Narrative Feature Film Selections
Seducing Charlie Barker (89m) USA
Dark satire of the Manhattan entertainment industry in which a gifted actor (Charlie Barker) begins his fall from grace as he encounters a
chameleon-like social climber.
Directed by: Amy Glazer
Submitted by: Lynn Webb
Nominated:
Best Narrative Feature
Best Male Performance: Stephen Barker Turner
Best Female Performance: Heather Gordon
Clear Blue Tuesday (105m) USA
Eleven New Yorkers change course after catastrophic events force them to examine why they moved to New York and to decide whether they'll stay.
Directed by: Elizabeth Lucas
Submitted by: Elizabeth Lucas
Nominated:
Best Narrative Feature
Emerging Narrative Feature Filmmaker (1st time Feature Director)
Jackrabbit Sky (87m) USA
Max Boden, an ingenious desert naturalist, is trying to stop the construction of a copper mine on the outskirts of 1939 Tucson, Arizona with the help of an early motion picture camera. Jackrabbit Sky is an original feature 35mm dramatic comedy that celebrates the innovative 1930's home filmmakers who were essential in pioneering the art of independent cinema.
Directed by: Andrew Bergmann
Submitted by: Andrew Bergmann
Nominated:
Emerging Narrative Feature Filmmaker (1st time Feature Director)
Bled White (86m) USA
The dead feast on human flesh and stop at nothing for it. The living, confined to the dark corners of the world, must do what it takes to survive. Dying is the only thing left to do at the end of the world. Now Ed, Matt, Joe, and Natalie will try to survive. Who lives depends on who kills first.
Directed by: Jose Gomez
Submitted by: Jose Gomez
Documentary Feature Film Selections
Rouge Ciel (93m) France
"Rouge Ciel" tells the story of artists out of the norms, visionaries who set ablaze our spirit and shake up our ways of thinking.
Directed by: Bruno Decharme
Submitted by: Bruno Decharme
Nominated:
Best Documentary Feature
Emerging Documentary Filmmaker (1st time Feature Director)
The Fall of Womenland (46m) China
"The Fall of Womenland" is a documentary on the unique sexual culture of the Mosuo people, a small minority in the South-West of China, and one of the last remaining matriarchal societies in the world. Without a formal marriage contract, the Mosuo traditionally build relationships based on free love and sexual satisfaction. But can the sexual liberty and power of the Mosuo women survive as modern Chinese society slowly encroaches upon their ancestral land? We follow Bima, a young Mosuo woman, and learn of her reality and of the dangers that threaten her inherited way of life.
Directed by: Xiaodan He
Submitted by: Xiaodan He
Nominated:
Best Documentary Feature
A.W.O.L. (A Way Of Life ... after breast cancer) (78m) USA
Losing body parts IS a big deal! Breast cancer treatment is barbaric: they cut you, they poison you, they burn you. But it's not just the physical; it's very much emotional as well. This documentary follows women scarred by breast cancer as they discover their true hidden beauty at a unique weekend retreat.
Directed by: Peggy Free
Submitted by: Peggy Free
Nominated:
Best Documentary Feature
Emerging Documentary Filmmaker (1st time Feature Director)
Short Film Selections
When The Hurlyburly's Done (16m) Germany
She will bleed to death. Jacob is holding Gwynn in his arms. A love stronger than death, that's what they promised to each other. Should he take her to hospital, or rather escape? The hospital, that's where her husband and his men are waiting. If he chooses to escape, she will die. What's his decision - his love, or his life? The answer will fall, when the hurlyburly's done...
Directed by: Hanna Maria Heidrich
Directed by: Alex Eslam
Submitted by: Hanna Maria Heidrich
Nominated:
Best Narrative Short
Best Female Performance Short: Fiona Hampton
Slice of Pie (34m) USA
A shy 45 year old man, from a small mid-west farm town, finds love with some 'bumps' along the way. When pie is good, life is good.
Directed by: Tim Reischauer
Submitted by: Tim Reischauer
Nominated:
Best Narrative Short
Best Male Performance Short: Rick Hall
Running Back to Forward (13m) USA
A young married woman finds herself in a mysterious, claustrophobic environment, where she must revisit her childhood and the emotional scars of her past in order to save her marriage.
Directed by: Steve Horswill-Johnston
Submitted by: Steve Horswill-Johnston
Nominated:
Best Narrative Short
Dim Light (24m) USA
"Dim Light" is a supernatural drama in the vein of X-Files or M. Night Shyamalan's classic Unbreakable. It follows the story of Asia Shepherd, a legal aide from a magazine publication investigating the mystery of a photographer who has mysteriously gone blind but is still taking pictures that are too good to be true.
Directed by: Neel Upadhye
Submitted by: Jonathan Judelson
Nominated:
Best Narrative Short
Benevolence (20m) USA
A man who dreams his death and consequently leads him on a mission of charity until his life is destroyed.
Directed by: Lee Peterkin
Submitted by: Lee Peterkin
Wasting Daylight (19m) USA - Mocumentary
A man creates a non-profit activist group to fight Daylight Saving Time.
Directed by: Joe Parker
Submitted by: Joe Parker
Nominated:
Best Male Performance Short: Carl Stevens
Credits (6m) USA
A man, a woman, and a movie theater -- a tale of love and grace.
Directed by: Hugh Schulze
Submitted by: Hugh Schulze
The Beekeeper (27m) USA
When his son's girlfriend becomes pregnant as a result of their affair, a beekeeper must sacrifice his integrity for his iniquity.
Directed by: Sean Jourdan
Submitted by: Sean Jourdan
Mind The Gap (7m) Canada
When a sexy beautiful young woman sits next to a sweet elderly man on a train, the ride is anything but boring.
Directed by: Shaun Majumder
Submitted by: Shaun Majumder
The Interrogation (16m) USA
A professor is confused why he is being interrogated and the cops will do anything to extract a confession.
Directed by: Stephen Bastien
Submitted by: Stephen Bastien
Debt of the Heart (23m) USA
Joseph Saunders left his small town home three years ago to seek his fortunes in the financial markets of Chicago. Now a success, he returns home to attend his mother's funeral only to find that the ghosts of his past have become the cries of his present. Scenes shot in Geneva and St. Charles.
Directed by: Jonathan Cohon
Submitted by: Jonathan Cohon
Short Documentary Selections
Toughman (30m) USA
The Toughman Contest has always drawn a crowd, more recently it has drawn controversy. The death of 27 year old, Steve Burress, has left many to question whether Toughman is safe.
Co-Directed by: Doug Paul & Rocky Smith
Submitted by: Doug Paul
Nominated:
Best Documentary Short
Life by Joseph (20m) USA - Student
'Life by Joseph' chronicles the unique struggle of community artist Joe Gagnepain. The documentary is a glimpse into how Joe sees the world, and in how those around him view Joe as an artist, father, husband, and community member.
Co-Directed by: Tyler Hicks & William Newman
Submitted by: Tyler Hicks
Nominated:
Best Documentary Short
Student Short Film Selections
The Godmother (15m) USA
In this quick paced romantic-action-comedy, Rosella Wu is convinced by her mother to kill her mobster husband Danny. But when Danny quits the mob and cleans up his act, she tries to cancel the hit. Except she's too late - the hitman crashes into the house, guns blazing! Now Rosella must stop the hitman, prevent Danny from finding out it was her, and stand up to her over-bearing mother who still wants Danny dead!
Directed by: Lior Chefetz
Submitted by: Lior Chefetz
Nominated:
Student Visionary Award
Echoes (18m) USA
Lisa is trying to maintain a normal life with her husband David, a poet that even though young is developing AlzheimerÕs disease. Lisa lives in denial, but is after a horrible incident forced to confront the reality of her relationship.
Directed by: Giulio Musi
Submitted by: Giulio Musi
Nominated:
Student Visionary Award
Best Female Performance Short: Nina Bell
As Ever, Stan (13m) USA
Set in rural Illinois, a new mother prepares for the most important day of her life, the day her husband returns from WWII. A true story.
Directed by: Alexander Schwarm
Submitted by: Samantha Soto
Nominated:
Student Visionary Award
Faith Healer (23m) USA - Mocumentary
Filmmakers struggle to reconstruct the life of an alleged faith healer when he vanishes from their documentary.
Directed by: Adam Hirsch
Submitted by: Adam Hirsch
Horst (15m) Germany
A story about a man, his neighbor, a woman and her fish.
Directed by: Wolf-Tassilo Sack
Submitted by: Daniel Seideneder
Carpe Millennium (18m) USA
'Carpe Millennium' is a comedy about a guy who wants to lose his virginity on the eve of the year 2000. In order to do this, he starts telling lies about knowing a famous celebrity. As the lies get bigger and bolder, more and more women are interested in him. Just as he's about to get lucky, the celebrity shows up and things take a turn for the worst!
Directed by: Eric Bednarowicz
Submitted by: Eric Bednarowicz
Animated Short Selections
Mu -emptiness- (16m) USA - Student
A monk lovingly paints a Phoenix in a mural. The Phoenix, trapped in the mural, wills herself into the world. She is transformed from mythical bird into human woman. Upon her journey she learns lessons of the fragility of life, the certainty of death and the suffering of unquenchable desire.
Directed by: RIA AMA
Submitted by: RIA AMA
Nominated:
Best Animated Short
Ape Trouble (7m) USA
Gorillas have it rough. At a very young age Billy the Gorilla is snatched from his mother and placed inside the Taylor-Cornelius Primate Research Center for testing and education. Upon his release into the cold and bitter city, he finds that there is one lesson his lab-coated schoolmasters neglected to teach him.
Directed by: Scott Dikkers
Submitted by: Sherry DeLucas
Nominated:
Best Animated Short
Screenplays
They Might Be Kennedys Comedy - USA
In the idyllic Cape Cod summer of 1987, two teenagers impersonate Kennedys to seduce co-eds until one of them unexpectedly falls in love and the other takes the guise too far.
Written by: Ted Collins
Submitted by: Ted Collins
Nominated:
Best Screenplay-Comedy
Down Time Comedy - USA
Mike has just been dumped by his girlfriend. This is not uncommon for a college student, but there is a problem. Mike desperately wants to move on with life but he is stuck in 'down time' and will do anything to get out of it. A story of love, friendship, and the frightening possibility of life after college.
Written by: Brian Borchers
Submitted by: Brian Borchers
Nominated:
Best Screenplay-Comedy
Trial and Erin Comedy - USA
Maurie, a recently widowed lawyer, is overwhelmed at the pressures of dealing with the recent loss of his wife, raising his kids and planning for a trial scheduled to begin the day before his son's bar mitzvah. He hires Erin, a beautiful caterer to help and falls hard for her. The trouble starts when Maurie learns that Erin is dating her adversary who has coaxed her into spying on Maurie as he prepares for trial.
Written by: Lawrence Shulruff
Submitted by: Lawrence Shulruff
Nominated:
Best Screenplay-Comedy
Ripples Drama - USA
A Chicago businessman encounters an abducted teen in a Rio de Janeiro brothel. Is it too late to save her life? Is it too late to save his soul?
Written by: Mark Winzer
Submitted by: Mark Winzer
Nominated:
Best Screenplay-Drama
The Fishing Shack Drama - USA
Our past and the mistakes we made haunt us all our lives. The lives of a family revolve around a humble fishing shack in the bayou of rural Louisiana and the struggle of one woman to make things right.
Written by: James Kirtland
Submitted by: James Kirtland
Nominated:
Best Screenplay-Drama
Choices I - The Reunion Drama - USA
'Choices' is an unforgettable family saga that spans thirty years and two continents. Captain Alan Bradford and Rachael Sutton find each other in the maelstrom of the London blitz in 1944. Two halves of the same soul they are torn apart by their own flawed choices, condemned to live out their lives separated by an ocean. The thirtieth anniversary celebration of the D-Day invasion sets in motion a series of events merging past with present.
Written by: James Kirtland
Submitted by: James Kirtland
Nominated:
Best Screenplay-Drama
