MOSCOW SHORTS

MOSCOW SHORTS – JUNE 2021 AWARDS

BEST FILM

Feeling Through (2020)

Director: Doug Roland

Country: United States

Duration: 18:17

Synopsis: Feeling Through, the first film to star a DeafBlind actor, is a coming of age story that follows Tereek, a teen wandering the streets of New York, desperate for a place to crash when he encounters Artie, a DeafBlind man in need of help getting home. From an awkward meeting between strangers emerges an intimate bond, and a journey that forever changes Tereek.

BEST DIRECTOR

Selina (2020)

Director: Greta Benkelmann

Country: Germany

Duration: 24:52

Synopsis: Selina wants to get away from her broken circumstances. Her boyfriend Nico takes her on a joyride that ends prematurely. The abyss of their young love is unearthed. When Selina meets Katharina, she increasingly recognizes Katharina’s pain as her own and Selina must ask herself: What does love have to endure?

BEST SCREENPLAY

The School Bus (2019)

Director: Ramazan Kılıç

Country: Turkey

Duration: 14:01

Synopsis: Nebahat, a teacher in her 20s, has just been appointed to a rural village school in Anatolia. She realizes that her students are struggling to arrive at school, hitchhiking tractors, using whatever means they can find. She asks the Ministry of Education for a shuttle, but without a driver, the vehicle is useless. So, she decides to be the bus driver for her students but she does not know how to drive!

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Silent Zone (2020)

Director: Caren Wuhrer

Country: Germany

Duration: 28:50

Synopsis: Alice, uncommunicative and electrohypersensitive, lives in seclusion in a dead zone deep in the Northern German forest. But then her hermitage is suddenly disturbed by the sex worker Lucia, who settles on the border of Alice’s safe space with her lovemobile.

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT FILM

The School Bus (2019)

Director: Ramazan Kılıç

Country: Turkey

Duration: 14:01

BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM

I Am (2020)

Director: Jerry Hoffmaann

Country: Germany

Duration: 25:00

Synopsis: One day, the withdrawn Noé finds a motionless android in the forest, takes it with her and reactivates it. It’s the beginning of a strange relationship. Far too late, Noé realizes that the android is about to copy her personality.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM

Last Day Today (2021)

Director: Nelson Liu Yihong

Country: Singapore

Duration: 21:03

Synopsis: Denny and Ivy run the largest movie poster business in Southeast Asia. Their retail store in Esplanade, a landmark building in Marina Bay Singapore, has a history of 16 years. In 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has severely hit the retail industry. However, the online shopping trend that has emerged as a result has provided them with new ideas. Seeing the improvement of online business, they decided not to renew the contract with Esplanade to reduce operating costs in order to survive this difficult period. What’s waiting for them was the last day of business. Moving away everything they had accumulated for 16 years, and finally bid farewell to the physical store they built by themselves. In those last days, they remembered all the past events that had happened here. The unforgettable and dumbfounded memories that allowed them to grow up came to their mind on the last day. The influx of new and old customers, friends and former employees that came to say goodbye, kept them busy the whole day. Their last day at Esplanade was spent perfectly.