October 29, 2018

WORLD’S TOP FILM FESTIVAL FOR EMERGING FILMMAKERS ANNOUNCES 2018 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 12th consecutive year October 25 - October 28 in Seattle, Washington with thousands attending the festival.  This year’s festival featured over 270 films from 25+ states and 25+ countries. The award winners – including jury, audience and special 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 suites from Red Giant. Jury Award Winners will receive 4 TB hard drives from LaCie. Winner of STORY STARTS HERE will receive $500 cash prize and all finalists of STORY STARTS HERE will receive Write Brothers scriptwriting software licenses.

JURY AWARDS:

  • BEST NARRATIVE SHORT - Silvia In The Waves - Giovana Olmos

  • BEST DOCUMENTARY – Phú - Omeed Farsoni, Troy Charbonnet

  • BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM – Birth Control Your Own Adventure - Sindha Agha

  • BEST MUSIC VIDEO presented by Foreign Family Collective – Dragon Inn 3 - Backstabber - Josh Pfaff

  • BEST ANIMATION – Lady Strips - Adrienne Mountain

  • OCULUS ODYSSEY AWARD presented by Oculus - Plomo: Journey of a Bullet - Giulia Jimenez

  • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - Stevie’s Aliens - Austin S. Harris

  • HONORABLE MENTION VFX presented by Red Giant - A Doll Distorted - Niall Shukla

  • BEST VFX presented by Red Giant - Cupid’s Paradise - Ivy Liao

  • JANE AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE-IDENTIFYING PHENOM presented by Jane and the Shoe - Daisy Cornejo - Part of a Generation

NEW TALENT:

  • AGE 14 AND UNDER presented by Red Giant – The Mom Plan - Ella McKeon

  • AGE 15-19 presented by Red Giant – Trejur - Thomas Kim

  • AGE 20-24 presented by Red Giant – Maggie Rogers - Back In My Body - Brendan Hall

JURY/AUDIENCE AWARDS (50/50 Weighting):

48 HOUR FILM OFF:

  • 1ST PLACE - Anacortes High School

  • 2ND PLACE - Roosevelt High School

  • 3RD PLACE - Ballard High School

NFFTYx AWARDS:

  • BEST 360° FILM - I Can’t, I Have Rehearsal - Fermin Gonzalez, Thomas Glicco, Reina Quezada, Ben Wagner

  • BEST VR - Avaloki - Priyam Parikh

SPECIAL AWARDS:

KATHY REICHGERDT INSPIRATION AWARD

WINNER: An Open Letter to Mimi Walters - Jessica Stossel

BEST HIGH SCHOOL FILMMAKER AWARD

WINNER: Catherine McCord - Fear No Evil, Come Back to Me

STORY STARTS HERE: SCREENPLAY COMPETITION:

WINNER: The Adventures of Star Girl and the Marble Roller - Kathryn Orwig

FINALISTS:

  • We Be The Land - Frazier Bostic

  • Sold - Logan Palmer

  • Oh Possum, My Possum - Griffin Kelly

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

  • OPENING NIGHT - Period. End Of Sentence. - Rayka Zehtabchi

  • MORNING ECLECTIC - Bingo - Annie Jaynes, August Ortega, Brendan Boyle, Jeremy Zeilik

  • A GUIDE TO GROWING UP - Grey Heart - Theo Taplitz

  • FEMINIST FILM NOW presented by Jane and the Shoe - Distress - Lane Lyle

  • A GLOBE LESS TRAVELED - Younger Finland - Hannah Rose Snyder, Luke Keibler, Andrew Holman, Austin Orth

  • POWERFUL GRIT - Wild - Morgana McKenzie

  • HUMAN CONDITION - Soaring Soldiers - Cecilie Elmholt Skou

  • HAPPY HOUR SHORTS - Mad Lib Pixie Dream Girl - Kylie Murphy

  • FRIDAY NIGHT SHORTS - Onye Nmefie (The Trespasser) - William Alexander Boyd III

  • THE LAST LAUGH - To College - Quinn Halleck, Sam Gershik, Cameron Silzle, Jonathan Galliano

  • BRING THE KIDS - Gray - Liv Coron

  • ART IN MOTION - E T A - Talia Shea Levin

  • CINEMATIC JOURNEY - Jörmundur - Jack Bushell

  • EXPERIMENTAL VISIONS - Sweetie - Miaosi Li

  • THROWBACKS - Baby I’m Yours - Hadley Hillel

  • VITAL VOICES - The “In” Word - Ayannah Settle, Gillian McFerren

  • NEXT LEVEL - Nevada - Emily Ann Hoffman

  • CENTERPIECE - Esperanza Y Futuro - Clare Imler

  • EDGE OF YOUR SEAT - The Last Seance - Laura Kulik, Anthony Coyne, David Fortune, Logan Fulton

  • LIGHTEN UP! - White Lilies - Lucy Gale

  • VARIETY HOUR - A Nighttime in Frogtown - Teddy Nissen

  • #UpperLeftUSA - The Mountain Man - Ben Riley, Lars Purdy, Trevor Dunnigan

  • COME AS YOU ARE - Ladies Day - Abena Taylor-Smith

  • REEL ANIMATION - Harls - Kenzie Sutton

  • STORIES OF US - Passionfruit - Ashley Martinez, Caleb Garrett

  • MUSICAL MASTERPIECE presented by Foreign Family Collective - Too Many Zooz - Warriors - Jeffrey Prosser, Andrew Schundler, Inder Mann, Ryan Dayhoff

  • OUTTA THIS WORLD - Waxwing - Karl Jungquist

  • CLOSING NIGHT - NEW AMERICAN DREAMS - 3000 Miles - Sean Wang

ABOUT NFFTY

NFFTY is the largest and most influential film festival in the world for young filmmakers. NFFTY occurs in Seattle and includes over 200 film 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 dive into 360° and virtual reality with the largest of its kind 360° gallery, bootcamp, and panel that are aimed at young filmmakers. Since its launch in 2007, NFFTY has screened films from over 2,000 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 its Presenting Sponsor of the 2018 Festival: Oculus. An additional thanks to our Premier and Partner Sponsors: LaCie, Studio School, Mediterranean Inn, The Maxwell Hotel, Heal Creative, and Foreign Family Collective. Thank you to our Media Sponsor: KUOW 94.9.

A special thanks to LaCie, Write Brothers, Musicbed, 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