BEST FILM

Akam (2019)

Director: Hossein Mirzamohammadi

Country: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Duration: 16:07 Synopsis: Akam is a 10 years old Kurdish boy, who lives in a village far from city. On a day of his sister’s wdding , he is told by his father to go beyond the village to bring him some bricks to fix the main pool in village for the wedding ceremony. So, Akam leaves the village and, when he gets back, he faces a disaster. He finds everyone dead exept his mother, who is deaf and, doesn’t have any idea of what happened when Akam was gone.

BEST DIRECTOR

Awake (2020)

Director: Matan Rochlitz

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 16:25

Synopsis: Awake is a short film by Shift.ms that explores the interplay between Multiple Sclerosis, sleep and mental health. It is an experimental documentary film that unfolds over one night. Voices from real late-night phone calls are woven together to reflect on life and death from the unique perspective of those experiencing both insomnia and a neurological disease.

BEST SCREENPLAY

Fairyocious (2019)

Director: Fabien Ara

Country: France

Duration: 13:21

Synopsis: SIMON : ”I want to be a girl, mommy.” Alma freezes. She doesn’t know how to react: from now on, her 8-year-old son wants to dress up like a fairy to go to school. She asks for help from her neighbors. Soon the whole building is debating on Simon’s choice for gender orientation.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Awake (2020)

Director: Matan Rochlitz

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 16:25 Synopsis: Awake is a short film by Shift.ms that explores the interplay between Multiple Sclerosis, sleep and mental health. It is an experimental documentary film that unfolds over one night. Voices from real late-night phone calls are woven together to reflect on life and death from the unique perspective of those experiencing both insomnia and a neurological disease.

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT FILM

Fairyocious (2019)

Director: Fabien Ara

Country: France

Duration: 13:21

Synopsis: SIMON : ”I want to be a girl, mommy.” Alma freezes. She doesn’t know how to react: from now on, her 8-year-old son wants to dress up like a fairy to go to school. She asks for help from her neighbors. Soon the whole building is debating on Simon’s choice for gender orientation.

BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM

WORK SAMPLE (2019)

Director: Garry Savenkov

Country: Germany

Duration: 09:20

Synopsis: Middle Ages:Hans comes to an job interview for executioners. After a short conversation, he has to prove himself and  demonstrate a sample of work!

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM

Bet on Yourself (2019)

Director: Harvey Eaton

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 20:25

Synopsis: John Reeve, an 80 year old entrepreneur who started his life in war-torn England, now lives in the Caribbean as a cruise ship excursion mogul.   John owned an island-themed nightclub in the centre of Coventry, hosting crooners like Dusty Springfield, Liberace and Tom Jones. He intrepidly sailed across the Atlantic with no experience and no motor, has crashed at least three airplanes and two boats, lived with Pygmy Indians, had his skull caved in with a 4ft iron pipe, escaped from a Grenadian revolution, and entered the ’88 Winter Olympics as the US Virgin Islands bobsled team (yes, the same year as the Jamaicans).   Nothing in life has ever stopped John and he is an inspiration for everyone to go out, make mistakes and make a mark on the world.

BEST ANIMATION SHORT FILM

The Music Box (2019)

Director: Joe Chang

Country: Canada

Duration: 11:29

Synopsis: The Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was a political campaign in China launched and led by Mao Zedong from 1966 to 1976. Nearly ten million people, including outstanding scientists, artists, intellectuals and ordinary people, died during these “Ten Years of Turnmoil” or “Ten Years of Holocaust.”  This animated short film is based on a real story and sets in China during the Cultural Revolution in 1967, It is about a young boy Liang Liang, whose family is suddenly taken to the countryside by Red Guards. He is able to grab the only thing he treasures which is a western style music box, and is careful not to expose it to the red guards since it was linked to western culture.   The film mirrors tragedies that befall children and families who are forced to leave their homes, due to war, colonization and political campaigns – unfortunately a situation which is all too common today.

BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM

Fag-end (2020)

Director: Allana Chumachenko

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 08:55

Synopsis: A young architect, struggling with disturbing dreams, performs a routine ritual, appearing every day at work, developing a project for a large company. Every day, over and over again, he begins to notice that the features of his own face, his voice, his laughter, the lines that his hand draws itself sometimes out of his control. All this reminds him of some other person, a person who is familiar to him from the childhood, but whom he has never met.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

Lucky Chops – Traveler (2019)

Director: Raman Djafari, Daniel Almagor

Country: Germany

Duration: 03:45

Synopsis: The music video for “Traveler” starts in a small forgotten village, a place that feels like it was left in the attic. It’s a place in stasis, where it’s hot and moist, so that the cloths stick to the body. Everything and everyone is waiting, staring, sinking into the ground. And then there’s a march, a start to an unknown adventure, a daring call by an unheard chant. Both are truths of a shivering dream. Where do they go, the ones that leave? What happens to the ones that stay? For now there’s only the beautiful uncertainty of a choice.