2018 ShortFest Awards and Jury
AWARDS
Audience Award winners will be announced at Closing Night | Purchase Tickets
All others will be announced at the Filmmaker Awards Brunch.
MAIN JURY AWARDS
Best of the Festival Award 
$5,000 courtesy of the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau; The winner of this award may be eligible to submit their film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar® consideration.
Fauve (Canada), Jérémy Comte
Best International Short
$2,000; Awarded to the best short produced outside of the U.S. or Canada.
Coyote (Switzerland), Lorenz Wunderle
Best North American Short
$1,000; Camera package courtesy of Panavision, valued at $60,000; Awarded to the best short produced in the U.S. or Canada.
Caroline (USA), Logan George, Celine Held
Best Animated Short
$2,000; The winner of this award may be eligible to submit their film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar® consideration.
Nevada (USA), Emily Ann Hoffman
Best Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes
$2,000; The winner of this award may be eligible to submit their film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar® consideration.
Shadow Animals (Sweden), Jerry Carlsson
Best Live-Action Short 15 Minutes and Under
$2,000; The winner of this award may be eligible to submit their film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar® consideration.
Fence (Kosovo/France), Lendita Zeqiraj
Special Mention: Nursey Rhymes (Australia), Tom Noakes
Best Documentary Short
$2,000; The winner of this award may be eligible to submit their film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar® consideration.
Dulce (Colombia/USA), Guille Isa, Angello Faccini
Special Mention: After/Life (USA), Puck Lo
Best Student Animation
$500
Perfect Town (Switzerland), Anaïs Voirol
Best Student Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes
$500
Satán (Switzerland/Mexico), Carlos Tapia González
Best Student Live-Action Short 15 Minutes and Under
$500
Kira Burning (USA), Laurel Parmet
Best Student Documentary
$500
Palenque (Colombia/USA), Sebastián Pinzón Silva
PROGRAMMING AWARDS
Future Filmmaker Award
$2,000; Awarded to a filmmaker whose work and vision point to a bright, prospective career in cinema.
Mamartuile (Mexico), Alejandro Saevich
Special Mention: Falling (France), Benjamin Vu
Alexis Award for Best Emerging Student Filmmaker
$500; Awarded to a student filmmaker whose work and vision point to a bright, prospective career in cinema
Imfura (Switzerland/Rwanda), Samuel Ishimwe
Cross My Heart (USA/Jamaica), Sontenish Myers
ADDITIONAL JURY AWARDS
Vimeo Staff Pick Award
Selected by Vimeo Curators; films featured in competition are eligible for the Vimeo Staff Pick Award, which includes a $4,000 cash prize and, of course, a Vimeo Staff Pick. The winning film will be released on Vimeo June 25, 2018.
Rewind Forward (Switzerland), Justin Stoneham
Bridging the Borders Award
$2,500 courtesy of Go Energistics; Awarded by Cinema Without Borders to a film that is most successful in bridging and connecting the people of our world closer together.
Mon Amour, Mon Ami (Italy/France), Adriano Valerio
Youth Jury Awards
Awarded by ShortFest youth juries composed of local students interested in cinema and the arts. The Kids' Choice jury is composed of students aged 8-13 and the Young Cineastes jury is composed of students aged 14-17.
Kids' Choice - $250
One Small Step (USA/China), Bobby Pontillas, Andrew Chesworth
Young Cineastes - $250
Sin Cielo (USA), Jianna Maarten
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Best Animated Short - Bilby (USA), Pierre Perifel, Liron Topaz, JP Sans
Best Documentary Short - Beneath the Ink (USA), Cy Dodson
Best Live-Action Short - Trois Pages (Canada), Roger Gariépy
Best Student Short - Untitled Short Film About White People (USA), Nicholas Colia
JURY
Penelope Bartlett is currently the programmer for the streaming service The Criterion Channel on FilmStruck. She served as Director of Programming for the 2016 Palm Springs Shortfest, has curated for the website shortoftheweek.com, and held positions at the Chicago International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and the Glasgow Short Film Festival. She has also produced several short films, most recently Crystal Lake by writer/director Jennifer Reeder.
Marc-André Grondin | After his breakthrough performance in Jean-Marc Vallée's French Canadian film C.R.A.Z.Y., Marc-André has been working continuously in Canada and France. In 2009, he won the César Award for Best Male Newcomer, becoming the first Canadian actor to ever win that prestigious award. Other actor credits include the hockey comedies, Goon and Goon: Last of the Enforcers, the lead role in the French-Canadian film, L'Affaire Dumont, which earned him a Canadian Screen Awards nomination for Best Lead Actor and Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, which earned him another Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor. Marc-André starred in the lead role of the British television series Spotless as well as the award-winning French-Canadian series L'Imposteur for two seasons. He most recently starred in the feature film Les Affamés (Ravenous), which won Best Canadian Feature at TIFF 2017.
Brian Hu is the Artistic Director of Pacific Arts Movement, the presenter of the San Diego Asian Film Festival. He is also Assistant Professor of TV, Film, and New Media at San Diego State University. His writings have appeared in Film Quarterly, Screen, and Senses of Cinema, and his book on Hong Kong and Taiwan cinema is forthcoming this year. He co-hosts the Asian American pop culture podcast "Saturday School."
Missy Laney works as a producer, distribution strategist, and is the Director of Development at Adult Swim. Laney previously worked at the Sundance Institute growing their #ArtistServices Initiative, a program that focused on how technology is changing the way audiences interact with films, and at BitTorrent Inc leading their film strategy where she launched The Discovery Fund, BitTorrent's first ever artist granting initiative.
Ina Pira curates Vimeo's Staff Picks and Vimeo on Demand. Prior to this, Ina worked as a Senior Programmer for the Hamptons International Film Festival, the Montclair Film Festival, and the Sarasota Film Festival. In addition to her programming work, Ina has helped manage and select scripts for the Hamptons Screenwriters Lab and other year-round programs. Ina has served on festival juries and has spoken to numerous groups about film festivals, online programming, and digital distribution.