Winners 2025-04

Winners list and descriptions, May 2025

Traitor

  • Best Short Film
  • Film Title: Maria
  • Description:“Amidst displacement and destruction, Maysaa, a Palestinian mother, discovers an unplanned pregnancy. With limited medical care and constant instability, she embarks on a difficult journey to protect her unborn child. Concerned about potential complications and struggling to access basic healthcare, she moves between refugee camps in search of a prenatal checkup—yet there are no hospitals nearby, and essential medications are scarce. As her due date approaches, the challenges intensify—clean water is unavailable, bathrooms lack privacy, and transportation is nearly impossible. Still, against all odds, Maysaa gives birth to her daughter, Maria, in these dire conditions, where joy and suffering intertwine. Returning to Beit Hanoun, she finds her home reduced to rubble. But Maria, born in the heart of war, becomes a symbol of resilience and hope.Director’s Vision:
    ‘Maria’ is a testament to the struggles of mothers in wartime, where life persists despite devastation. Through an observational documentary approach, the film captures the reality of displacement as it is—raw and unfiltered—highlighting the strength of Palestinian women in the face of the impossible.Production Details:
    • Filming Locations: Gaza (displacement camps in Khan Younis and Beit Hanoun).
    • Filming Style: Handheld camera, observational documentary for an immersive experience.
    • Themes: Motherhood, war, displacement, resilience, survival, hope.”*
  • Country: Palestine
  • Authors:
    • Director: AbdelHakim Abu Daqen
  • Cast: Not specified.
  • Duration: 00:27:00

Finding Peace with Pedro Capó

  • Honorable Mention
  • Film Title: Finding Peace with Pedro Capó
  • Description:“Finding peace with Opendoor and Pedro Capó.”
  • Country: United States
  • Authors:
    • Director: FRANCIS JUAREZ
    • Writer: Travis Settelmayer
    • Producer: Caleb Davis
  • Cast:
    • Pedro Capó (as himself)
      • Prior Credits: Sol de Medianoche.
  • Duration: 00:01:00
  • Project Website: YouTube Link

ANIMA EX MACHINA

  • Best Film Editing
  • Film Title: ANIMA EX MACHINA
  • Description:“Τhe film has already six awards (as of March 8, 2025.) It’s a visual love poem to the beauty of classic cars, between fantasy and reality. Thousands of the most amazing AI images, created by the director, set on the magical music of Stamatis Spanoudakis, one of Greece’s top composers, with passionate narration by Ari Gerontakis. The film is a stunning display of beauty, colors, feelings, drama, humor and one of the rare examples of AI integrated in the story of rare class cars. The stills are just a sample of how AI has been used to portray the dedication and passion of historic, vintage and classic car lovers all over the globe. If you need more info, please email us via Filmfreeway or to production@sincinemafilms.com.”
  • Country: United States
  • Authors:
    • Director: Nico Mastorakis
      • Bio: Directed 22 features and two multi-award-winning documentaries.
    • Writer: Nico Mastorakis
    • Producer: Nico Mastorakis
  • Cast:
    • Ari Gerontakis (Narrator)
      • Prior Credits: Mykonos, The Soul of an Island / Alimos, Greek Riviera’s Blue Diamond.
  • Duration: 00:29:46
  • Social Links: Website

Granny Gumshoe

  • Best First Time Director, Short Film
  • Best Student Short Film
  • Film Title: Granny Gumshoe
  • Description:“Granny takes her business of baking and detective work very seriously in this film noir style thriller/comedy. You better not get on her bad side, because you can bet her oven’s preheated to ‘tough cookie’ degrees.”
  • Country: United States
  • Authors:
    • Director: Chandler Roberts
      • Bio: Prior credits include Teddy.
    • Writer: Chandler Roberts
    • Producer: Chandler Roberts
  • Cast:
    • Allison Owens (Granny)
    • Andrew Wells (The Guy)
  • Duration: 00:03:23

Maria

  • Best Short Documentary
  • Film Title: Traitor
  • Description:“With the assistance of an experimental subliminal file, a spy hunter is tasked with tracking the source of a false flag event by pretending to be the Russian defector who had been paid by a rogue American agency to carry out an attack.”
  • Country: United States
  • Authors:
    • Director: Lawrence Bucher
      • Bio: Prior credits include Under The Radar (UTR).
    • Writer: Lawrence Bucher
      • Bio: Prior credits include Under The Radar (UTR).
  • Cast: Not specified.
  • Duration: 00:09:43

She’s Gone Away

  • Best Dance Film
  • Film Title: She’s Gone Away
  • Description:“This dance film is a love letter to cancer previvors facing difficult decisions about their health and bodies while enduring waves of isolation, guilt, and emotional turmoil. The film features dancer/choreographer Nikiya Palombi, who is an ATM gene mutation carrier and previvor. The first half of the dance was filmed a few days before Palombi underwent a preventative double mastectomy surgery to reduce her risk of breast cancer. The second half was filmed one year later.”
  • Country: United States
  • Authors:
    • Director: Kai Brown
      • Bio: Prior credits include The Anatomy of Jane Doesn’t Exist, My Holographic Heart, True Crime.
    • Producers:
      • Oren Levy
      • Nikiya Palombi
  • Cast:
    • Nikiya Palombi (previvor)
      • Prior Credits: Gunner Jackson, My Holographic Heart, CONAN.
  • Duration: 00:03:24
  • Social Links: Instagram

My Shadow

  • Best Experimental Short Film
  • Film Title: My Shadow
  • Description:“An introspective meeting with puppet Pierrot motivates a sleeping girl…”
  • Country: United States
  • Authors:
    • Director/Writer/Producer: Astra Silver Burke
    • Producer: Paul Burke Jr
      • Bio: Prior credits include Doctor Speculo: Sayonara Ex Machina, Monster Bikini.
  • Cast:
    • Astra Silver Burke (Sleeping Girl)
  • Duration: 00:06:41
  • Social Links: IMDb
  • Trailer: Link

What do you believe in? (Matosinhos)

  • Best Commercial and Advertising
  • Film Title: Traitor
  • Description:“With the assistance of an experimental subliminal file, a spy hunter is tasked with tracking the source of a false flag event by pretending to be the Russian defector who had been paid by a rogue American agency to carry out an attack.”
  • Country: United States
  • Authors:
    • Director: Lawrence Bucher
      • Bio: Prior credits include Under The Radar (UTR).
    • Writer: Lawrence Bucher
      • Bio: Prior credits include Under The Radar (UTR).
  • Cast: Not specified.
  • Duration: 00:09:43

The death vigil of the birch trees

  • Honorable Mention
  • Film Title: the death vigil of the birch trees
  • Description:“Dissertation (seen through the eyes of those who believe in the sentient capacity of every living being) on the conceivable reason for the unexplained presence and tenacious resistance of birch trees at Caldara di Manziana.”
  • Country: Italy
  • Authors:
    • Director: mauro marini
  • Cast: Not specified.
  • Duration: 00:08:00

The New Renaissance Immortal Beauty ELAWIATR ART

  • Honorable Mention
  • Film Title: The New Renaissance Immortal Beauty ELAWIATR ART
  • Description:“‘You should be touched by immortality. I am Art,’ declares ELAWIATR, the New Renaissance Art Star. ELAWIATR is both an embodiment of art and an artist transcending human limitations. She signifies transcendence—a profound transition and an endeavor to affirm the existence of immortality. The Art-ist reveals the dimension of time, extending beyond our present moment, where ELAWIATR positions herself. She manifests a universal power, narrating a unique perspective on art, a masterpiece. ELAWIATR shows that infinity exists within us—a profound spiritual elevation in an extraordinary way. She proclaims, ‘I exist.’ Always. ELAWIATR desires to share her heightened awareness as the protagonist of her own New Renaissance World of Art. As an art-ist, ELAWIATR immerses herself in the infinity of quantum physics, ensuring her art’s perpetual existence. She surpasses her own history, becoming the eternal reference in the realm of New Renaissance Art. ELAWIATR proposes that her art is newly reborn (Italian: Nuovo Rinascimento), precisely substantiating the idea that the world undergoes rebirth from the last great ancient, classical world, or even before in another galaxy. ELAWIATR is living art that continues through eternity (l’eternità), amid the vastness of the infinite New Renaissance Art.”
  • Country: Italy
  • Authors:
    • Director/Writer/Producer: ELAWIATR
  • Cast:
    • ELAWIATR (as herself)
      • Prior Credits: Self-referential (e.g., ELAWIATR).
  • Duration: 00:05:55
  • Social Links:

Back To The Past

  • Best VR and 360 Video Experience
  • Film Title: Back To The Past
  • Description:“Rui Barbosa is a historic person in Brazil that lived in the later 19th to the 20th century. Famous for being an abolitionist, jurist and politician from the late Empire and the new Republic. He is waiting for his wife to get dressed. They have a party to go soon. While he waits, help him fix a historic scanned car and find out more about his house (that would become a museum later on). This experience uses only hands as controllers to give the viewers an incredible immersive experience using Meta Quest 3. Put your seat belt and come back to the past!”
  • Country: Brazil
  • Authors:
    • Director/Writer/Producer: Dario Melo Maciel
  • Cast: Not specified.
  • Duration: 00:20:00
  • Trailer: YouTube
  • Social Links: