Nine Honored at 2nd Very Short Film Festival

Nine awards were presented at the 2nd Very Short Film Festival at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre, with Spanish film "Avatar" by Lluis Quillez winning in the drama category, while "The Happiest Day Of His Life" (USA) by Ursula Burton receiving the prize for comedy and "Africa Parting" (USA) by Robyn Yannoukos taking the nod in animation. Tiffany Shlain's "The Tribe" (USA) won for doc and "Victoria" (USA) by Marc Carlini won for music video. In the audience categories, Nancy Stein's "Joey" (USA) took the non-fiction nod and Jack Swanstrom's "A.W.O.L." received audience kudos for fiction. James Higgins' "Ephemera" won the fest's New Frontier prize. And VSFF's experimental and grand jury prize "Best of the Fest" award was given to "Vend" (Australia) by James Findlay. The international cadre of filmmakers from the United States and 11 countries included 40 of the represented filmmakers who attended in person. [Brian Brooks]