2025 Festival Award Winners
Directors’ Choice Awards 2025:
Best Feature – Drama: Waltzing Matilda
Best Feature – Comedy: Bad Shabbos
Best International Feature: Amal
Best Humanitarian Feature: My Motherland
Best Indie-Spirit Feature: Paper Flowers
Most Impactful Film: Shattered Ice
Most Inspirational Film: Sheepdog
Most Transformational Film: Lena and Vladimir
Best Ensemble Cast: Sweetwater
Best Documentary: Zurawski v Texas
Best International Documentary: Mistress Dispeller
Best Environmental Documentary: As the Tide Comes In
Most Inspirational Documentary: Into the Heart of the Mountain
Best Indie-Spirit Documentary: A Photographic Memory
Best Non-Fiction Storytelling: Wishing on a Star
Best Investigative Documentary: Hacking Hate
Best Documentary Short: Then Comes the Body
Best Environmental Documentary Short: Planetwalker
Most Inspirational Documentary Short: A Swim Lesson
Best Indie-Spirit Documentary Short: We Exist in Memory
Best Short – Drama: The Last Ranger
Best Short – Comedy: Death Pays Flora a Visit
Best Short – Dramedy: Camping in Paradise
Best International Short: Hearts of Stone
Best Student Short: Neither Donkey Nor Horse
Best Humanitarian Short: Room Taken
The Lavender Award: Buscando Alma
Best Indie Spirit Short: Once More, Like Rain Man
Best Environmental Short: Two Breaths
Most Innovative Short: Stalled in Eight Etudes
Programmers’ Choice: Polemos
Audience Choice Winners 2025
Best Short: TIE: A Guest in My Country and Belief
Best Student Short: Bat Boy
Best Animated Short: Tomorrow
Best Documentary Short: The Final Copy of Ilon Specht
Best Documentary Feature: Between the Mountain and the Sky
Best International Documentary Feature: Finding Musana
Best Feature Drama: Sheepdog
Best Feature Comedy: Do Us Part
Best International Film: Never Alone
BEST OF FEST NARRATIVE: Sheepdog
BEST OF FEST DOCUMENTARY: Blind AF
Screenplay Awards
Best TV Pilot Screenplay: “American Import” by Steven Shehori
Best Feature Screenplay: “Float Me Up” by Daniel Talbott
Best Short Screenplay: “Phillip” by Jaimy Rose
Special Awards 2025:
Outstanding Actor: Stephen Lang
Lifetime Achievement: Diane Baker
Career Achievement: Jeremy Piven
Marion Herrman Award for Excellence in Filmmaking: Resilient Man
Heart of the Festival Award: Michael Fallavollita
Festival Superstar Award: Chris Mixon