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The Oxford Film Festival had its closing ceremony last night and went out with a bang with presentations of the film festival’s celebrated Hoka Awards The awards, cash prizes and in-kind production packages were given out in front of a raucous crowd at Oxford’s Lyric Theater.
The Hoka Award for Best Narrative Feature Film went to Claire Carré’s “Embers,” which also received the first-ever Alice Guy-Blache Filmmaker Award, which is given to the festival’s top female filmmaker.
Oxford Film Festival Executive Director Melanie Addington said in an official statement: “This was a major year of growth for the Oxford Film Festival and the increased number of films we accepted and presented this year was only matched by the artistic quality and creative achievement of those films. Our film juries were faced with a number of difficult decisions choosing the Hoka Award winners over the other films in each of the categories, thus quite a few films received special mentions as well.”
Best Narrative Short: “Blazing Sun” (2015)
Special Jury Mention – Music Video: “Booker Wright’s Mashup” (2916)
Best Documentary Feature Film: “Children of the Arctic” (2015)
Best Experimental Film: “Cybergenesis” (2015)
Best Narrative Feature Film: “Embers” (2015)
Best Music Video: “Fallen Star” (2016)
Best Mississippi Documentary Film: “Finding Cleveland” (2016)
Citation for Social Significance: “Fitting the Description in North Portland” (2016)
Best Mississippi Narrative Film: “The Gift” (2016)
Best Documentary Short: “The House is Innocent” (2015)
Best Animation: “The Seafarer and the Moonlight” (2015)
Best Director: “The Sinking of Sozopol” (2015) – Directed by Kostadin Bonev
Special Jury Mention – Experimental: “Swallowed Whole” (2015)
Special Jury Mention – Animation: “They Crawl Among Us” (2015)
Special Jury Citation for Southern Spirit: “Three Fingers” (2015)
Best Editing: “Viola: A Mother’s Story of Juvenile Justice” (2015)
Best Cast: “The Week” (2015)
Audience Award Winner: “West of Elvis (2015)
Ron Tibbet Audience Award: “Yalo” (2015)
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