BEST FILM

Miss Barton’s Famous Cakes

Director: Jared Hirsch, Nelson Vicens

Country: United States

Duration: 12:59

Synopsis: A dark comedy disguised as a thriller about a famed baker and the mysterious allure of her cakes.

BEST DIRECTOR

Miss Barton’s Famous Cakes

Director: Jared Hirsch, Nelson Vicens

Country: United States

Duration: 12:59

Synopsis: A dark comedy disguised as a thriller about a famed baker and the mysterious allure of her cakes.

BEST SCREENPLAY

THE 100TH VICTIM 

Director: Anthony von Seck

Country: Canada

Duration: 19:45 Synopsis: A truck stop diner, a killer confesses his bizarre experiments to a blogger for the LA Times. An unassuming middle-aged man shares his appetite for twisting fate and playing God. He has polaroids of his ninety-nine victims, by the end of their meal, one of them will be the next.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Rear View Mirror

Director: jonathan Terence may

Country: Australia

Duration: 11:13

Synopsis: “When the impermanence of life and land collide, what remains inside the heart and soul of a man”. Ingo Hansen returns to the desert opal mining town where he grew up, struggling with his health and searching for answers.   At a crossroads in his life, he seeks comfort in reminiscing the impact of the harsh landscapes and crazy adventures he had in Andamooka – one of the most remote places in South Australia.  Ingo soon realises that the thriving outback town he once loved is now bleak and it mercilessly parallels his own impermanence; the harsh winds of life blow not just on the desert but also inside his heart.  In its glory days Andamooka had over 3000 residents, but now the opal has dried up and it is a former shadow of itself – with a total population of 316. It takes a certain type of person to love a place like this, with the isolation and the desolation.  Walking through the cemetery Ingo reflects on the grim truths of his reality, and how strange it is to know every body that lies beneath him in the dust.  As in life, both the once beautiful landscape and the once promising future he faced are slowly fading way and the story is unforgiving.

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT FILM

THE ATTEMPT №4

Director: Konstantin Reich

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 20:00

Synopsis: The short film “THE ATTEMPT №4” is a bright comedy of intrigue. With a sudden plot and paradoxical intrigue. The script is based on the play that won the Grand Prix of the International Playwrights Competition “Eurasia-2017”. Egor meets Marina at the bus station. She is visibly older, more experienced and, for some reason, immediately invites the guy to her house. A romantic date is promising some intimacy… But things don’t go as planned from the very doorstep! The denouement of this strange evening will be rapid and sudden for both, the pick-up artist and the viewers. No Egor will be harmed in the end.

BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM

Happy Ending

Director: Ramzi el Khoury

Country: Lebanon

Duration: 14:12

Synopsis: Scrolling blankly through his phone, Chadi notices something written on one of his Whatsapp groups: “You are the only one left in the group”.  He realizes that the group of his old university friends is now dissolved and he is the only one left. The idea starts to affect his mood and slowly builds up into an inner monologue reflecting about his loneliness, frustration and lack of human connection.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM

INTO MY LIFE

Director: Ivana Hucikova, Sarah Keeling, Grace Remington

Country: United States

Duration: 15:00

Synopsis: Growing up in the largest affordable housing cooperative in Brooklyn, Cassandra’s world was artfully framed by her mother’s Super-8 camera. Today, Cassandra examines and edits these films, gaining insight into the challenges her mother faced as a creative black woman and the importance of her vision.

BEST ANIMATION SHORT FILM

Moon Melody

Director: Cleto Acosta-McKillop

Country: United States

Duration: 06:27

Synopsis: “Moon Melody” is an animated short film about a boy suffering from culture shock, struggling to find comfort in an unfamiliar setting.

BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM

THE DIVINE WAY

Director: Ilaria Di Carlo

Country: Germany

Duration: 15:00

Synopsis: The path to paradise begins in hell” — Dante Alighieri. Loosely based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, The Divine Way takes viewers along on the protagonist’s epic descent through an endless labyrinth of staircases. As the woman journeys deeper, the staircases mutate and she is trapped and pulled into their dangerous landscape, conducting us through more than fifty magnificent locations.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

Gia Margaret – ‘Birthday’

Director: Matt Gehl

Country: United States

Duration: 04:22

Synopsis:  The official music video for Gia Margaret’s ‘Birthday.’ A curiously heartwarming and sweet visual expression of the song’s devastating premise, Gia is haunted by friendly ghosts of a lost love.