WINNERS

MONTH OF APRIL

When The Walls Speak

Based on testimonies, performances, sensations and outlooks in videos sent by the public to the director, “When The Walls Speak” brings, in the words of Fernando Pessoa, a poetic account of the quarantine experienced by Brazilians in 2020.

Best Director(Documentary Under 40min) - Edson Ferreira

Skin

When a socially awkward Midwestern woman inherits a porn studio, she plans to take the money and run - until her dead father and a band of misfits force her to face her fears, and learn that misfits are people too.

Best Producer(Over 40min) - Ronn Kilby & Marti Kilby

Seven Thousand Souls

Serbia alone had lost a third of its entire population in the Great War, almost half its men.
This film talks about those that never returned home from the two biggest Austria-Hungarian prisoner camps on the territory of today's Czech Republic - Jindřichovice and Broumov.
A film that I owed to my nation.
SEVEN THOUSAND SOULS is a documentary - a feature film about the suffering of Serbian and Russian soldiers and interned civilians in Austro-Hungarian camps on the territory of today's Czech Republic, Jindrihovice and Broumov. The camps had about 500 facilities where there were about 60,000 prisoners of war.
Extremely difficult working conditions, no food, no shoes and clothes, winter and infectious diseases, all this affected the fact that 7,100 Serbs did not survive the camps. There is a mausoleum in Jindrihovice where the remains are
victims of these camps - 7100 Serbs and 189 Russians. It is the second largest Serbian tomb in the world.

Best Director (Documentary/ Over 40min) - Sanjin Miric

Same Old

One bad night for a New York City delivery driver.

Best Film (Under 40min) Directed By Lloyd Lee Choi

First Memory

Memory's a funny thing.

Best Emerging Filmmaker - Chip Hackler

What do we do

Some employees of a massive corporation make the mistake of actually questioning their purpose.

Best Screenplay - Roderick Fenske

In the Tracks of My Grandmother's Father

A dramadocumentary about the man who invented the world's biggest skiing competition Vasaloppet.

"In the tracks of our forefathers to future victories" - that is a rough translation of the slogan that has guided more than 1.5 million skiers in the world's largest cross-country competition – Vasaloppet - from it's inception in 1922 and onwards. The one who came up with the idea was my grandmother's father, Anders Pers, as a tribute to Gustav Eriksson (later king Vasa), who 400 years earlier took up the fight to liberate Sweden from the Danish rule. To literally follow in my forefather's tracks on the centenniel of the race is the vision of this film, in which my attempt to ski the 90 kilometers from Sälen to Mora intertwines with my personal reflections on my great grandfather, his time and his fascinating journey from small scale peasant to newspaper owner and member of the Swedish parliament.

Best Documentary (Under 40min) - Directed By Staffan Jonsson, Henrik Norman

Polish-English Phrasebook

My father finds the only page he needs in the phrasebook.

Best Animated Film(Under 40min) - Directed By - Eric Maierson

Eyes Upon Waking

A troubled woman must come to terms with her suicide attempts while spending several days in a holding facility. Inspired by the true story of one person's struggle to find purpose in her own existence.

The story follows a very distressed woman into a mental health facility following two attempts to end her life, and examines her growth into a still-troubled person content to continue living. In this incredibly true story, Taren Foley survives her second suicide attempt within a week, and is sent from the ER to a holding facility for three days of observation and analysis. Quickly realizing she has no intention of taking her life in the future, Taren alienates herself from the patients and staff, biding her time until she can be released. When circumstances force her to remain locked up all weekend, a compassionate Taren makes an effort to help her fellow patients with their issues, unaware she still neglects her own. By the time she is released on Monday, Taren has yet to feel better about her life, but there is hope that one day, she might.

Best Film(Over 40min) - Directed By - Timothy Zwica

Best Lead (Female) - Jennifer Scott

Black Cockatoo Crisis

Western Australia's iconic black cockatoos are in crisis. Their numbers have fallen dramatically over the past few decades and all three species in the south-west of WA could become extinct in just 20 years unless something is done to protect their habitats. With the loss of the banksia woodlands on the Swan Coastal Plain to housing, Carnaby's Black Cockatoos have come to depend on the once vast exotic pine plantations on Perth's northern fringe.
These pine plantations supply up to half of all the food needed to keep the population of Carnaby's alive but these too are disappearing. Within the next two years the remaining 4000ha of pines are slated for clearing leaving the cockatoos facing possible starvation.
Meanwhile the Baudin's Black Cockatoos are literally being shot out of the sky in an unequal battle for food with apple and pear growers in Perth's hills. And the Forest Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos are under threat from the loss of nesting hollows and declining habitat.
Black Cockatoo Crisis looks at the plight of our special cockatoos and what we can do to stop these threatened species disappearing for ever.
This is a story with a Western Australian focus but a universal theme. The world's biodiversity stands at a crossroads with more than 1 million species currently facing extinction. Will we act in time to save them?

Best Film on Nature & Wildlife( Over 40min) - Directed by Jane Hammond

Bullshit

Conventional wisdom - with a touch of joking undertone - suggests that the shortest fling can become the most significant one for a man; this is when it is unambiguously supported by a paternity test result. Of course, such a "literary work" is usually based on, albeit accidental, but ... Treason. So what should the heroes, husband and wife, mother and father with three children, do? Should they raise the concern, should they reveal the whole truth? But it can hurt deeply the one you love, even cause a breakup. So should they cover up the truth? Should they cover up it forever and would bear this burden for the rest of their lives? But it is not that easy to handle the pressure. Still, there is a way out, and the heroes of the film have found a solution - it turns out that they can do neither. It is enough just to love each other. Indeed, it seems that having such explosive characters our heroes won’t definitely be able to manage it without the help of this tool.

Best Short Film on Nature & Wildlife (Under 40min) - Directed By Borys Shusterman, Mykhailo Ozerov

Elise

Elise is enclosed in a Nouvelle Vague daydream, through which she intends to overcome personal hardships like the death of her mother, the relationship with her father, and social interaction anxiety. By confronting her own emotions, she realizes that she is only in control of her own reaction to adversity.
Elise is an homage to French Nouvelle Vague, but also a satire of the genre itself. The esthetic is used by Elise, the protagonist, as a coping mechanism for grief, depression, rejection, and loss. After losing her mother, Elise shelters herself in French cinema, this short film portrays the first time she leaves her house since that day, and the challenges, mostly emotional, that she faces during the day.
My intention is to lead the viewer through comedy, to empathize with the distress that some situations, as simple as they may seem, generate for a person with depression, making easier to comprehend, identify and properly treat depression in ourselves or our loved ones.

Best Director (Under 40 min ) - Alejandro Mac Gregor