2015 Soho International Film Festival Winners

In our last post, we covered the different submissions that were entered and accepted into the 2015 Soho International Film Festival. With submissions ranging from countries like Italy and Nepal to as short as several minutes to feature length films, every aspect of storytelling has been covered within the festival. It only seems fitting that the festival wraps up its sixth annual festival with a number of prominent presenters including The Avengers’ Robert Clohessy and Rescue Me’s James McCaffrey. With awards given to the best of the best at the festival, it was a great close to another successful year for the festival.

There was an even greater presence among the jurors of the festival, with people have worked as actors on shows like Dexter to writers and directors  having worked on films like On Golden Years. The jurors included Emmy Award nominee journalist and educator Ernabel Demillo, or ABC Network Casting Head Marci Phillips. David Zayas, an actor on Gotham and Donna McKenna, a casting director and producer, were also in attendance, as were Reeves Lehman (a director, writer, and Chair of the School of Visual Arts’ Film, Video and Animation Department) and Melissa Lummus (Nashville Film Festival programmer). And to tie it all together, Arnold Vegafria, a talent manager and producer, and Greg Freedman, a corporate council at Milstein Brothers Capital Partners, topped off the jurors.

Eleven categories in all, the jurors had the difficult task of choosing which films would win each award, and the audience can only wonder just how challenging handling that assignment was in the first place. The awards are as follows:

For Best Showcase Feature Film, the award goes to All Stars by Lance Kinsey. The other nominees were All in Time by Marina Donohue and Christopher Fetchko, Frank vs. God by Stewart Schill, Leaving Circadia by Evan Matthew Weinstein, Stuck by John Painz, and The David Dance by April Winney.

The Best World Showcase Award went to Highway to Dhampus by Rick McFarland, while Tomislav Mrsic’s Kauboji (Cowboys), Bauddhayan Mukherji’s Teenkahon, and Titus Heckel’s With Child were also nominated.

Stealth by Melissa Hoppe won the Best Showcase Short Film Award. Nick Demos’ A Policy of Truth, Matthew James Thompson’s August Heat, Jenny Joslin’s and Annette Mia Flores’ Chupacabra, Marisa Vitali’s Grace, Jessi Shuttleworth’s February, Nico Raineau’s Mother’s Day, Gabriel Olson’s The Bridge Partner, Elias Plagianos’ The Man From the City and Yang Wang’s The Little Violinist were all nominated.

Neonlichter (Barbara Muller), Stick to My Bones (Guy Davies and Matthew Leonhart), Lonely Planet (Alex Burunova), The Crossing (Nathalie Biancheri) and Trio (Youn Jee Choi) all were nominated for the Best World Short Award. However, Sophie O’Connor’s Hangry won the award.

The Best Documentary Award goes to Michael Barnett for Becoming Bulletproof. Other films that were nominated include Noel Schwerin’s In An Ideal World, Chandler Wild’s Mount Lawrence, and Jillian Corsie’s Trichster.

All In Time, a film by Marina Donohue and Christopher Fetchko, won the NYC Audience Award Feature Film. Kill Me Deadly (Darrett Sanders), and The Networker (John Gallagher) were also nominated.

The NYC Audience Award for short film went to Marco Gozzo’s Nando. Jamil Laham’s Dirty Laundry Day and Chris Ordal’s Grace were also nominated.

The SIFFNYC Best Acting Performance Feature Film Award went to Muted, by Chandra Wilson, while John Painz’s Stuck, Nora Aunor’s Dementia and Nadine Nicole Heimann’s Lonely Planet were all nominated.

The SIFFNYC Special Jury Award went to Rachel Goldberg’s Muted. The SIFFNYC Rising Star Award went to Stealth by Kristina Hernandez, and lastly, the Carbon Award for Most Creative Filmmaker for US Feature Film went to John Painz’s Stuck.