2025 Awards

Film Jury Awards

Best Picture - Motherland (Evan Matthews, USA) 
Nominees: Finding the Zone, Second Chance City, Still Smiling

Best Student Film - Brothers: A Civil War Story (Casey Schaffer, USA)
Nominees: Peace and Serenity, Wrestle-Off, Selfless Ash, Sparklers, Collarbone, HOME, The Why, Canicas, Frail Grounds

Best Alternative Film -  Still Smiling (Jared Cohn, USA)
Nominees: Still Smiling, Direct Action, JULES, The Entertainer, Venus Descending, You Are Special, Baron Munchausen, Cycles

Best Short Film - Princeton's in the Mix (Jonathan DiMaio, USA)
Nominees: JULES, Baron Munchausen, I Hate My Love Life, HomePlanet, You Are Special, Izidor, On Paper, The Field, Because I Love You

Best Short Short -  A Robot Rom Com (Jonathan Hludzinski, USA) 
Nominees: Clowning Around, Cycles, Canvas, HOPE

Best Documentary -  World Without Cows (Michelle Michael, Brandon Whitworth, USA) 
Nominees: World Without Cows, Rap Dixon: Beyond Baseball, The Ramba Effect, She Rises Up, Saffron Robe, Blue Death: The 1918 Influenza in Montana, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, Blind Logic: The Ralph R. Teetor Story

Best Horror Thriller -  Because I Love You (Bob Celli, USA)
Nominees: Princeton's in the Mix

Animal Welfare - The Ramba Effect (Claire Sandberg, USA)
Nominees: The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, Here Where the Sea Shines, World Without Cows

Cultural Spirit -  Go to the People (Jeff Sewald, USA)
Nominees: Direct Action, You've Seen Us Before, Stories of Regeneration: North Dakota, Rap Dixon: Beyond Baseball, Saffron Robe, World Without Cows, Underdogs

Best Short Documentary -  Resilience (David Trachtenberg, Jonathan Bank, USA)
Nominees: Here Where the Sea Shines, Underdogs, VIENNA: Suddenly an Angel, Stories of Regeneration: North Dakota, She Is Us: The Story of Judge Songhai Armstead, James Wilson Marshall: The Gold Discover's Journey from Lambertville into History, Artists at the Edge

Best Foreign Film - Direct Action (Tor Kristoffersen, UK)
Nominees: You Are Special, Here Where the Sea Shines, Izidor, Porcelain War, Sky-Sky, Baron Munchausen, Venus Descending

Best Faith Film - So Help Me God (Sophia Conger, USA)
Nominees: The Root, Finding the Zone, The Field

Social Justice Spirit - She Is Us: The Story of Judge Songhai Armstead (Samara Hutman, C. Lily Ericsson, USA)
Nominees: The EKSPATS - We're Going to Africa, You've Seen Us Before, Rap Dixon: Beyond Baseball, She Rises Up

Best Local Film - The Fries Rebellion (Dan Hertzog, USA)
Nominees: History Lives On: 300 Years of Plumstead Township, James Wilson Marshall: The Gold Discoverer's Journey from Lambertville into History

Best Educational Film - Blue Death: The 1918 Influenza in Montana (Dee Garceau, USA)
Nominees: Blind Logic: The Ralph R. Teetor Story, Rap Dixon: Beyond Baseball, The Way It Was: Paris Restaurants in the 1970s, Stories of Regeneration: North Dakota, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, World Without Cows

Best Biographical Film - Blind Logic: The Ralph R. Teetor Story (Jack Teetor, USA)
Nominees: Resilience, Go to the People, Rap Dixon: Beyond Baseball

Best Experimental Short - Baron Munchausen (Ilya Noyabrev, Ukraine)
Nominees: Frail Grounds, The Root, So Help Me God, Princeton's in the Mix, The EKSPATS - We're Going to Africa

Indie Spirit - Second Chance City (Chris Cardillo, USA)
Nominees: Finding the Zone

Best Animation - A Robot Rom Com (Jonathan Hludzinski, USA)
Nominees: Izidor, She Is Us: The Story of Judge Songhai Armstead, The EKSPATS - We're Going to Africa, Ariel, Porcelain War, Te Seguire a la Oscuridad

Best Animated Film - Ariel (C.A. MacFinn, USA)
Nominees: A Robot Rom Com, She Is Us: The Story of Judge Songhai Armstead, The EKSPATS - We're Going to Africa

Female Eye Filmmaking - JULES (Tiffany M. Abney, USA)
Nominees: Motherland, VIENNA: Suddenly an Angel, Goodnight Gracie, Underdogs, She Rises Up

Best Sci-Fi Film - HomePlanet (Andrew Pritzker, USA)
Nominees: Motherland, Come Out, Wherever You Are

Best TV Pilot - The EKSPATS - We're Going to Africa (Ron Myrick, USA)
Nominees: I Hate My Love Life

Best Sports Film - Rap Dixon: Beyond Baseball (Scott Orris, USA)
Nominees: Finding the Zone, Wrestle-Off, Collarbone, Resilience

Best Comedy -  I Hate My Love Life (Tiffany Jackman, USA)
Nominees: Clowning Around, A Robot Rom Com, HOPE, Don't Pick Up, Sienna and the Sit, Te Seguire a la Oscuridad, I Hate My Love Life

Best Period Film -  Izidor (David Kabbe, USA, Romania)
Nominees: The Fries Rebellion, Blue Death: The 1918 Influenza in Montana, Brothers: A Civil War Story, Baron Munchausen

Student Cultural Spirit - The Why (Ciara Evans, USA)
Nominees: Frail Grounds

New Hope - She Rises Up (Maureen Castle Tusty, USA)
Nominees: Go to the People, The Ramba Effect, VIENNA: Suddenly an Angel

Artistic Spirit - Porcelain War (Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, Ukraine, USA)
Nominees: Trail Mix, The Way It Was: Paris Restaurants in the 1970s, Go to the People, She Rises Up

LGBTQ+ Spirit - Artists at the Edge (Patrick A. Riviere, USA)
Nominees: Before the Party, The Lift

Best Supernatural Film - The Root (Courtney Lee Simpson, USA)
Nominees: Finding the Zone, Frail Grounds, On Paper, HomePlanet

Best Music Video - Until the Last Minute (Ilya Noyabrev, Ukraine)
Nominees: Off Course, See You at the Show, Sky-Sky

Best Narrative Feature - Finding the Zone (Elan Milkes, USA)
Nominees: Motherland, Still Smiling, Second Chance City

Best Director - Evan Matthews (Motherland, USA)
Nominees: Scott Oris (Rap Dixon: Beyond Baseball), Claire Sandberg (The Ramba Effect), Jared Cohn (Still Smiling), Jack Teetor (Blind Logic: The Ralph R. Teetor Story), Bob Celli (Because I Love You), Ilya Noyabrev (Baron Munchausen), Dee Garceau (Blue Death: The 1918 Influenza in Montana)

Script Jury Awards

Best Script - Headcase (Christopher Jones)
Nominees: ANOTHER LOOK, Provenance, JUMP, Departures, Bunny Slopes, Beacon Beyond the Bay, TALITHA

Best Narrative Feature Script - Beacon Beyond the Bay (Bryan Regan, Vincent Chiu)
Nominees: ANOTHER LOOK, JUMP, Departures, Bunny Slopes, TALITHA

Best Streaming/Premium TV Script - Provenance (Amy Otey and Olivia Brady)
Nominees: Headcase

Best Action Thriller Script - JUMP (Marc Levin, Ian Monahan)
Nominees: Beacon Beyond the Bay, Departures, ANOTHER LOOK

Best Period Script - TALITHA (Stephanie Hutchinson)
Nominees: Provenance, Beacon Beyond the Bay

Audience Choice Awards

Best Student Film - Wrestle-Off (Sabatino Ciatti, Jr., USA)

Best Documentary - Amy and Monte: A Legacy of Love and Creativity (Annmarie Sairrino, USA)

Best Short Documentary - VIENNA: Suddenly an Angel (Marko Albrecht, USA)

Best Short Film - Clowning Around (Jack E. Hynes, USA)

Best Narrative Feature - Second Chance City (Chris Cardillo, USA)

Best TV Pilot - I Hate My Love Life (Tiffany Jackman, USA)

VIENNA: Suddenly an Angel

What can be worse than losing a child? 

After 2-year-old Vienna Carly Savino passed away suddenly, her parents were understandably devastated. Both were physicians who had seen their share of tragedy, yet even they were shocked and had no answers. The cause of death was an obscure malady called Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC). First defined in 2005, SUDC is distinctly different from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), yet SUDC receives little attention from public health officials. 

Like other great physicians throughout history, Vienna's parents Dr. Denise Wunderler and Dr. Michael Savino considered their daughter's loss of life a call to action for research, awareness and better outcomes—ultimately, to eradicate SUDC forever. 

With deep love and determination, Wunderler and Savino teamed up with award-winning filmmaker Marko Albrecht to make this ground-breaking short documentary. The medical community needs this film to raise awareness about a so-called category of death that affects an estimated 500 children in the United States every year. But the personal touches and involvement of Vienna Savino's own parents in the project make this film much more than an education. This is a moving work. 

By learning more about SUDC, you too can spread the word and make a difference. Please watch the trailer here: VIENNA: Suddenly an Angel Trailer

Motherland

The word motherland evokes the idea of a totalitarian state, and that is exactly the situation facing the citizenry of this futuristic thriller. In a post-revolution society, women are no longer charged with the classic responsibility of childrearing. Instead, their newborns are snatched away and placed in government institutions, where children can be nurtured, manipulated and bent to the new order. Mothers have no say in the matter, and that may be difficult at times, but it's all for their own good and the fairness of all. 

When Cora discovers a personal secret, it impacts her in a very human way, putting her on a collision course with the utopian state and one of its caretakers, who also happens to be the supervisor of the school where she works. Love and loss may be trivial emotions to the nation's leaders, but to women like Cora, they are everything. 

The star-studded cast of Motherland includes Holland Taylor, Miriam Silverman, Nestor Carbonell, Emily Arancio and Molly Hager. Director Evan Matthews employs a sense of beauty in the characters and aesthetics, despite the dystopian setting, underscoring the survival of a nation under the weight of oppression. Writer Nicole Swinford weaves modern relevance and the power of ideas into the script, making this truly a thinking person's film. 

You can watch a teaser here: Motherland Teaser

Princeton's in the Mix

In this darkly comedic and satirical film, a mother is obsessed with status. She is the kind of person who brags about her children with bumper stickers on her luxury branded SUV and drops the names of her children's schools oh-so-casually in conversation. When she finds an angle through which her son can gain an edge over other kids on the SAT, watch out. She will run her SUV right over anyone who stands between her and that Ivy League sticker. 

Director Jonathan DiMaio serves up a troubling mix of chill and fun in this short film from California. Inspired by real world college admissions scandals, Princeton's in the Mix asks questions about elite education and the impact, particular on young students themselves, when some people become too obsessed with academic achievement. 

You can watch the trailer here: Princeton's in the Mix Trailer

Peace and Serenity

When Serenity throws a surprise birthday party for her dad, it is about much more than presents and cake. She is trying to bring some measure of peace to a home that has had none of it for a long time. Then her estranged brother shows up on the driveway, making the situation even more tenuous. But at least he showed up. 

They can talk. Try to move forward. 

Student filmmaker Triston Kollister is currently pursuing a degree in Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin, and the high production values of this project suggest he is making the most of his opportunity. The story is nuanced, and pieces of the family's puzzle are left scattered on the counter like Serenity's Best Father gift mug. 

The resolution of the story is unclear and unsatisfying, but that is not a fault of the film. As the project developed, Kollister found that it increasingly mirrored real life, where circumstances often inch forward slowly to be resolved another day, if at all. 

You can watch the trailer here: Peace and Serenity Trailer

Brothers: A Civil War Story

It's 1864. The Battle of the Wilderness pits Confederate troops led by Robert E. Lee against a Union force led by Ulysses S. Grant. The showdown between two well-matched armies takes place in the woods, where the chaos of battle is intensified by the difficult terrain. After years of suffering defeat after defeat against Lee, the Union army is the aggressor and their general is a seasoned fighter who means business. 

The battles and campaigns of this pivotal time in U.S. history were brutal affairs, and much has been made of them in cinema. But other stories existed within the melee, and these smaller bits of history shed great insight into the tragedy of a nation at war with itself. In the film, two brothers bitterly split over issues of ideas as the war develops. Now facing each other in battle, their sworn duty is contrasted with their sibling bond, however obscured the bond may be at this time. 

Writer and Director Casey Schaffer does an excellent job of orchestrating the battle scene and recreating the 19th century. At the same time, he acknowledges the humanity of the people who served and died, which begs the question of whether the disputes around this horrible war could have been resolved in a better way. 

You can watch the trailer here: Brothers: A Civil War Story Trailer

The Why

After a tragic incident that stemmed from drug addiction, a man is forced to probe his considerable problems through a court-appointed therapist. 

This intimate film takes a close look at the psychology of a major public health issue in the manner of someone who knows from experience. Student filmmaker Ciara Evans has seen the impact of drugs and alcohol firsthand in her own life, and the film is powerful due to the truth she lends to the story. This is a well-produced student project, with creative cinematography, a haunting musical score and many tense moments. 

The Why will grab and hold anyone suffering from addiction, and earnestly suggest they seek help. You can watch a teaser here: The Why Teaser