Best Short Narrative & Experimental
Instant
Director: Paola Veiga
There are things in life that we do because we have to........... .........................
Best Student Short Experimental
La Eterna Búsqueda del Quién
Director: Raquel Salome Velasquez
“La eterna búsqueda del quién” explores identity and grief through a fusion of techniques such as digital animation, oil on glass and mixed media. Through the monologue an introspective journey is made, reflecting on loss and personal transformation.
Best Analogue Film
This Grey
Director: Cristina Zar
Cristina Zar is a filmmaker and cinematic artist for video games. She’s written and directed several short films and music videos that have been selected for festivals like Sundance Festival Channel Shorts, Cinema Jove and the Shanghai Queer Film Festival.
Best Music Video
Sidders - Make It Break
Director: Liam Woolmer Thompson
A music video exploring the turmoil of a breakup, capturing the emotions of false connections and the illusion of togetherness.
Best Animation
The forest of the honey bees
Director: Erwan Le Gal
Isabelle is a violinist-beekeeper in the Ouessant island. She protect her bees and she inspire her daughter with stories and legend about honey bees....
Best Student Short Film
Son
Director: Saman Hosseinpuor
In a village in Kurdistan, an old mother is waiting for her son to return from military service. After a long absent, the mother tries to find him but she discovers a secret which pushes her in a dilemma to deal with her Son identity.
Best Student Animation
Sandcastles
Director: Meredith Stewart
A wistful child re-lives a memory close to their heart........................ .....................
Best Student Video Essay
Loneliness, sexual alienation, nihilism, a comparison between Shame and Help me Eros
Director: Elisa Cherchi
Video essay about a comparison between "Shame" ( Steve McQueen) and "Help me Eros" ( Lee Kang Sheng). Using split screen technique, this work focuses on loneliness, nihilism and sexual alienation of the characters.
Best Student Short Narrative & Experimental
Film of Changes, (or How I Free Myself with Rules)
Director: Ningrui Liu
This documentary investigates the aesthetics, philosophy and ethics of a traditional Chinese form of cleromancy -I Ching, or book of changes, by writing bespoke coding language and combining this tool with traditional media landscapes like film and creative arts, and related hybrid forms to subvert Its predominant uses. This approach is to encourage the unforeseen in the filming process, which is breaking the filmmaking rules, and relinquishing control from the filmmaker's decision. The current video and audio outcomes are based on the speculation that there is a hunch in the film industry that a systematic approach to cinematic notation is possible but has yet to be developed. As such, filmmakers could use a system of symbols to build a story, just like the staves and notations used by musicians.
Best Student Animation
Out of the Bag
Director: Ashley Ayeri, Weigeyuan Margaret Chen, Nick Tardiff
Bank robber Roy runs out of a bank vault where a getaway van is waiting for him, operated by his girlfriend Roxie. While he loads the van, a stray cat sneaks in their bags, mesmerized by the papr bill floating through air. The two criminals prematurely celebrate when suddenly they see the stray cat calling 911. Sheriff McDaniels and his squad pull up to the scene and spark a chase. The cat seems to put an end to all of Roxie and Roy’s plans to get the police off their tail. Amidst all the chaos, the cat ends up in the front, gearing the car to drive off a cliff. The robbers and the cat land in a prison yard, where it is revealed that the cat is actually a member of the police force. The cat explains how he derailed their perfect getaway, leaving Roxie in shock. In the end, the cat walks away with style and the prison gate locks up behind him. The film ends with the silhouettes of the cat and the sheriff walking into the sunset.
Best Cats In Shorts
The Cat Put Me Down
Director: Jack Cosgriff
A story about a boy and his cat. On Kirby's 18th birthday he contemplates a major decision, but is conflicted by the love of his cat Gazpacho.
Best Student Short Narrative & Experimental
Moss Dragon
Director: Georgia Tato
When Ella returns to her parents' home, in an attempt to reconnect with her forgotten childhood, she is drawn into the magical forest of her own psyche to track down her childhood self.
Best Short Experimental
Unboxing
Director: Danila Bim , Jimmy Slonina
A woman finds herself on a surreal journey of self-discovery. Suspended only by her hair, she utilizes poetic and acrobatic movement to delve into Carl Jung’s concept of individuation, separating herself from her thoughts, reflecting on the inner walls of her mind, and questioning whether she has the strength to break free from her limitations.
Best Animation
Let's Make Peace - Snowed In
Director: Abdollah Alimorad
Afandi and Pashandi are neighbors. The smoke of the Afandi’s house chimney is disturbing Pashandi. They fight but after a wolf attacks them, they know that they should unite to defeat the wolf.
Best Short Narrative
Mine Mine Mine
Director: Duncan Ragg
A bed-bound man reflects on his childhood with Peter Pan, and how sometimes everyone grows up without you.
Best Experimental
Metropolis
Director: Noomen Noomen
Alexander moved from his rural town to the capital, then the city’s problems were embodied in his body and soul, so he sought refuge outside the city center to create a city special to his human and cosmic nature.
Best Animation
The Sprayer
Director: Farnoosh Abedi, Mohammad Ghaffari
In the land occupied with the sprayers army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private. So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how dose a plant grows or look like, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary
Best Short Film
Ruthless
Director: Matthew McGuigan
In 1970’s Northern Ireland, a young boy, bereft of his mother, defies his father to get the Glam Rock album he so desperately wants. It’s Belfast - early 70’s… BOOM! Something’s in the air and it’s not a bomb, it’s a revolution. Glam Rock is drowning out the noise of armoured cars. As British soldiers patrol the streets, kids are glued to Top Of The Pops, entranced by Marc Bolan, the androgynous, satin-clad, glitter-god. In a high-rise flat lives a recently bereaved father and his ten-year-old son PJ, who is desperate to get his hands on the new T. Rex album Electric Warrior. The problem is he’s skint and his Da is on the dole. PJ comes up with a cunning plan to get the dough, involving a sock, a prosthetic leg and a pawnbroker. Ruthless is a humorous, heartwarming story of how a prosthetic leg and a T. Rex album become the conduit for overcoming grief.
Best Music Video
Fukushima
Director: Toño Chouza
Today we all live on the periphery of ourselves. Where does our life really take place? Is it here, where our body is, or there, on the digital peripherals?
Best Documentary
The Teardrop Vase
Director: Cathy Brooks-Baker, Gwenllian Thurstan
The Teardrop Vase is an intimate short documentary, filmed in the studio of established South London potter, Suleyman Saba. The film follows the transformation of a handful of clay into an alluringly glazed vase. Saba’s designs reflect a contemplative persona at ease with his tactile skills. He considers pots as sculpture, and the forms and glazes he creates bring together traditional techniques with modern sensibilities. His work is held in many public collections including the Ashmolean Museum, National Museum of Wales and York Art Gallery. There’s a rhythm to this artist’s craft, wonderfully amplified by the music of his virtuoso pianist father. This meditative film considers how a craftsperson's personality and experiences influence their work, whilst contemplating our human relationship to clay and the elemental process of pottery making, one which has existed for millennia and continues into the present day.
Best First Time Filmmaker
Pumpkin Eater!
Director: Jasper Marshall
An aging cowboy's past threatens to catch up with him when he duels a self-proclaimed reaper in a battle of wits and bullets.
Best Student Experimental
It's Getting Bad Again
Director: Sarah Reyes
It's Getting Bad Again follows the life of a young woman as she unconventionally navigates her worsening mental health in the wake of a depressive episode.
Best Student Short Film
The Way Back
Director: Alina Bichieva
Ember is a 21 year old photography student, stubborn, confident and independent. Her biggest dream has always been to move out of her hometown - she hated it for as long as she could remember and never felt comfortable there. But as Ember fulfils her dream and moves away to a different city, she keeps coming back to the memories of her past life and introspecting her connection with her hometown.
Best Student Animation
1x1x1
Director: Yinuo Shao
This animated surreal film is about the process from knowing yourself to accepting yourself, it's a long journey, it's a loop. This story begins with the little house built in our inner world...
Best Experimental Film
Sleep Talking
Director: Michelle Li
An exploration across dream and reality. ADD SOME MORE TEXT TO MAKE IT SAME LENGHT TO THE NEXT ONE.........................
Best Animation
Ixestum
Director: Kipp Jarden
Witness an ancient shamanic ritual from the outer realms of time and space. ADD SOME MORE TEXT TO MAKE IT SAME LENGHT TO THE NEXT ONE.........................
Best Short Film
(AB)Normal
Director: Miguel Parra
Leo, Juan, David and Lucio cross paths at their gym´s locker room. Four people, four different ways to understand masculinity: The conflict is on the air.
Best Lockdown Film Award
Mr Theatre Comes Home Different
Director: Adam Jackson-Smith, David Symmons
A funny and moving glimpse behind the safety curtain. Witness the love scene, the storm scene, the inevitable death scene and remember, it’s all only pretend. Pulitzer-nominated playwright, Will Eno's monologue Mr Theatre Comes Home Different has been adapted for the screen to celebrate all those who have been unable to work in the theatre industry due to the pandemic. Made in London, during lockdown in April 2021, with a cast of 12 actors and a small, dedicated crew, Mr Theatre Comes Home Different was conceived to raise money for the Theatre Artists Fund, supporting theatre freelancers in the UK. Now, as COVID-19 takes centre stage once again, we're releasing Mr Theatre to film festivals to continue generating support as an already fragile industry faces further disruption and potentially irreparable damage. Let’s set the stage again. Together.
Best Documentary
Drniski Prsut
Director: Tony Marin
Against the backdrop of a medieval Croatian village unfolds the story of Drniski Prsut, a world renowned prosciutto produced from locally raised and fed stock and cured using a centuries old recipe. Drniski Prsut tells the history of this picturesque town through its people and their relationship to this famed delicacy; from the unique micro-climate which provides the drying conditions essential for its legendary aroma, to the political and cultural influences which have shaped its flavour and reputation.
Best Student Animation
Isaiah
Director: Imke Reintjens
A masters graduation project, originally shown in an art installation on two separate screens. Isaiah is about the Christian version of the Welsh Mari Lwyd and her connection to Virgin Mary. A story of two mothers dealing with loss and opportunities for salvation.
Best Student Experimental
Four Walls
Director: Samuel Mitchell, Lily Kaplan
When a high school girl becomes consumed by the four activities that govern her life, she forces herself into an isolated, never-ending continuum. Her world is divided into two colors, red, manic, and blue, depressive and she uses drugs to regulate her dramatic emotional shifts. This strategy works until her two binaries collide, leading her little self-constructed world into chaos.
Best Student Short Film
The Escapist
Director: Jeongwoo Brian Cho
17 year old Jason, a student in South Korea, uses the sitcom "How I Met the One" (a play on How I Met Your Mother) to cope with the psychological abuse he receives from his mother. However, his addiction to the sitcom and his desire to escape from his reality results in his exposure to hallucinations and voices in his head established by his unconscious mind, ensuing in his slow descent to madness.
Best Student Micro Short
Escape From The Garden or A Tapestry In Three Acts
Director: Gabrielle Adair
'Escape From The Garden' takes inspiration from artwork by my grandmother to explore the trauma caused by inter-generational guilt.
Best Short Film
Starboy
Director: Joëlle Bentolila
A young Hasidic man increasingly doubts his identity, his gender, and the nature of being as conflict between him and his pious young wife escalates - with shocking consequences.
Best Student Short Film
Q: ghostly remote effect
Director: Marcus Hanisch
In the future. A hi-tech-lab. Scientist P is testing quantum-gynoid Q and sets off on a mission to an undiscovered nature. On the journey she discovers a ghostly remote effect between herself and the robot. Will she maintain in control, when nature starts changing?
Best Student Micro Short
Throw In The Towel
Director: Anne-Sofie Lindgaard
THROW IN THE TOWEL explores the theme of toxic masculinity set in 1950's East London, as a young man deals with the loss of his father as well as the transition from boyhood to manhood living with his widowed mother..
Best Music Video
Strange Breathin
Director: Adrien Peskine, Anthony Gystere Peskine
ADD SOME MORE TEXT TO MAKE IT SAME LENGHT TO THE NEXT ONE................. ..............................
Best Animation
Malakout
Director: Farnoosh Abedi
Music was his passion... Love was his masterpiece... ADD SOME MORE TEXT TO MAKE IT SAME LENGHT TO THE NEXT ONE
Best Student Animation
My Tagalong
Director: Jerry Wang
A story about two Gemini brothers' journey on the earth. The Older brother wants to enjoy the trip himself, but his younger brother always follows him and makes a lot of troubles.
Black History Month Film
Mitochondrial
Director: Laura Kamugisha
Mitochondrial illustrates the impact of black women’s unity regarding their representation in popular culture. Poetic and experimental, it connects, through an auditory allegory, black women and the mitochondria, the powerhouse of our cells.
Best Environmentalist Film
Built lands
Director:Arturo Dueñas Herrero
In the late 60s a group of artists decides to settle in a village in the ‘darkest-deepest’ Spain. Today only Felix Cuadrado Lomas still remains there, determined to reflect the landscape which surrounds him: the lands built by those who work on them.
Best Documentary
In the Same Direction: Jeff Pifher & Socrates' Trial
Director: Alexander Craven
From the inception of a musical idea, through the recording process and live performance, this short documentary tells the story of Jeff Pifher and his band Socrates' Trial and their idea of what jazz can be today.
Best 2020 Vision
Intimacy of social distancing: A trilogy
Director: Sasha Benarie
Intimacy of social distancing is a compilation of images recorded on a smartphone before, during and after the quarantine period between February and June 2020. It captures moments of urban daily life in a city that houses millions of people, symbols and lights. This trilogy shows images in which the viewer can easily empathize and look at the other with affection, appreciating the shared moments that life constantly brings us everyday. From an anthropological point of view, this piece contains a message to appreciate life’s inherent beauty no matter what the circumstances are. The images take us away from the consumerist perspective of everyday life, claiming the "humanly human" and advocating the approach between people through observation. All the music is original material especially composed for this short film. The movie has been made with no money at all.
Best Student Short Film
Dying In The Dream
Director: Shanshan Liu
A girl with mental illness is tracked in the misunderstanding of reality and hallucination, horrible stories about her parents and loved ones keep pouring in. She doesn't want to wake up...
Best Student Documentary
Evan, a survivor's story
Director:Rafiqfuad Yarahmadi
Evan, A Survivor's Story (Rafiqfuad Yarahmadi) is a documentary about a Kurdish journalist whose work filming and reporting on ISIS leads to threats to his life. He flees to the safety of Europe. The film reflects his struggle to learn English and not to lose hope despite the absurdities of the immigration system. This is a story of courage, love and survival, a story of Kurds everywhere and immigrants around the world.
Best Student Animation
Kaeru
Director: Denise Chan
A darkroom photographer named Mitsuko struggles with self-doubt. ADD SOME MORE TEXT TO MAKE IT SAME LENGHT TO THE NEXT ONE
Best Student Micro Short
Conscious
Director: Loren Alleyne
A dead girl becomes conscious during her own autopsy ADD SOME MORE TEXT TO MAKE IT SAME LENGHT TO THE NEXT ONE
Best Student Short Film
Junior
Director: Bert Dijkstra
A timid Zulu teenager makes a desperate attempt to prove himself to his father. ADD SOME MORE TEXT TO MAKE IT SAME LENGHT TO THE NEXT ONE
Best Music Video
Nowhere to go
Director: Krish Makhija
A Japanese filmmaker and his old caravan, Burrito take on the Portuguese countryside in a quest for nothing.
Best Documentary
Ray Richardson : Our side of the water
Director: Nina Degraeve
Originally from Woolwich, a popular suburb of South East London, there was no prospect that Ray Richardson would become one of the major figures in British figurative painting. Anchored on the south bank of the Thames, it is there that he finds the material of his work and the subjects of his portraits. In his traditional pictorial technique, he transposes cinematographic techniques specific to the language of "film noir".
Best Student Micro Short Film
The Last Embrace
Director: Saman Hosseinpuor
The Little girl wants to show her drawing to her family, but everybody is busy with their cell phones, she goes to her grandpa who has just past away a few minutes ago without anybody noticing it.
Best Student Micro Short Film
Village Boi
Director: Quynh Tran, Miguel Espinoza
A young boy makes friends with the wrong group of kids on his first day of school. ADD SOME MORE TEXT TO MAKE IT SAME LENGHT TO THE NEXT ONE