News
ShortFest 2018 Award Winners
2018 PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL SHORTFEST ANNOUNCES FESTIVAL WINNERS
Fauve Receives Best of the Festival;
Coyote and Caroline Receive Top Jury Awards;
PALM SPRINGS, CA (June 24, 2018) - The 2018 Palm Springs International ShortFest, the largest short film festival and only short film market in North America, announced its Festival award winners on Sunday, June 24, 2018. 333 short films screened throughout the Festival along with more than 5,300 of the 5,400 filmmaker submissions available in the film market. More than $87,500 in prizes, including $27,000 in cash awards were awarded in 21 categories.
"The award winners truly capture the amazing pool of talent and the incredible range of films found at the festival," said Festival Director Lili Rodriguez. "We're honored to witness and share such a skilled level of filmmaking and can't wait to do it again next year." The 2018 Palm Springs International ShortFest award winners are:
JURY AWARDS Jury Awards and awards in the non-student and student competition categories were selected by ShortFest jury members Penelope Bartlett (Programmer for the Criterion Collection), Marc-André Grondin (Actor), Brian Hu (Artistic Director of Pacific Arts Movement, Presenter of the San Diego Asian Film Festival, Assistant Professor of TV, Film, and New Media at San Diego State University), Missy Laney (Director of Development at Adult Swim) and Ina Pira (Curator at Vimeo).
BEST OF FESTIVAL AWARD - Winner received $5,000 cash prize 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 Set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer.
BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT - Winner received a $2,000 cash prize. Awarded to the best short produced outside of the U.S. or Canada, Coyote (Switzerland), Lorenz Wunderle The film shows a tragic coyote, who loses his family during an attack by wolves.
BEST NORTH AMERICAN SHORT - Winner received $1,000 and the use of a camera package valued at $60,000 courtesy of Panavision. Awarded to the best short produced in the U.S. or Canada.
Caroline (USA), Logan George, Celine Held When plans fall through, a six-year-old is faced with a big responsibility on a hot Texas day.
NON-STUDENT COMPETITION AWARDS
All first place winners in the non-student categories received a cash award of $2,000 and may be eligible to submit their film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar® consideration.
BEST Animated short
Nevada (USA), Emily Ann Hoffman In this stop-motion animated comedy, a young couple's romantic weekend getaway is interrupted by a birth control mishap.
BEST Live Action short over 15 minutes
Shadow Animals (Sweden), Jerry Carlsson Marall follows her parents to a party and they want her to behave. As the evening progresses she finds the adults' behavior increasingly strange.
BEST Live Action short 15 MINUTES AND UNDER
Fence (Kosovo/France), Lendita Zeqiraj A chaotic moment in a family gathering of a woman with children and an unexpected visitor with his dog.
Special Mention: Nursey Rhymes (Australia), Tom Noakes - On the side of a rural highway, a bizarre encounter with a Metalhead takes a profound turn.
BEST Documentary short
Dulce (Colombia/USA), Guille Isa, Angello Faccini In coastal Colombia, a mother teaches her daughter how to swim so that she may go to the mangroves and harvest the piangua shellfish with the other women in the village.
Special Mention: After/Life (USA), Puck Lo - In an Arizona desert, a dystopic collective nightmare unfolds where US domestic and foreign policies collide.
STUDENT COMPETITION AWARDS
All first place winners in these categories received a $500 cash prize.
BEST STUDENT ANIMATION
Perfect Town (Switzerland), Anaïs Voirol In search of perfection a whole city obeys to selection. A constant struggle. Trying and trying again. Where is the difference between endurance and madness?
BEST STUDENT Live Action short over 15 minutes
Satán (Switzerland/Mexico), Carlos Tapia González Everyday, Tiago goes into his garden to feed the crocodile that killed his brother.
BEST STUDENT Live Action short 15 MINUTES AND UNDER
Kira Burning (USA), Laurel Parmet Teenage Kira attempts to take revenge after a heartbreaking betrayal by her ex-best friend.
BEST STUDENT DOCUMENTARY short
Palenque (Colombia/USA), Sebastián Pinzón Silva Guided by motifs of life and death, Palenque is an ode to a small town that has greatly contributed to the collective memory of Colombia: San Basilio de Palenque, the first town in the Americas to have broken free from European domination.
AUDIENCE AWARDS
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT - TBA
BEST ANIMATION SHORT - TBA
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT - TBA
BEST STUDENT SHORT - TBA
ALEXIS AWARD FOR BEST EMERGING STUDENT FILMMAKER - The Alexis Award was created in honor of Alexis Echavarria, whose talent as a budding filmmaker and gift for inspiring excellence among his fellow students were cut short suddenly in 2005 at age 16. This year two films were selected to receive the award, which is a cash prize of $500 each.
Imfura (Switzerland/Rwanda), Samuel Ishimwe How can one get an idea of the issues connected with the ruined home of a family who is a victim of the Rwandan genocide? A young man returns to the village where his deceased mother was born. He seeks to adopt a bruised collective recollection. Intoned chants all represent voices of possible reconciliation.
Cross My Heart (USA/Jamaica), Sontenish Myers An American teenage girl visits her family in Jamaica and uncovers a secret that changes the way she sees the people she loves. This film explores the culture of silence amongst women, the kinds of secrets we keep and who they're actually protecting.
ADDITIONAL PRIZES
FUTURE FILMMAKER AWARD - Winner received a $2,000 cash prize. Awarded to a filmmaker whose work and vision point ot a bright and prospective career in cinema.
Mamartuile (Mexico), Alejandro Saevich The president of Mexico spends his final days in office making plans for his future. Everything looks in order until an international conflict interrupts his pleasant rest.
Special Mention: Falling (France), Benjamin Vu - In the winter of 1994 in the French suburbs, Léo and Baptiste, two polar opposite students, meet up one evening to work on a school presentation.
VIMEO STAFF PICK AWARD - Films featured in competition are eligible for the Vimeo Staff Pick Award, which includes a $4,000 cash prize. The winning film will be released on Vimeo June 25, 2018.
Rewind Forward (Switzerland), Justin Stoneham - Reliving the past is sometimes the only way to move forward.
BRIDGING THE BORDERS AWARD PRESENTED BY CINEMA WITHOUT BORDERS - $2,500 courtesy of Go Energistics; Awarded by the Cinema Without Borders jury to the short that is most successful in bridging and connecting the people of our world closer together.
Mon Amour, Mon Ami (Italy/France), Adriano Valerio - Is it possible to stage a wedding with someone who really loves you?
Special Mentions
The Last Refugees (USA), Tanaz Eshaghian
Scaffold (Canada), Kazik Radwanski
YOUTH JURY AWARD - Awarded by ShortFest youth juries composed of local students interested in cinema and the arts. Each winner received a $250 cash prize.
Kids' Choice (Ages 13 and under) - $250
One Small Step (USA/China), Bobby Pontillas, Andrew Chesworth Luna, a young Chinese American girl, dreams of becoming an astronaut. Supported by her humble father, Luna endeavors to make her dreams come true.
Young Cineastes (Ages 14-17) - $250
Sin Cielo (USA), Jianna Maarten A modern day Romeo and Juliet story of two star crossed lovers along Mexico's northern border where Dollars rule and girl's bodies turn up mysteriously in the river or never at all.
About Palm Springs International ShortFest Designated by AMPAS, BAFTA and BIFA as an award-qualifying festival, and accredited by the International Short Film Conference, the Palm Springs International ShortFest & Short Film Market, one of the most acclaimed short film showcases in the world, will take place in Palm Springs on June 19-25. Now in its 24th year, ShortFest will feature 333 short films from 62 countries. The concurrent Short Film Market, the only one in North America, includes a library of more than 5,300 films available to film buyers, industry and press. The ShortFest Forum programs are a four-day schedule of seminars, panel discussions, roundtables and master classes staged free of charge for attending filmmakers. For more information and tickets, call (760) 778-8979 or visit the website at www.psfilmfest.org. The Palm Springs International Film Festival will be held January 3-14, 2019 and the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala will be held January 3, 2018. # # # Digital images from the Festival and from films screened during the Festival are available upon request.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Steven Wilson / Ashley Patterson
B|W|R Public Relations
212-901-3920 / 310-550-7776
Israel Wilder
Palm Springs Int'l Film Society
760-322-2930