22 Projects from 19 Countries Receive Unrestricted Support

Sundance Institute today named the global cohort of 22 independent nonfiction filmmakers and their projects that comprise the latest Grantees of the Institute’s Documentary Fund.
 
Grant support, unrestricted and totaling $520,000, will be extended to projects in all stages of development, production, post-production and audience engagement; grants are made possible by Open Society Foundations and MacArthur Foundation, along with a custom grant provided by A&E IndieFilms: the Sundance Institute | A&E Brave Storytellers Award, for projects which capture an ethos of courageous nonfiction filmmaking. This granting cycle’s supported projects come from nineteen countries across five continents, with just over 50% originating from outside the U.S. Grant funds are in addition to the Institute’s Respond & Reimagine Fund, announced earlier this year.
 
“At Sundance Institute, we know that these unprecedented times demand creative and nimble support,” said Documentary Film Program interim Director, Kristin Feeley, and Documentary Film Fund Director, Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs. “We’re fortunate to have a collaborative and strong network of partners that allow us to ensure material support for these filmmakers as they develop bold new work, we can ensure that the field of nonfiction storytelling continues to evolve even against larger headwinds.”
 
The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program is made possible by founding support from The Open Society Foundations. Generous additional support is provided by Ford Foundation; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Luminate; Sandbox Films; Skoll Foundation; The Kendeda Fund; The Charles Engelhard Foundation; Genuine Article Pictures; CNN Films; Cinereach; Violet Spitzer-Lucas and the Spitzer Family Foundation; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Bertha Foundation; Compton Foundation; Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman; National Geographic Documentary Films; Joan and Lewis Platt Foundation; Code Blue Foundation; EarthSense Foundation; Harbour; Vulcan Productions; WNET New York Public Media; Adobe; J.A. & H.G. Woodruff, Jr. Charitable Trust; and two anonymous donors.
           
The latest grantees, presented by production stage and grantor, are:
 
DEVELOPMENT
 
Alis (Colombia)
Dir. Nicolas van Hemelryck, Clare Weiskopf
Prod. Nicolas van Hemelryck, Clare Weiskopf
Through a creative act, eight teenage girls who lived on the streets of Bogota give life to a fictional classmate. As reality prevails and fiction fades, the innocent game becomes a descent into hell where their luminous faces guide us to the depths of the dark world they once inhabited. Is it possible to imagine a different life, break the cycle of abandonment and embrace the future?
 
A Hawk as Big as a Horse (Russia, France)
Dir. Sasha Kulak
Prod. Louis Beaudemont
Lydia is a Russian transgender ornithologist who lives in a small town near Moscow. In order to escape from the harsh Russian reality, she decided to create a world of fantasies around the Twin Peaks mythology.
 
How to Build a Library (Kenya)
Dir. Maia Lekow, Christopher King
Prod. Maia Lekow, Christopher King
Two ambitious Kenyan women are on a mission to revitalize Nairobi’s libraries.  But before realizing their dream, they must navigate the precarious halls of Nairobi's politics and the problematic colonial history from which these libraries were built.
 
Q (Lebanon)
Dir. Jude Chehab
Prod. Jude Chehab
For over fifty years a Syrian movement has been secretly growing into the largest Muslim women’s organization in the world. Through a generational lens, Q takes us deep into the mysterious, unspoken of world of the Qubaysiat, the regime-loving Sufis turned cult through the filmmaker, her mother and her grandmother’s relationship to the group.
 
Reas (Argentina)
Dir. Lola Arias
Prod. Gema Juárez Allen
Reas will be shot at Ezeiza Prison in Buenos Aires. A group of women and trans people wait out their sentences, reconstructing scenes from their past lives and imagining their future lives in the form of a musical in which they sing, dance and perform.
 
Regarding Memory and Neglect (Brazil)
Dir. Ricardo Martensen
Prod. Ricardo Martensen, Felipe Tomazelli, Dado Carlin
What’s left of us after we die? Our bones? Our belongings? Memories? How long do these traces of existence remain on Earth? By presenting three different stories in the city of São Paulo, this film questions our memories. The narratives and characters force us to face issues that the country of Brazil, in 2020, insists on forgetting.
 
Todo lo sólido (Cuba, Mexico, U.S.A.)
Dir. Luis Gutiérrez Arias
Prod. Zaina Bseiso, Alejandro Alonso Estrella, Joie Estrella Horwitz
Structured as an epic poem, Todo Lo Sólido tells the story of an island sinking into the Caribbean Sea. Encountering people and forces that have shaped its present reality, a nameless drifter searches for explanations about the island’s destiny.
 
Untitled Nicky Nodjoumi Project (U.S.A.)
Dir. Sara Nodjoumi, Till Schauder
Prod. Sara Nodjoumi, Till Schauder
In the hectic days after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art exhibited a series of paintings entitled “Report on the Revolution” by the emerging artist Nickzad “Nicky” Nodjoumi. Expecting it to be a warm embrace of Islamist ideology, religious hardliners who reviewed the show instead felt so enraged by the work that they tore it down, ripped it apart, and burned it. Nicky fled the next day in fear of execution. 40 years later, his daughter Sara Nodjoumi and fellow filmmaker Till Schauder investigate what happened to the surviving paintings, how this fateful exhibition shaped Nicky’s political activism for the rest of his life, and how its dangerous repercussions persist.
 
Yawar Shunku: Bleeding Heart (Ecuador)
Dir. Antonio Romero Zurita
Prod. Sam Vinal
Ecuadorian composer Guerardo Guevara composes his final requiem as he reaches 90 years. Meanwhile, his deceased niece, Elena, is brought to life through fragments of home movies and the podcasts she recorded. Filmmaker Antonio Romero Zurita is in the middle, drawing the musical map between the two of them, his uncle and sister.
 
PRODUCTION
 
Children of the Mist (Vietnam)
Dir. Ha Le Diem
Prod. Swann Dubus, Tran Phuong Thao
In the misty mountains of North Vietnam, a teenage Hmong girl walks the thin line between childhood and adulthood. Over a period of two years, girls in this minority group are forced to lose their innocence, discover the traps of seduction, and fight for their independence.
 
Girl Talk (U.S.A)
Dir. Lucia Small
Prod. Lucia Small, Dia Sokol Savage
Filmed over four years, Girl Talk follows five teenage girls on a top ranked debate team on their quest to be the best in the United States. In the cutthroat world of high school debate, these young women navigate the everyday challenges of teenage life while fighting against sexist double standards. As the debaters gain confidence and find their own voices, their struggles mirror the national fight for equality in our nation’s political corridors.
 
Whitewash (working title) (France)
Dir. Ahmet Necdet Cupur
Prod. Delphine Morel, Anke Petersen, Nadir Operli
In an Arab village situated in the south of Turkey, filmmaker Ahmet Necdet Cupur’s brother Mahmut wants to divorce his newly wed wife Nezahat. At the same time, Zenep, Ahmet’s sister who is engaged to their cousin, manages to break free and gets a factory job. As Ahmet delves into their lives, an image of early weddings appears in Turkey.
 
POST-PRODUCTION

City Hall (U.S.A.)
Dir. Frederick Wiseman
Prod. Karen Konicek
City government touches almost every aspect of our lives. Most of us are unaware of or take for granted these necessary services such as police, fire, sanitation, veterans affairs, elder support, parks, licensing of various professional activities, record keeping of birth, marriage and death as well as hundreds of other activities that support Boston residents and visitors. City Hall, by Frederick Wiseman, shows the efforts by the Boston city government to provide these services to a diverse population.
 
Eight Stories About Hearing Loss (Argentina, Uruguay)
Dir. Charo Mato
Prod. Charo Mato, Eugenia Olascuaga, Valentina Baracco
At the age of 23, after losing all of her hearing as a result of a hereditary, progressive and severe auditory condition, Charo decides to unlock and overcome the doubts and fears of her family by having an operation in order to recover her hearing. At this point, she realizes all the things that she had lost along with sounds, and begins questioning herself: how do we hear those who cannot hear?
 
The Monster and the Storm (U.S.A.)
Dir. Edwin Martinez
Prod. Jamie Gonçalves
A Puerto Rican cosplayer embarks on a quest to heal the loss of his father by creating and eventually becoming his life-long hero, Godzilla.
 
Murders That Matter (U.S.A.)
Dir. Marco Williams
Prod. Marco Williams
Murders that Matter documents Movita Johnson-Harrell, an African American Muslim mother who, in the aftermath of her youngest son’s murder, vows to save all the other sons, on both sides of the gun.
 
Our Little Palestine (Syria, Lebanon, France, Qatar)
Dir. Abdallah Al Khatib
Prod. Mohammad Ali Atassi, Jean-Laurent Csinidis
The film tells the story of a group of Palestinian civilian activists from the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, who decided to face bombing, displacement and hunger that hit their small community and turn it into a small-besieged ghetto through civil work, agriculture, study, music, theater, love and joy.
 
IMPACT & ENGAGEMENT
 
Survivors (Sierra Leone)
Dir. Arthur Pratt, Banker White, Anna Fitch, Barmmy Boy Mansaray
Prod. Sara Dosa, Samantha Grant, Arthur Pratt, Banker White, Anna Fitch, Barmmy Boy Mansaray
Through the eyes of Sierra Leonean filmmakers, Survivors presents a heart-connected portrait of their country during the Ebola outbreak, exposing the complexity of the epidemic and the socio-political turmoil that lies in its wake.
 
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE | A&E BRAVE STORYTELLERS AWARD RECIPIENTS
 
Chocobar (Argentina, U.S.A.)
Dir. Lucrecia Martel
Prod. Benjamin Domenech, Joslyn Barnes, Santiago Gallelli, Matias Roveda
Javier Chocobar was shot fighting the removal of his indigenous community from their ancestral land in Argentina. His death was recorded by his killers and posted as a video on YouTube. This film unravels both the story and the history that led to this shooting, both with a gun and a camera.
 
Untitled #NunsToo Project (Italy, India, U.S.A.)
Dir. Lorena Luciano, Filippo Piscopo
Prod. Lorena Luciano, Filippo Piscopo
After a nun is sexually abused by a bishop in India, an impromptu #NunsToo movement led by fearless Sister Lucy exposes the Catholic Church systemic cover-up. As many take to the streets in support of the nuns, two women in Vatican land, a journalist and a lawyer, put their careers at risk to hold the Church accountable.
 
Untitled Free Speech Project (U.S.A.)
Dir. Julia Bacha
Prod. Suhad Babaa & Daniel J. Chalfen
When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona and a speech pathologist in Texas are told they must choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across 28 states in America.
 
Untitled Vinay Shukla Documentary Project (India)
Dir: Vinay Shukla
Prod: Memesys Culture Lab
 
Details TBA.
 

Sundance Institute
Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, and media to create and thrive. The Institute's signature Labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Co//ab, a digital community platform, brings artists together to learn from each other and Sundance Advisors and connect in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as The Farewell, Late Night, The Souvenir, The Infiltrators, Sorry to Bother You, Eighth Grade, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, RBG, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, The Big Sick, Top of the Lake, Winter's Bone, Dear White People, Little Miss Sunshine, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, State of the Union, Indecent, Spring Awakening, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Fun Home. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Actress Anna Castillo will be awarded the Carlos Saura City of Huesca Award at the 48th edition of the Huesca International Film Festival. A recognition that highlights her outstanding career and projection, being one of the most talented performers on the current scene; "It has an innate capacity that has been demonstrated and developed in all kinds of genres and formats," says Rubén Moreno, director of the event in Huesca. Winner of a Goya award, Anna has in her filmography such outstanding titles as the feature films The Olive Tree , The Call or Journey to a Mother's Room ; and series of great critical and public success such as Paquita Salas , Arde Madrid orI'm alive . The award ceremony will take place virtually in a meeting exclusively for the Alto Aragonese contest where Carlos Saura himself will participate, who has given this recognition its name since last year.  

The 48th edition of the Huesca International Film Festival will award its City of Huesca Carlos Saura Award to actress Anna Castillo. The Alto Aragonese event thus recognizes the talent and projection of one of the most outstanding interpreters on the national scene, “she has an innate ability that has been demonstrated and developed in all kinds of genres and formats, her figure perfectly represents the spirit of this award that emphasizes the present and future of the seventh art ”says Rubén Moreno, director of the contest. The Goya Award-winning interpreter has a filmography where more than thirty works appear in just over a decade since her film debut, feature films such as The Olive Tree , The Call , Journey to a Mother's Room , Adú , along with series as Paquita Salas , Arde Madrid or I'm alive , corroborate its scenic strength. This tribute seeks to honor her figure and has the fundamental objective of highlighting close references for young filmmakers and professionals within the industry.

Since last year, the award has been endorsed by the Huesca filmmaker Carlos Saura, whose name joined the recognition. One of the most illustrious names in cinematography today, which was also the first to obtain it in 1991; after him others like Fernando Trueba, Arturo Ripstein or Julio Medem it received equally. Since 2014, the award has been reformulated and acquired a new prism that seeks to highlight talent and projection; This is how Adriana Ugarte, Silvia Abascal, Paula Ortiz, Leticia Dolera , Aura Garrido or Isabel Peña and Rodrigo Sorogoyen have collected it in the most recent editions.

The award in this 2020 will be delivered virtually in an exclusive meeting that Anna Castillo will grant to the Festival and where the filmmaker Carlos Saura will participate. An adaptation for this edition in which the Huesca cultural event is working intensely. Current circumstances have led the management team to redirect the next event to be held from June 12 to 20 and will be based on three essential pillars: an online part where you can see the 80 short films in competition and various parallel sections, face-to-face screenings with reduced capacity for the entire official section and a drive-in cycle that will combine the concept of festival feast with the necessary social distance recommended by health authorities.

TALENT, VERSATILITY AND WORK

Anna Castillo (Barcelona, ​​1993) links her life to acting since she was a child; Her passion for this profession was formalized at the age of just seven when she began her training, even completing the Bachelor of Performing Arts. His versatility is evident from a very young age and at 12 years old he joined the musical group sp3 (of which he was part for five years); at the age of 15 he joined one of the reference programs for children's audiences on Televisió de Catalunya: Club Super3 ; where she plays "Anna", a character with whom she gains great popularity in her homeland.

After appearing in several short films, 2010 is a step forward in her career, her first opportunity on the big screen comes from Elena Trapé with the feature film Blog (which participates in the San Sebastian Film Festival), which debuts in the theater with the musical A by Nacho Cano and joined the cast of the Antena 3 series, Doctor Mateo .

In his second feature film, Promoción Fantasma by Javier Ruiz Caldera ( 3 more weddings , Superlópez ), he shares the bill with other prominent names in current Spanish cinema such as Raúl Arévalo, Alexandra Jiménez, Aura Garrido, Carlos Areces and Silvia Abril. This work is followed in 2013 by the series Amar es para siempre by Antena 3, which combines until 2014 with the great critical and public success of La Llamada , the musical by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo starring Macarena García.

The definitive accolade of the industry comes from the hand of El Olivo (2015) by Icíar Bollaín , a film that stars alongside Javier Gutiérrez and that gives him the Goya Award as Revelation Actress. After this award, he participates in such outstanding series as The Ministry of Time , Paquita Salas and I'm Alive , while also shooting two other films: Gold by Agustín Díaz Yanes and the film adaptation of the play The Call . With the latter, she is again nominated for the Goya Awards, but this time as a Supporting Actress.

2018 is another important year again, premieres at the San Sebastián Festival Journey to a Mother's Room , Celia Rico's debut film, in which Anna shares the scene with Lola Dueñas, and participates in the Movistar + series, Arde Madrid , created and directed by Paco León. These two roles are worth two recognitions at the 2019 ceremony of the Féroz Prize , being one of the main protagonists of the evening.

His latest projects include the recent Adú by Salvador Calvo (the highest grossing Spanish film of 2020) and the Mariano Barroso series for Movistar +: The Invisible Line ; as well as the still pending premiere Life was that of David Martín de los Santos.

The Huesca International Film Festival is sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, the Government of Aragon, the Huesca Provincial Council, the Huesca City Council, the Anselmo Pié Foundation and with the collaboration of Obra Social "la Caixa ", TUHUESCA and the Institute Aragonese for Women.

Discover the DOK.fest München winning film of the kinokino Audience Award and the top ten of the kinokino Audience Award!   want to support  all year round and benefit from many advantages, join our circle of friends now.

Hungary 2019, Réka Szabó, 83 min.

A dance performance tells the life story of the 90 year-old holocaust survivor Éva Fahidi. The director and choreographer Réka Szabó stages the performance with Fahidi and the dancer Emese Cuhorka. Dance as therapy and coping with trauma. An approach that is as touching as it is innovative.

You voted and elected THE EUPHORIA OF BEING by Réka Szabó with an average of 4.82 clapping hands as the audience favourite 2020. With the kinokino Audience Award - sponsored by BR and 3sat, viewers at DOK.fest München @home have the opportunity to vote for themselves.

This year, the Audience Award is endowed with a one-time prize money of 2,000 euros. Donors are the Bayerischer Rundfunk, 3sat and the DOK.fest München Support Association. The audience award is named after kinokino – Das Filmmagazin im Bayerischen Rundfunk | 3sat.

@home
To the film

The films of the DOK.fest München @home will be available for another whole day on Sunday, May 24th. Ticket sales close at 10 pm, films can be watched until 12 pm. Immerse yourself once again in the festival feeling and discover a selection of the most outstanding international documentary films of the year. We would like to recommend here the top ten of the kinokino Audience Award 2020.

Top Ten

1. THE EUPHORIA OF BEING to the film
2. WALCHENSEE FOREVER to the film
3. MAIDEN to the film
4. DIE HEIMREISE to the film
5. WAS TUN to the film
6. THE UNSEEN to the film
7. THE SELF PORTRAIT to the film
8. BEYOND THE VISIBLE – HILMA AF KLINT to the film
9. SONGS OF REPRESSION to the film
10. WIRED FOR MUSIC – INSIDE THE WIENER SYMPHONIKER to the film

TWO Short Films Will Be Commissioned

This year we have expanded our film fund to award two production grants. One short will receive the maximum cash grant of $15,000; the second will receive a grant of $5,000.

2020 saw the highest number of submissions since we started our Fund in 2016. The quality increases year on year, making the task of narrowing it down to our Finalists an extremely difficult one. Our team and industry readers have evaluated submissions in every genre, from writers all over the world.

VIEW THE 15 SHORT FILM FUND FINALISTS

The WINNERS will be announced on JUNE 6TH.

For full details of what happens next, check out our Short Film Fund post-contest timeline.

International Thai Film Festival 2020 (ITFF2020) is open for submissions! (short film, feature film, animation and music video) Submit your production via FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/thaifilmfest or via FestHome: https://festhome.com/en/festival/international-thai-film-festival

Website: https://www.thaifilmfestival.com/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thaifilmfest

See who won big at the Online Awards Show.

Our annual Juried Awards, presented by AT&T, are finally here! For the first time ever, we’re bringing the celebrations to you at home. Wherever you’re sitting right now is officially the best seat in the house!

Chris Pine, Gretchen Mol, Josh Hutcherson, Joel McHale, Lukas Haas, and more of our talented jurors called up our winning filmmakers to surprise them with the big news. Don’t miss a single second of the action — watch the full show now on our website.

WATCH NOW

2020 WINNERS

2020 JURIES

CATEGORIES

AWARDS ELIGIBILITY

The Winners Are In See who won big

Tribeca founder announce the winners of our annual Juried Awards, presented by AT&T. For the first time ever, we brought the show into your home. Please join us in congratulating everyone who impressed our jurors with their incredible storytelling.

Jurors Chris Pine, Gretchen Mol, Josh Hutcherson, Joel McHale, Lukas Haas, and more called up our nominees to ask them red-carpet questions — and to surprise winners with the big news.

Get a front-row seat to all the action and emotions.

Platinum Award in the Shorts - Comedy - Black / Dark category

WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival! The oldest Indie Film Festival in the whole wide world! WorldFest gave first awards to giants of the film industry, including Spielberg, Lucas, Ang Lee, the Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, John Lee Hancock, Brian de Palma, Randal Kleiser, Oliver Stone, David Lynch and literally hundreds more! We are happy to accept Online FilmFreeway Screeners! We have Big LG 110" Digital Screens for our juries! Not Interns seeing/judging your entry on little laptops. Since we show our Remi Winners on big Cinemark Theater screens, it seems right that we look at your production on a big flat screen! We do also accept DVD, BLURAY or USB FLASH/PEN/JUMP DRIVE for judging and for Theater Screening. Region Zero, please! (If you win a Remi, you may be screened on big screens to real theater audience!! So we require: a BluRay, Jump Drive or DCP for the DCP screening! Large juries view your entry on a big digital screen, not a little laptop! {Screenplay entries must be bound}! We will personally confirm your entry's arrival. We will personally let you know the jury results, and if you win a Remi Award, we will invite you to attend the 54th WorldFest, and you will receive a $1,000 VIP Platinum Pass with our compliments and special deep discounts on Platinum Passes for your associates!

WorldFest was founded over 53 years ago as Cinema Arts, an International Film Society in August, 1961. WorldFest became the third competitive international film festival in North America, following San Francisco and New York. WorldFest is the oldest Independent Film & Video Festival in the Whole Wide World. It evolved into a competitive International Film Festival in April, 1968.

WorldFest was founded by award-winning producer/director Hunter Todd to present a quality film festival for the Independent filmmakers. Hunter Todd has been honored with more than 115 international awards for creative excellence in film production, and he has been the producer, director, writer and/or cameraman on more than 300 motion picture and video productions. He has served as the member of the International Jury on more than 25 world-wide film festivals, from Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Korea, Ireland and Bulgaria. He is the longest running Film Festival Director in the whole wide world! The mission/vision statement of WorldFest is ~ To recognize and honor outstanding creative excellence in film & video, to validate brilliant abilities and to promote cultural tourism for Houston, to develop film production in the region and to add to the rich cultural fabric of the city of Houston. All members of the WorldFest staff are filmmakers.

WorldFest is one of the oldest and largest film & video competitions in the world, with more than 4,574 category entries received from 74 nations in 2020. Actually WorldFest is 10 Major film & video competitions in one event, unlike Cannes, Sundance and Toronto, which are just 2 competitions for shorts and features only.

You may enter Shorts, Features, Student Films, Experimental Films, Screenplays, Music Videos and New Media via the wonderful FilmFreeway platform. However, if you want to enter the specialized Television & Cable Categories (100 Series), the TV Commercial Categories (400 Series) and the Film & Video Categories (200 Series) (Many specialized TV, Documentary and Corporate/Business Categories, simply visit our main website at https://worldfest.org - click to Enter, then click on Enter Film Festival! You may also print out an Old School Paper entry form and send it in with your entries! Welcome to the 54th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film & Video Festival!

WorldFest Artistic and Program Director Kathleen Haney stated, “We feel that it is impossible to properly emphasize individual films when the festival screening schedule is too large. We must consider both our festival audience and our independent filmmakers. A huge slate of 150-300 films cannot possibly do justice to each individual film. Further, it is impossible to see more than 50-60 films (with four shows a day) in a ten-day festival, so it is foolish to program more than that.” Haney continued, “We will concentrate on only the very best, selecting new American & Foreign Independent films that truly deserve a premiere at WorldFest. By doing so, we can concentrate on the films and their filmmakers and enable our faithful audience the opportunity to see each and every film!” All films/Digital entries are screened at the Cinemark Memorial City Theatres. WorldFest – the Indie Film Festival for the New Millennium!

In addition to honoring a different country each year, WorldFest will continue with its annual Short Film Showcase, a special review of 100+ new short and student films…from the festival that discovered Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ang Lee, John Lee Hancock, Randall Kleiser, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Robert Townsend, The Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone and David Lynch with their very first awards. WorldFest has emerged as the oldest film festival management in the world, with the same continuous director for more than 50 consecutive years. A few other festivals are older, but they have had as many as ten different directors. WorldFest is uniquely the only film festival in North America that is staffed and managed totally by filmmakers. All staff members have active film and video production experience, which gives them a very unique point of reference in relation to the entering filmmakers and their work. WorldFest, founded in 1961, is the oldest Independent film festival in the world, and the 3rd oldest film festival in North America.

Among the remarkable number of WorldFest discoveries, we include just a few, listed in alphabetical order: John Alvidson, John Badham, Ralph Bakshi, Carroll Ballard, John Boorman, Marty Brest, Michael Cimino, The Coen Brothers, Bryan De Palma, Jonathan Demme, Michael Demme, Atom Egoyan, John Frankenheimer, Leslie Linka Glatter, Charles Guggenheim, John Lee Hancock, Hal Hartley, Randall Kleiser, Ang Lee, Spike Lee, George Lucas, David Lynch, Paul Mazursky, Steve Poster, Robert Rodriguez, John Sayles, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Robert Townsend, Will Vinton, Peter Weir, Hugh Wilson and hundreds more. The winners this year will be the Spielbergs of tomorrow and you can meet them before they are famous.
WorldFest-Houston…”Fiercely Independent”
WorldFest is one of the oldest film festivals in the world, founded in 1961 as a film society. We do accept productions from 2019, 2020 & 2021.

On Saturday, June 6, the first Polish online film festival ended with an awards gala, during which we met the winners of all festival competitions. The event was broadcast live on the Internet, hosted by Maciej Stuhr, and the large audience gathered in front of computer screens proved that a pandemic does not prevent true love of cinema and the festival!

The ceremony was launched by Tomasz Raczek, the editor-in-chief of the Film Magazine of the Polish Filmmakers Association, announcing the audience award that this year was given to the Norwegian documentary  “The Self Portrait" directed by Margreth Olin, Katja Hogset and Espen Wallin. This film also received the Jury Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).

“The Whale From Lorino” directed by Maciej Cuske (Poland) who won three awards was the undisputed winner of the Festival. The film won the Silver Horn for the director of a film with high artistic value, the Award of the President of the Polish Filmmakers Association for editing for Katarzyna Orzechowska and the Award for the best producer of Polish short and documentary films funded by the Polish Producers Alliance for Mikołaj Pokromski and Aldona Pokromska.

In the justification of the Jury of the international documentary film competition headed by Łukasz Żal we read: "The Whale From Lorino" receives the Silver Horn for the depth experience in which metaphorical images and sound allow us to immerse ourselves in the reality of an indigenous Siberian village located in a remote and forgotten

corner of Russia. (...) this unique film presents the cultural relationship between man and the environment in a beautiful way and paradoxically shows us that men who hunt endangered whales to survive also belong to the genre on the verge of extinction.

The main prize in the documentary competition went to Radu Ciorniciuc for the film "Acasa, My Home" (Romania, Finland, Germany) "for the extraordinary and complex story presented from the perspective of children in the Roma family. (...) It is very rare that one documentary such as this one successfully analyzes and explores so many important aspects of the human condition within one beautifully told story, "explains the Jury.

Mehrdad Oskouei received the Silver Horn for the director of the social film for "Sunless Shadows " (Iran, Norway), which with precision, authenticity, sensitivity and creative elegance presented dramatic stories about domestic violence, hidden traumas and the collective responsibility of patriarchal society.

In the international short film competition, chaired by Jan Komasa, the Golden Dragon Grand Prix went to the director, Shoko Hara, for the animated short film "Just A Guy" (Germany). Alex Evstigneev received the Silver Dragon for the director of the best documentary film for the film "The Golden Buttons" (Russia) "for a shocking presentation of how tyranny does not spare even the most vulnerable souls." The best animated film in the competition was also the Russian film "He Can't Live Without Cosmos" (Russia) directed by Konstantin Bronzit. The Silver Dragon for the directors of the feature film was awarded to Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli for their film "Chubby" (Canada).

In the DocFilmMusic International Music Document Competition, one prize is awarded each year. Golden Heynal, by decision of the Jury composed of: Stephen Nomura Schible (USA), Rachel Leah Jones (USA / Israel) and Leszek Możdżer (Poland) was received by Pushpendra Singh for the film "Pearl of the Desert" (India, South Korea). "For his lyrical celebration of the musical heritage and human voice."

In the Polish Grand Prix competition and the Golden Hobby-Horse statuette, Tomasz Wolski was awarded for the film "An Ordinary Country". The jury, chaired by Magdalena Łazarkiewicz, justifies: "For the execution excellence of the film, which - avoiding the journalism trap - shows how imperceptibly evil creeps into everyday life"

The best documentary film of the Polish competition was "Sonny", whose director, Paweł Chorzępa received the Silver Hobby-Horse "for a moving story about the relationship of a son and father, shown with extreme visual sensitivity." Daria Kopiec was awarded the Silver Hobby-Horse for the best Polish animated film – “Your Own Bullshit”, and Damian Kocur for the short feature "Beyond Is The Day".

As part of each competition, all international juries gave special awards and numerous distinctions. As emphasized by Leszek Możdżer, a member of the jury, "Better and deeper knowledge of music through films was a great experience and my own personal therapy.", Jan Komasa added that participation in the jury proceedings "was the best way to spend quarantine. Thank you all for your effective work. I had a lot of fun". Magdalena Łazarkiewicz emphasized that "This festival has gained an incredibly wide audience which allowed it to reach people in various parts of our country."

The ceremonial Gala was also attended by the Director of the Polish Film Institute, Radosław Śmigulski, who, congratulating all the winners, referred to the festival jubilee saying that "60 years in Krakow years is only an early youth".

The screenings of all awarded films will take place on Sunday, June 7 in the virtual cinema halls of the Krakow Film Festival on the website www.krakowfilmfestival.pl and in all the screening rooms of the Pod Baranami Cinema in Krakow, at the Main Market Square and the Małopolska Garden of Arts.

A detailed program is available at: www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's festival! We hope you enjoyed the first ever Virtual Vail Film Festival.

Here are a few stats from this year's inaugural online festival:

We screened 54 films in four categories; narrative features, documentaries, short films, and student films.

Thousands of viewers participated in the online festival, from 47 U.S. states and 10 countries.

We hosted virtual Q&A sessions with our filmmakers, presented our annual Women in Film panel, and staged a live Awards Ceremony to honor this year's winning films.

Congratulations to our 2020 Award Winners!

We have our Extra Credit Adventure Edit winners!

We received so many amazing submissions from filmmakers across the country and the world! Our jury had a challenging deliberation choosing the finalist films and the Jury award was no different. The Audience Award winners were up to the voters, and with each contest decided by at least 10% of the vote, the voice of the people was clear!

Without further ado, MOFF presents the Extra Credit Adventure Edit video contest winners:

The IFF Panama Foundation thanks all the filmmakers from Central American and Caribbean countries who applied with their projects for the PRIMERA MIRADA award, a fund dedicated to supporting post-production work exclusively, and SU MIRADA award, a fund that seeks to strengthen the participation of women in the film industry in Central America and the Caribbean. Both granted by our ally, the Inter-American Development Bank IDB.

PRIMERA MIRADA FUND

Last April,  the IFF Panama Foundation invited guests to form a jury for the 6th edition of Primera Mirada. Julia Meik, Giancarlo Nasi and Jim Kolmar met virtually to deliberate and choose the winners for this new edition.

The first prize of ten thousand dollars (US $10,000) was awarded to the Dominican fiction film RAFAELA by director Tito Rodríguez, for narrating a realistic and crude story, in a close and empathetic way, and being able to approach a cinema socially committed to audiences in Central America, the Caribbean and the entire world.

Second place, with a prize of five thousand dollars (US $5,000) was awarded to the Cuban documentary film LA SELVA by director Marcel Beltrán, a story created from images in migrant’s cell phones, passing through the Darien jungle in the last 3 years. The memory of a journey captured with an instrument that allows you to share moments, concerns and complaints. With a total of 10 hours, coming from more than 200 cell phones, La Selva gives structure to a collective portrait and proposes a reflection on the contemporary experience of capturing and sharing images.

SU MIRADA FUND

After a successful call of 56 projects from 8 countries in Central America and the Caribbean (Panama, Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Puerto Rico). 10 projects were reviewed by the Su Mirada jury, made up of three women with backgrounds in the international film industry: Diana Sánchez (Senior Programming Director of the Toronto International Film Festival), Gema Juárez Allen (Argentine Production Company) and Lía Rodríguez (Industry Director of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema of Cuba).

Delirio by Alexandra Latishev is awarded five thousand dollars (US $ 5,000) in the category for projects under development, produced by Cynthia García Calvo from Costa Rica, for the solidity in building a history of absences and gender violence, framed in a subtle and delicate story.

In the category for post-production projects, ten thousand dollars (US $ 10,000) is awarded to Tatiana Fernández Geara's Waltz of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for her ability to show us a children's universe of search, creative expression and optimism.

The IFF Panama Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank IDB congratulates all the participants and looks forward to seeing the finished films at the next edition of the Panama International Film Festival.

The silence of the mountain is a film by La Cueva Films that follows a Wayúu-Arhuaca couple in the Sierra Nevada as they prepare for the road to the upper Guajira to exhume the bones of a relative. The influences of the world and Western beliefs, the weight of the Capuchin Catholic Mission, the separation from the mother, life and death are the underlying themes of this emotional introspective and emotional journey.

We are proud to announce this year's Short Film Fund Grand Prize Winners. Two Production Grants of $15K & $5K to be awarded this year.

Please join us for the all the excitement

June 7, 2020 6PM NYC Time!

The New York City Independent Film Festival Presents The 11th Annual NYC Indie Awards

Do to the COVID-19 Pandemic New York City has shut down all theaters which means we will not be able to hold the physical Awards Ceremony this year.  With that in mind we have moved the Ceremony online!   

To join us follow the link below or press The Red Button!

https://www.bingewave.com/s/awards-ceremony-virtual-theater

Free to one and all!

2020 WINNERS

Through the resources of industry-related sponsors, the Brooklyn Film Festival awards the winners with products, services, and cash.

PRIZES SPONSORED BY: ABELCINE, XENO LIGHTS, BE ELECTRIC, SOBRE VISTA RESORT, WNET, REEL 13, MPE, FINAL DRAFT, LENTINI COMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA SERVICES, NOBLE JEWELRY, THE POD, PAPAPIETRO PERRY WINERY, BROOKLYN FILM SOCIETY