Palm Springs International Shortfest Announces Award Winners

The Palm Springs International Shortfest has announced its winners; a total of $110,000 in prizes, including $16,000 in cash prizes, were awarded in 19 categories. Full list of winners below. 

All films winning first place in the fest’s four programs are automatically Oscar eligible. A sampling of the lineup from the Shortfest, which runs June 18-24, is here.

JURY AWARDS:

BEST OF FESTIVAL AWARD – Winner received $2,000 cash prize,
camera package courtesy of Radiant Images, valued at $10,000, and Final Cut Pro
X courtesy of Apple Computer.  The winner
of this award may be eligible to submit their film to the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar consideration.

Delicate Gravity (Délicate Gravité) (France), Philippe André

Yvan Attal and Anne Parillaud are wonderful as two lonely
spirits who come together by chance when a cell phone call to a wrong number
provides the catalyst for a meeting.

PANAVISION GRAND JURY AWARD – Winner received a Panavision
camera package valued at $60,000.

Stranger Brothers (Faux Frères) (France), Lucas Delangle

Guillaume returns to the village where he grew up to pick up
the car he inherited from his father years before. Once there, he encounters
his step brother, and things get a little more complicated.

FUTURE FILMMAKER AWARD – Winner received a $2,000 cash prize
and a GoPro Hero 3 Camera courtesy of Radiant Images.

Rhino Full Throttle (Nashorn Im Galopp) (Germany), Erick
Schmitt

Bruno roams the streets of Berlin, gazing behind the many
facades and surfaces as he seeks the soul of the city. Unexpectedly, he meets
an ally in his quest and immediately falls in love. But she is also on a quest,
and it’s one that has her leaving Bruno and Berlin very soon.

JURY SPECIAL MENTION – The jury would like to give a special
mention to the short film The Wall from Norway for its grit, humanity and
creativity.

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

AUDIENCE FAVORITE LIVE ACTION SHORT

Walking the Dogs (UK), Jeremy Brock

Emma Thompson stars as Queen Elizabeth in this delicious
rendering of the infamous 1982 incident in which a man broke into the Queen’s
bedroom while her security guard was out in the palace grounds walking the
dogs.

Runner-up – Great (Germany), Andreas Henn

AUDIENCE FAVORITE DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution (USA), Matthew VanDyke

Shot on the ground with a hand held camera and told in
striking first person,  the Syrian
struggle for freedom as experienced by a 32 year old rebel commander, Mowya,
and a 24 year old female journalist, Nour, in Aleppo, Syria is exposed like no
TV newscast could do.

Runner-up – SLOMO (USA), Josh Izenberg

AUDIENCE FAVORITE ANIMATION SHORT

A Girl Named Elastika (Canada), Guillaume Blanchet

A spirited girl made of rubber bands journeys across her
corkboard universe in this delightful stop-motion film.

Runner-up – Chopper (Netherlands), Lars Damoiseaux, Frederik
Palmaers

Returning for a second year, the Palm Springs International
ShortFest continued the ShortFest Online Film Festival.  Ten films were chosen to represent the
Festival online.  The ShortFest Online
Audience Award went to Shelved (New Zealand), directed by James
Cunningham.  The film will be available
to view on the PSIFF website for the next three months.

JURY CATEGORY AWARDS:

Awards in the non-student and student categories were
selected by ShortFest jury members Sydney Netter (Founder, SND Films), Missi
Pyle (Actress) and Betsy Sharkey (Film Critic, Los Angeles Times).  All first place winners in the non-student
categories received a cash award of $2,000. 
First place winners in the non-student Animation and Live Action
categories may be eligible for Academy Awards consideration.  Second place recipients received a $500 cash
prize.

BEST ANIMATION SHORT

First Place ($2,000) – Arts & Crafts Spectacular #2
(Germany), Ian Ritterskamp & Sébastien Wolf

This surreal claymation extravaganza wryly celebrates the
close encounter of such disparate pop figures as Popeye and Yoko Ono during a
be-in at a museum somewhere in time.

Second Place ($500) –Chopper (Netherlands), Lars Damoiseaux
& Frederik Palmaers

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT OVER 15 MINUTES

First Place ($2,000) – Wild Horses (USA), Stephanie Martin

Mireille Enos stars in this story of cruelty, courage, love
and memory as two generations of women bear witness to the brutality common to
wild horse roundups in the American West.

Second Place ($500) – Spring Tides (Les Grandes Marées)
(France), Mathias Pardo

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT 15 MINUTES AND UNDER

First Place ($2,000) – We Keep On Dancing (Australia),
Jessica Lawton

Two distinctly disparate characters come together over a
broken down Volkswagen Beetle in this sweet, amusing tale of love, loss and…
car trouble.

Second Place ($500) – Not Funny (No Tiene Gracia) (Spain),
Carlos Violadé

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT:

First Place ($2,000) –

Letters from Pyongyang (Canada), Jason Lee

The tragedy of a divided Korea is powerfully evoked in this
profound personal journey undertaken by filmmaker Jason Lee, who ventures with
his father from South to North, across the Korean peninsula, in search of clues
of his family’s unsettled past.

Second Place ($500) –December 25 (Australia), Wendy Dent

STUDENT CATEGORIES:

All first place winners in these categories received a stock
footage DVD set courtesy of Footage Firm.

BEST STUDENT ANIMATION

First Place – Harald (Germany), Moritz Schneider

Harald is a champion wrestler with a monster mother for his
coach. Though his true love is growing flowers, coach mom doesn’t wanted him
distracted by such trifles, so when she takes away his latest plant, Harald is
forced to sieze the day.

Second Place – The Magnificent Lion Boy (UK), Ana Caro

BEST STUDENT LIVE ACTION SHORT OVER 15 MINUTES

First Place – Magma (Poland), Pawel Maslona

Dedicated furniture salesman Janusz always knows just how to
close a sale but after an extremely rare accident at work, he finds his
carefully constructed life unraveling.

Second Place – Pauline in a Beautiful World (USA), William
Thompson

BEST STUDENT LIVE ACTION SHORT 15 MINUTES AND UNDER

First Place – Jump (Australia), Aimee Lee Curran

In a visually dazzling story about the importance of family
when pursuing your dreams, Jump tells the tale of 12-year-old Edwin, a circus
clown like his father, who dreams of becoming a trapeze artist..

Second Place – Relics (USA), Jennie Allen

BEST STUDENT DOCUMENTARY SHORT

First Place – Empty Nest (Myanmar), Zaw Naing Oo

In one small pocket of Yangon, the urban center of Myanmar,
Daw Ni Lang lives very modestly with her husband and young son. It’s a hard
life, but she’s managed to raise four children who are all well-educated… if
only they would call home a little more often.

Second Place  –
Jonathan (Ecuador), Abe Zverow

BEST STUDENT CINEMATOGRAPHY

Daniel Leigh (cinematographer), The Boy Scout (USA)

Trapped in their car for days after an unexpected snowstorm
strands them on a remote mountain road during an inpromptu trip, Grant and Leah
confront a life-or-death choice…  With
another storm on the way, should they stay or should they go.

Second Place – Tam Morris (cinematographer), Jump
(Australia)

BEST US FILM SCHOOL STUDENT FILM AWARD – $2,000 cash prize
courtesy of KQED, San Francisco.

First Place – My Father’s Truck (Xe Tai Cua Bo)
(Brazil/Vietnam), Mauricio Osaki

10-year-old Mai Vy skips school one day to help
her father with his passenger truck for hire. Set along the countryside of
Northern Vietnam, Mai Vy is soon confronted with varying shades of morality and
harsh realities as she learns how things outside the classroom really are.

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