discovers his father is not the super hero he thought him to be.
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Suburbs of Downtown - Best Foreign Film
Directed By: Sergio García Locatelli
A city when looked at from exile turns into an object of yearning, nostalgia. Winter is the best time to paint a portrait of Lima, an ideal moment to see its gray sky and
walk through the mist in the middle of a large Latin-American city. In the historic core of reconstruction/restructuring, the aristocratic past coexists with those inhabitants that emigrated to the capital in search of the “Lima dream”.
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Genocide Revealed - Best Historical Film
Directed By: Yurij Luhovy
Focusing on the 1932-1933 artificial famine in Soviet occupied Ukraine and the accompanying executions, repressions and arrests of Ukrainian intellectuals, spiritual leaders and general population, the film depicts one of the greatest human tragedies of the 20th century. Millions perished. The documentary is based on compelling testimonies of survivors; commentaries by historians and researchers, rare historical footage, photos and most recent archival documents.
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Via Gori - Best Human Rights Film
Directed By: George Barbakadze
Russian planes start to bomb the Georgian town of Gori when a Russian woman has to travel inconspicuously on a minibus filled with Georgian evacuees. A single Russian word uttered by her or her young daughter could make them the enemy of everyone around. Will they pass unnoticed or will they be discovered?
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Apocalypse Story - Best Independent Short
Directed By: Jeffrey P. Nesker
Not long after the end of the world, a chance meeting in the wasteland. Two adolescents. A pragmatic Nomad, Claire has spent the better part of her life alone, simply surviving. Andrew hides away in a re purposed Store-All. Surrounded by foodstuffs and collected relics he only half understands, gone almost feral from solitude. The encounter draws surprising new emotions, and powerful, animal urges they’ve never experienced, but unconsciously suppress, to their own confusion. People are people, most of all those who are still figuring out who and what they are. No matter the circumstances.
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To The Death - Best Music Video
Directed By Danielle French
To the Death, a short film set to one of Danielle French's songs of the same name, reveals the psyche of Scarlett as she attends a performance at The Club, a surreal cabaret. Giving herself a Tarot reading, Scarlett manifests The Club out of thin air and instigates the patrons into action. Drawing on the principles in Jungian psychology where all the characters in our dreams are aspects of our own psyche, the odd and unusual patrons in The Club, as well as the performers backstage and on stage represent different aspects of Scarlett's psyche personified.
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Not Worth A Bullet - Best Screenplay
Directed By: Markus F. Adrian
The old tobacco storeowner Walter and his beloved wife Maggie are victims of a brutal robbery, so it seems. With his back to the wall and the knowledge of only having caught a glimpse of the villain in a fuzzy mirror, Walter identifies his tormentor in a face off with five suspects. Lieutenant Carter however does not give any credence to his words on account of Walter's obvious afflictions of old age, nor does his partner Detective Todd. With the wisdom and patience of an aged man Walter faces the prejudice and sets a trap for the perpetrator.
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Bathing and the Single Girl - Best Short Film
Directed By: Christine Elise McCarthy
A comedic look at the horror of dating and bathing with younger men.
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Falling Apart - Best Student Film
Directed By: Christopher Valori
Have you even loved someone so much that losing them caused you to fall apart? When Audrey breaks up with Alex, he begins falling apart . . . literally. With limbs falling faster than tears, Alex must find Audrey before he falls apart completely.
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