Watch Nominees Now

A jewish and conservative father must learn to live with his daughter’s adopted muslim child from Syria.

Directed by: Alexia Garcia del Rio

Starring: Kai Pedersen

Nominated for: Short Director 

After breaking off their budding relationship, Julian and Devon struggle to return to their lonely lives apart. With a unique storytelling device, the audience is able to view two characters’ stories at once.

Directed by: Erin Martinez

Starring: Ross Graham, Ross Graham, Brian Ting, Kimberly Weinberger, Luke DePron, Luke DePron, Kai Pedersen

Nominated for: Budget Under $500 

Join Brent Handy, former Air Cadet, CF-18 Fighter Pilot and Lead Solo of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds as he embarks on a new path as a surface-certified aerobatic pilot on the air show circuit.

Directed by: Maciej Hatta

Starring: Brent Handy

Nominated for: Drone Short Film

The film tracks the causes and consequences of bullying, along with programs and solutions that have had an impact on mitigating bullying in schools.

Directed by: Thomas Keith

Starring: Jennifer Pozner

Nominated for: Supporting Actor

Through the lens of photographer and physician Eric Overton, Collodion: The Process of Preservation captures a fearless, and uncommonly vulnerable self-portrait of American wilderness, our relationship to each other, and the possibility that nature itself may be all we need to find common ground. Following a series of conversations and interviews the film asks the question: “what happens when all we are left with is a photograph?” It is a reminder of the fragility of art, of nature, and the need to ask ourselves questions. The film continues as Overton’s son begins to photograph landscapes with an innate sense of wonder and exploration. This is where the heart of the film lies. This is where self-discovery becomes legacy. It is a transformation not of political achievements, or battles won (though they must be fought), but an achievement of what wilderness offers so effortlessly: simplicity, connection, curiosity, and presence. 

Directed by: Eric Overton

Starring: Heidi Redd, Darren Peterson, Jason ‘Singer’ Smith, Alicia Overton, Angela Baca, Rich Ingebretsen, Jeffrey D. Morgan,

Nominated for: Documentary Feature

“Crimson Tower” is a 2D/3D hybrid film about a little girl living in a cyber-punk inspired society, haunted by a monster who kills people in their sleep. The dream world is bright & vibrant while the real world is gritty & dark. “Crimson Tower” features an ambient synth soundtrack composed by Alan Monteiro & Angela Hutchins.

Directed by: Amario Andrè

Starring: Julia Chamberlin, Sandy Oh, Sofia Guerra, Wes Smith, Veronica Todd, Arnez Hawkins, Haley Hustus

Nominated for: Animated Short Film

A 100% drone film which was taken in a misty day in Macau.

Directed by: Yiu Kai Shinoda

Nominated for: Drone Short Film

Icarus showcase a series of beautiful drone shots delivered with a nice composition of narrative words that promotes the beauty of nature. The natural background sound boosts

Directed by: Walter Mirkss

Starring: David Skorut

Nominated for: Drone Short Film

A Mongolian single mother fights to save her son who is about to be executed, only to discover that the absence of justice is crushing her life.

Directed by: Hai Rihan

Starring: Hong Mei, Namar, Baoligao, Havrqeqege

Nominated for: Short Director, Short Film – Non English Speaking 

Mandala is an animated short film about the Impermanence of Things. Once a Mandala is completed, it is brushed away – never to exist again. And in that very act of “destruction” of Mandala lies the process of renewal. As the Mandala’s sand is returned to the earth, the metaphor for the continual flow of life is highlighted. For what is life but a brief moment of beauty – only to be wiped away to create something new.

Directed by: Kiran Bhakta Joshi

Nominated for: Animated Short Film 

The story of a silenced, young girl and her journey after the loss of her father, through the ancient Finnish backwoods and wilderness.

Directed by: Sami Mustonen

Starring: Saara Runtti, Tuomas Kinnunen, 

Nominated for: Short Film – Non English Speaking

Native Son is the story of Concho Sash, an aspiring Navajo boxer who interweaves the old ways of his culture into his life as he trains in the fighting circuit.

Directed by: James Cawley

Starring: Concho Sash, Blackhawk Walters

Nominated for: Cinematography 

A Soldier returns home from overseas to piece together his estranged sister’s brutal attack. He’s forced back into the life he abandoned a decade ago in the lurid, and occult world of Miami’s nightlife, as he tracks down those responsible.

Directed by: Kenny Sheard

Starring: Josh Kelly, Kelley Missal, Pablo Azar, Amanda Tavarez, Adrian De Armas, Daniel Norris

Nominated for: Short Director, Sound Design 

A young Indian immigrant moves to the US to spite his family. While there, he falls on hard times and learns the importance of hard-work, planning, generosity, and family.

Directed by: Harinath Babu Bodla

Starring: Sudhakar Kommakula, Varun Sandesh, Nitya Shetty, Cindy Perez, Jarred Brannon, Nirosha, Claire Brown, Varma Ravi

Nominated for: Made In Utah – Feature 

A truck driver and a banker live through the monotony of everyday life. Their apathy towards their respective occupations, despite their drastically different places in the socioeconomic pyramid, is much of the same. ‘Out of Gas’ describes not only the reason through which the two characters meet —the banker running out of gas, who is helped by the truck driver— but simultaneously reflects the lack of energy they feel towards their respective jobs.

Directed by: Michael Yu

Starring: Kai Yu, Tong Lai, Desiree Ho, Alfred Yu

Nominated for: Filmmaker Under 18 

Winter 1839. Liberty, Missouri.

Local jailer, Samuel Tillery (Jasen Wade) is tasked with watching Missouri’s most wanted men as they await their upcoming hearing. Caught between the local Missourians’ increased drive to remove the prisoners, and the prisoners’ desperate efforts to survive, Tillery is pushed beyond what any lawman can endure.

Based on actual recorded accounts, Out of Liberty is an intense, evocative western, with an outcome you have to see to believe.

Directed by: Garrett Batty

Starring: Jasen Wade, Corbin Allred, Adam Johnson, Brandon Ray Olive

Nominated for: Supporting Actor, Supporting Actor, Lead Actor , Cinematography, Sound Design, Music Score, Ensemble Cast, Feature 

11 year-old adventurer, “Rizzy” O’Neil (aka Resilience), is separated from her family while in pursuit of a mysterious local legend. She faces intense heat, thirst, hunger, treacherous terrain, deadly creatures, turbulent weather, all in a land designed to crush the living. Rizzy must call on all her wits, strength, skill, and faith to beat the clock and save her family, and just maybe, a piece of history too!

Directed by: Brian Finn

Starring: Kiara Finn

Nominated for: Actress Under 18, Visual Effects

Enemy soldiers find a moment of peace during the Battle of the Bulge, a Mother finds a inner courage she didn’t know she had.

Directed by: Dan Fowlks

Starring: Chanley Gledhill, Barb Christensen, Jadon Webster, Jadon Webster, Stephen Harr

Nominated for: Budget Under $50,000, Made In Utah – Feature 

How far would you go to keep your family from being torn apart?
When Chef’s family is at risk of being deported if he doesn’t pay a hefty government imposed fee, he’ll go to great ends to keep the family together.

Directed by: Nick Rush & Stefan Van De Graaff

Starring: Stefan Van De Graaff, Willem Faust

Nominated for: Feature Director, Feature

Through the documentary The Arctic Circus, we experience the different personalities of the circus group, the situations that occur in and around the circus, the society they travel through and the incredible landscapes. By following these unique characters, we enter a circus that through its performances tries to modernize and change the perception of the traditional circus. This is a portrait of a group of people who lives by bringing joy to others, and with a desire to build a cultural understanding of circus as a great art form. The documentary film The Arctic Circus addresses issues such as society, identity, belonging, acceptance and prejudice.

Directed by: Gudmund Sand & Haakon Sand

Nominated for: Documentary Short 

This was the second time I have been to Iceland. I stayed there for 10 days and I travelled over 4000 km through the land and around the coast. There are no words to describe the beauty of this country. I hope this film can genuinely convey the awe I felt when I was there.

Directed by: Marcello Ercole

Nominated for: Drone Short Film 

After noticing a bruise on her son’s neck by accident, a single mom Jing tries to let her son speak out the truth even though she knows it is never an easy thing for him. In her search of the suspect, the more Jing investigates, the further she feels away from the truth, so is the relationship with her son.

Directed by: Olivia Wu

Starring: Quyen Ngo, Milo Borghello, Logan Mathews, Alexis C. Martino, Julie Simpson, Demi Cabrera, Gi-Ling Lo

Nominated for: Actor Under 18, Budget Under $5,000

Having devoted his life to helping the less fortunate, Fr. Rene Robert was regarded as a “living saint” in the tight-knit community of St. Augustine, Florida.

But when Fr. Rene began helping ex-convicts get their lives together after prison, the people closest to him worried that he was putting his life at risk—especially the local sheriff, David Shoar, one of Fr. Rene’s longtime friends.

So, in April, 2016, when Fr. Rene failed to show up at a church service, Sheriff Shoar immediately put his best detectives on the case and local residents joined in searching for the beloved priest. It quickly became apparent, however, that Fr. Rene was not just missing—someone had taken him against his will.

True crime documentary WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS follows the nationwide search for Fr. Rene, which resulted in a series of shocking revelations and the discovery of a 20-year-old letter in which Fr. Rene seemed to foretell his own fate.

Directed by: Sean Bloomfield

Starring: Dick McMahon, Eric Newcombe, James Bloomfield

Nominated for: Documentary Feature

A 15 year-old girl challenges herself by building a complex cosplay costume. Through the process, she connects with her father and finds herself.

Directed by: Brian De Herrera-Schnering

Nominated for: Documentary Short