October 28, 2019

WORLD’S TOP FILM FESTIVAL FOR EMERGING FILMMAKERS ANNOUNCES 2019 JURY AND AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS

NFFTY is the world’s largest and most influential film festival for emerging directors, showcases work by filmmakers 24 and younger from around the globe. NFFTY returned for its 13th consecutive year October 24 - October 27 in Seattle, Washington with thousands attending the festival.  This year’s festival featured over 287 films from 24 states and 24 countries. The award winners – including jury, audience and special achievement awards – have been announced.

The winning school of the 48 HOUR FILM OFF will receive a $1000 cash prize for their school from NFFTY. NEW TALENT AWARDS (Ages 14 and Under, 15 - 19, and 20 - 24) will receive software and licenses from Blackmagic Design and Audiosocket. Jury Award Winners will receive 2 TB hard drives from LaCie and $500 cash prize. Winners of STORY STARTS HERE, presented by Vancouver Film School, will receive $500 cash prize for both Best Pilot and Best Screenplay, and all finalists of STORY STARTS HERE will receive a copy of Final Draft 11. Winners in Music Video and VFX categories receive software suite licences from Red Giant.

NFFTY also expanded commitment to emerging filmmakers’ exposure to industry professionals, expanding jury competition across eight categories with 31 jurors, whose bios can be found at: https://www.nffty.org/jury-members

JURY AWARDS:

  • BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM (STUDENT), HONORABLE MENTION (presented by LaCie) – Your Security - Elias ZX

  • BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM (STUDENT) – (presented by LaCie) - Umbilical Cord to Heaven - Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, Hannah Schierbeek, Keaton McQuarrie, John Eblahan

  • BEST ANIMATION, HONORABLE MENTION (presented by LaCie) – Hold the Sun in Your Hands - Xenia Bernal, Ian Kim, Hank Schoen, India Spencer, Talia Abel, Alejandro Moses de la Vega, Eva Suissa, Michael Zambrano

  • BEST ANIMATION (presented by LaCie) – Grab My Hand - Camrus Johnson

  • BEST ANIMATION (STUDENT) (presented by LaCie) – The Emergency Brake - Maci How, Ari Reuven

  • BEST DOCUMENTARY (STUDENT) (presented by LaCie) – Seeds of Deceit - Miriam Guttman

  • BEST DOCUMENTARY (STUDENT), HONORABLE MENTION (presented by LaCie) – Scaling Iceland - Adam Hersko-RonaTas

  • BEST DOCUMENTARY (presented by LaCie) – The Gospel of Combat - David Hutchinson

  • BEST NARRATIVE SHORT, HONORABLE MENTION (presented by LaCie) – Lavender - Matthew Puccini

  • BEST NARRATIVE SHORT (presented by LaCie) – My Time - Giulia Gandini

  • BEST NARRATIVE SHORT (STUDENT) (presented by LaCie) – Tree #3 - Omer Ben-Shachar

NEW TALENT:

  • AGE 14 AND UNDER – Billy Quinn - Love is the Most Important Thing

  • AGE 15-19 – Allee Stone - after.

  • AGE 20-24 – Sidi Wang - Lucky Girl

JURY/AUDIENCE AWARDS (50/50 WEIGHTING):

48 HOUR FILM OFF:

  • 1ST PLACE - St. Margaret’s Episcopal School

  • 2ND PLACE - Mount Si High School

  • 3RD PLACE - Vancouver School of the Arts and Academies

SPECIAL AWARDS:

KATHY REICHGERDT INSPIRATION AWARD

WINNER: Catherine McCord - You’re Gonna Be Okay

INTERLOCHEN ARTS ACADEMY AWARD

WINNER: Dancing on Black and White - John Li

GIVE VOLUNTEERS AWARD

WINNER: 106 Days - Claire Imler

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS:

  • BEST MUSIC VIDEO – Claud - “I Wish You Were Gay” - Christina Xing, Shane Bagwell

  • BEST VFX (presented by Red Giant) – Iglooghost - “Amu’s Hoop” - Luke Gibson, Seamus Malluagh, Christopher Casey Denton

  • BEST VFX, HONORABLE MENTION (presented by Red Giant) – Moth - Shu Zhu, Shincy Lu, Ayinde Anderson, G. Wilson

  • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Scaling Iceland - Adam Hersko-RonaTas

  • BEST EDITING – How We're Gonna Make it Through Till The Morning Sun - Mackie Mallison

  • BEST DIRECTING – Open - Sarah Nocquet

  • BEST ACTING – Tabitha in Love - Christian Flashman

STORY STARTS HERE: SCREENPLAY COMPETITION:

BEST PILOT (presented by Vancouver Film School): Hire Up - Rebekah Covington
BEST SCREENPLAY (SHORT) (presented by Vancouver Film School): A Crown for Queenie - Tiffany Lin

FINALISTS:

  • One Man Show (Screenplay, Short) - Ben Kadie

  • Spit Head (Pilot) - Theo Taplitz

  • Sorry (Pilot) - Emily Adams 

  • Perfect Match (Screenplay, Short) - Molly Smith

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

  • OPENING NIGHT: BOLD & BEAUTIFUL – Tree #3 - Omer Ben-Shachar

  • MORNING ECLECTIC (presented by Biola University) – Bubblehead - Vigga Wagner

  • FAMILY TIES – Mormor - Matthew MacDonald

  • A.L.: ARTIFICIAL LIFE (presented by MoPOP) – Midnight Marathon - Jonah Haber, Stefan Vucic, Michael Hua 

  • RECLAIMING ME – Melons - Hailey McGill

  • GLOBAL CURRENTS (presented by GIVE Volunteers) – Rainbow Mothers - Elle Luan, Guoxiu Jiang, John Baxter 

  • PALPABLE PERFORMANCES (presented by SHIFT) – Chronie - Derek Mari, Halley Albert, Cullum Andrews

  • HAPPY HOUR SHORTS – Freak Beast - Kyle Blaich, Honor Kidd, Jake Dugger, Roman Richard

  • POWERFUL GRIT – What Daphne Saw - Lizz Marshall

  • THE LONG & SHORT OF IT – Asri (Distant) - Ecegül Bayram, Crystal Zhang, Konstantin Lyubimov

  • A SCREENING DARKLY – Bubble - Vicente Manzano, Alfonso Torres

  • AFTER HOURS ABSURDITY – A Slight Inconvenience - Alan Moutal, Christian Hyatt, Eli Bessudo, Enrique De la Garza

  • BRING THE KIDS (presented by Southern Oregon University) – The Last Straw - Emma Craft

  • ART IN MOTION – Black Girl Poem - Daryl Paris Bright, Ariel Zucker, Kaytie Nielsen, Anatola Pabst

  • HUMAN IDENTITIES (presented by Ithaca College Park School of Communications) – Queen of the Dinosaurs - Addison Dlott, Unagh Frank, Jacob Markwardt, Audrey Warner, Steven Stewart

  • OUR CHANGING EARTH (presented by NowThis) – Of the Sea - Jordyn Romero

  • LEVEL UP! – The Lightning Man - Jonathan Goetzman, Bella Wadhwani, Alexa Cha, Hannah Freeman

  • IMMERSE YOURSELF – Harry, This is Nora - Isaiah Berra

  • CENTERPIECE (co-presented by LaCie) – Wild Love - Paul Autric, Quentin Camus, Lea Gorgés, Maryka Laudet, Zoé Sottiaux, Corentin Yvergniaux, Julien Deparis

  • RADICAL EXPERIMENTS – Someday My Daughter Will Make Art About When I Was Young - Tessa Hill

  • NIGHT TERRORS (presented by Studio School) – Polaroid - Ben Schwartz

  • CINEMATIC JOURNEY – The Gospel of Combat - David Hutchinson, Marli Tague, John Lowell Anderson, Jared Chance

  • FACING THE FRONTIER (presented by Capilano University) – Lucky Girl - Sidi Wang, Sonia Li, Mariana Gonzalez

  • COME AS YOU ARE (presented by Seattle Pride) – Seahorse - Drew Praskovich, Kaitlin Nash, Ashley Stokes, Alia Ssemakula

  • LOCALS ONLY (presented by Seattle Film Institute) – Living with Ana - Saia Dugan, Marley Rankin, Violet Collins, Olivia Flego-Wirth

  • EXISTENTIAL EPICS – Wavering - Jordan Gustafson, Matthew Planer, Lauren Cabanas, Layla Kornota

  • ANIMATION SENSATIONS (presented by Point Park University) – Mending - Lilly Parker, Sarah Wimbish, Meera Gandhi, Natalie Piszcz

  • SLAPS, BOPS, & BANGERS – Starbuck - “Words” - Dawson Taylor

  • LIGHTEN UP! – The Magic Words - Matthew Marucci, Domenic Porcari, Megan Dumke, Aquia Williams

  • CLOSING NIGHT: GENERATION NOW – Virgencita - Giselle Bonilla

ABOUT NFFTY

NFFTY is the largest and most influential film festival in the world for young filmmakers. NFFTY occurs in Seattle and includes over 40 separate screenings, panels, contests, parties and networking opportunities for emerging filmmakers. Filmmakers from around the world submit feature-length and short films in narrative, documentary, animation, music video, and experimental categories. This year, NFFTY expanded our professional development offerings for filmmakers, partnering with such brands as Vimeo and Seed&Spark and creators like Matty Brown and Caleb Slain. Since its launch in 2007, NFFTY has screened films from over 2,700 filmmakers, ranging in age from 6 – 24 years.  For updates and news on NFFTY, visit www.NFFTY.org or www.facebook.com/nffty.

NFFTY is pleased to acknowledge our Premier and Platinum Sponsors: LaCie, Mediterranean Inn, Heal Creative, and Vancouver Film School. Thank you to our National Media Sponsors: NowThis and Here TV.

A special thanks to LaCie, Audiosocket, Final Draft, and Red Giant for their prize donations to our winners.

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For more information:

Email: press@nffty.org

Phone: 206.905.8400