58th Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) Awards announcement

Ann Arbor Film Festival logo

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Ann Arbor Film Festival is proud to announce this year’s award-winning filmmakers selected by jurors, Osbert Parker, Lynne Sachs, and Lisa Steele. Thank you, filmmakers and artists, for bringing remarkable and diverse works to our festival and thank you to everyone who watched and participated in our first virtual festival!

The 2020 awards competition presents $22,500 to filmmakers through mostly cash and some in-kind awards such as film stock, film processing, camera equipment, and digital scanning services. 

An award from the AAFF confers prestige and financial support; it can also qualify filmmakers for an Oscar® nomination by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the short film category. 

Qualifying awards are the Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival, the Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film, the Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film, and Best Experimental Film. See the full list of award winners below.

58th Ann Arbor Film Festival Awards:

Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival: Goodbye Fantasy – Amber Bemak and Nadia Granados 

Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker:I Dream of Vietnam – Jiayu Yang  

Kodak Cinematic Vision Award: E-Ticket – Simon Liu  

Best Experimental Film: Video Blues – Emma Tusell   

Best Documentary Film: Kere mattu Kere (The Lake and The Lake) – Sindhu Thirumalaisamy  

Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film: The Golden Legend – Chema García Ibarra and Ion de Sosa 

Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film: Freeze Frame – Soetkin Verstegen  

Cutters Studios Archival Film Award: The Deepest Hole – Matt McCormick  

Gil Omenn Art & Science Award: Home in the Woods – Brandon Wilson  

Prix DeVarti for Funniest Film: SPENCER’S SLIGHTLY IMPERFECT PEEP SHOW A.K.A. MICRO-BURLESQUE – Gary SchwartzANDI’m Not A Robot – Sean Buckelew  

The Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for an Emerging Experimental Video Artist: Scar – Leilei Xia ANDSomeday – Páraic Mc Gloughlin 

The Eileen Maitland Award: Umbilical – Danski Tang  

PROCAM Best Regional Filmmaker Award: Blue – Laura Magnusson ​

George Manupelli Founder’s Spirit Award: Queering di Teknolojik – Timothy Smith 

The No Violence Award: Green Ash (Ceniza Verde) – Pablo Mazzolo  

UMCU Audience Award: Tetlalli: The Place of Stones – Miguel Nájera  

Leon Speakers Award for Best Sound Design: Who’s Afraid of RGB? – Billy Roisz  

Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film: Vertigo A.I. – Chris Peters  

Tíos Award for Best International Film: The Eyes of Summer – Rajee Samarasinghe  

\aut\ FILM Award for Best LGBTQ Film: Why Can’t I Be Me? Around You – Harrod Blank

 Overture/Wazoo Award for Best Music Video: Diamonds – Tobias Kubli and Tillo Spreng 

 Juror Awards:

KIDS-Michael Frei

Fifth Metacarpal – Scott Fitzpatrick

The Giverny Document – Ja’Tovia Gary

Framing Agnes – Chase Joynt and Kristen Schilt

Flesh – Camila Kater

Colors & Shadows – Andreas Hadjipateras

Candy Shop – Patrick Smith

Aphasia or (It Fell Upon My Mind) – Brynne McGregor

Goodbye Mommy – Jack Wedge

Throat Singing in Kangirsuk – Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland

Thorax – Siegfried A. Fruhauf

SUPPORT AAFF 

Your support helps ensure that the Ann Arbor Film Festival can keep delivering the best film art. Every contribution, however big or small, is so valuable for our future. We hope you will consider making a donation.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the oldest avant-garde and experimental film festival in North America, founded by George Manupelli in 1963. Internationally recognized as a premiere forum for independent filmmakers and artists, each year’s festival engages audiences with remarkable cinematic experiences. The six-day festival presents 40 programs with more than 180 films from over 20 countries of all lengths and genres, including experimental, animation, documentary, fiction, and performance-based works.

Source: Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF)


Sponsored Stories

Sponsored Stories