SPRING 2022 | Festival Laurels (all categories + nomination laurel + special mention laurel)

JURY PRIZE

Winner: No Good Deed

“With a unique style, No Good Dead balances genre and bold formalist choices to deliver a strong film that’s both memorable and enticing.”

Nominees: Argyle, The Irish Barn Dance, Vengeance Served Cold, SKAT

FILM

• Best Short Film made for less than $5,000

My Dear Friend, Body – Nominated: Best Editing – “Energetic and crisply done, the edit really helps enhance the film’s experimental quality.” 

Feelings – Winner: Best Actor (Christian Gerlin) – “Gerlin brings a great feeling authenticity to the project through his minimalist performance.”

Point Five – Nominated: Best Cinematography, Nominated: Best Director – “Short and sweet, this film punches a lot of style and clarity within its quick tone shifting story.” 

Rigor Mortis – Nominated: Best Music, Nominated: Best Director – “This simple period piece is quite fantastically delivered in silence, in style with the era the film is set in.”

Last First – Nominated: Best Short Film made for less than $5,000 – “The authentic feelings of Last First outshine its budget restriction. It’s epic and small in equal measure.”

I Have Control – Winner: Best Genre Film – “This is creepy as F***!”

Argyle – Nominated: Best Actor (Shawn Haze), Nominated: Best Director – “Mocumentaries are rarely this honest.” 

father, I can’t find the remote – Nominated: Best Experimental Film – “This film capitalises on perspective and restricted views… it is alienating, in the best of ways.”

Misguided – Winner: Best Genre Film – “This snappy horror is the perfect twist to a bickering couple’s car journey.”

Vishwamitri Villas – Winner: Best Ensemble Cast – “The young and endearing performances in this short are great.”

Today – Nominated: Best Experimental Film – “A warm performance leads this nice shot experimental poem.” 

No Filter – Nominated: Best Short Film made for less than $5,000, Nominated: Best Actress (Ella Augustin) – “Punchy – a successful take on one of our key mental health problems in recent years.”

The Irish Barn Dance – Nominated: Best Screenplay, Winner: Best Short Film made for less than $5,000, Nominated: Best Ensemble Cast – “Barmy and barny in equal measure. A great fun short film.”

Expression – Nominated: Best Short Film made for less than $5,000 – “This minimalist script is elevated by its cast, photography and steady balance of production values.”

Art – Nominated: Best Ensemble Cast – “The supporting cast reacting to the insane loud director is perhaps the funniest thing about this all.” 

Drifting Thoughts – Nominated: Best Screenplay – “The actual monologue is quite great.” 

KARMArcus – Nominated: Best Actor (Michael Obiora) – “Obiora’s dedication to the role is great. He channels a variety of tones that are perfectly suited to the film.” 

Culinary Tension – Nominated: Best Genre Film – “Great fun and drama-packed in this action romp.” 

No Good Deed – Winner: Best Director, Nominated: Best Short Film made for less than $5,000 – “Packed with interesting moments and unusual stylised choices – Demba creates a memorable cinematic experience.”

M – Nominated: Best Short Film made for less than $5,000 – “This captive-filled project shines greatly thanks to its use of production values and style.”

Fever – Winner: Best Screenplay – “Gritty black and white screamer full of comedic turns and internal turmoil. Quite unique!” 

Untitled – Winner: Special Mention: Best Black and White Cinematography “Sharp and very intimate, this little one-man show excels on its use of black and white photography.”

• Best Short Film made for between $5,000-$10,000

Awoken Soma – Winner: Best Short Film made Between $5,000-$10,000, Nominated: Best Editing – “Dance films are rare in the indie scene, and it is a shame really – they provide such expressive ways of dissecting character, circumstance and emotions. The highlight of this project is really its use of locale and filming techniques – which all appear as larger and more robust productions than its budgetary restrictions.” 

Sea Light – Nominated: Best Short Film made Between $5,000-$10,000, Winner: Best Cinematography – “Stunningly shot, this short film cherishes the delicate nature of light and how it moves, creates space and texture.”

• Best Short Film made for more than $10,000

SKAT – Nominated: Best Actor (Michael Boston), Winner: Special Mention: Best Concept, Nominated: Best Actress (Shannan Leigh Yancsurak), Nominated: Best Screenplay – “Original, memorable and of course recognisable – Mr. Boston is back and he’s here to deliver one hell of a mic drop!”

• Best Feature Film made for less than $5,000

Hairy – Nominated: Best Screenplay, Winner: Best Film made for Less than $5,000 – “This epic demands attention by being a very intimate and stylised opus – a kind of indie film that most directors wouldn’t attempt to make just on the scale and this budget.”

Curiosity Kills – Nominated: Best Genre Film, Nominated: Best Film made for Less than $5,000, Nominated: Best Screenplay, Winner: Best Actress (Gabriele Orebaugh), Nominated: Best Director – “It’s complicated… this film is a prime genre killer moves with some impressive blending of comedy, retro B-Movie vibes… but packaged in a fresh fashion. Orebaugh delivers a great comedic turn, one which is hard to provide.”

• Feature Film made for between $5,000-$10,000

Vengeance Served Cold – Nominated: Best Director, Nominated: Best Ensemble Cast – “The passion of this cast is at the forefront of its excellence – it is a real character-based film, and one that enjoys the overall design of several performs excelling within this particular set of dramatic turns. Also, worth mentioning – Davis’ direction is very consistent and engaging.”

• Feature Film made for more than $10,000

No films selected.

• Web series

Winner: Best Web Series: Crypto Stories – “Impressive and important for our times, this animated web series forefronts modern realities in a unique visual presentation, much like Oscar winner Waltz with Bashir.” 

Nominee: Instinct – “With the palette and production value of a much bigger machine, Instinct is an exciting web series that demands your eyeballs and detective skills.” 

MUSIC VIDEO

I Wrote This Instead of Calling You – Nominated: Best Editing – “This video takes great pleasure in blending images and spacial areas that space can inhabit. It is quite fun.”

I Hate You – Nominated: Best Cinematography, Winner: Best Music Video – “With a bold black and white image, and a strong visual style – I Hate You blasts dust off of the sub music video genre of love stories.”

Midnight – Nominated: Best Cinematography – “This darkly lit exploitation video is rewarding both in a narrative sense and thematic.”

Strike Gold – Winner: Best Editing – “A labour of love, this montage doesn’t know when to quit its cuteness.”

Reminiscence – Nominated: Best Music Video, Winner: Best Cinematography – “Lush and full of expressive camera tricks, this careful focussed presentation looks quite stunning.”

SCRIPT COMPETITION

Best Character Arc

Winner: I’ll See You Next Year – “Too long, but also one hell of a concept that beautifully mounts multiple characters. A great load of fun basically.”

Nominees: Birthday Boy – “Robust and large, this comedic tale has a great concept built around a comedic lead. Recalls Jackie Vernon style comedy.”, Last Summer at the Dells – “This little drama piece provides many avenues for the actors and their internal dynamics.”, Make A Wish – “An endearing script which really punctuates the importance of character dynamics when delivering a strong character lead piece.”, Black and White – “An interesting piece which stems out of the specific nuance of identity. Actors would love this script.”

Best Genre Script

Winner (Shared): Love According To Eros – “Unusual, original, comical and fun.”, and The Big White Veil Mistake – “A fantastic concept and should be shot. Wixted is a talented genre-specific character writer.”

Nominees: At the Mercy of Faith (Terror Version) – “Fun and stylish, this period piece wonder is a robust budget muncher and a bold personality.”, A Blue Face in A Bluebell Wood – “A fun and comedic romp that might be slightly hindered by unusual script form.”, The Road to Aaru – “Recalls ‘American Gods’ – Gothic and fantastical.”, Kat Killed My Cat – “A unique yarn that suits the TV format – episodes dedicated to particular characters within this world, with their own visual motifs and music, will be a great pile of fun.”, The French Maid – “Reminiscent of Diary of a Chambermaid by Bunuel – which is to say it is charming, dark, funny, sexy, FRENCH… and fun…”, 

Best Micro-Budget Script

Winner: Trixie – “An expressive script which pushes its content to the max in terms of micro-budget usage.”

Nominees: Art – “The project has a very ‘ready to shoot’ quality – and it is cost-effective.”, The Meal – “Charming, sharp and to the point. Nicely budgeted.”

Best Technique

Winner: Paradise By Way of Jordyn – “Delicate and written with great texture for detail, Redha’s writing is endearing and engaging.” 

Nominees: At the Mercy of Faith (Alternative Horror Version) – “A tighter edit, this script propels genre to the front in a fun way.”, Amy and Angel – “Written with a great understanding of script syntax – clean and precise.”, Agony Awaiting – “Though strange, the setup and design of it’s the world is quite intriguing and nicely built.”, 

Special Mention Winner: Best True Story Script: Solicitors – “Rich with dialect, texture and ideas, Solicitors feels like a solid indie TV script… the kind that could be optioned and made and exciting.”