Manhattan Independent Film Festival
2016 Awards
Selected from more than 1.500 submissions from 30 countries, the selected films included world premieres, North American premieres and lots of New York premieres.
The 2016 awards go to:
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Best Narrative Feature Film
Sin & Illy Still Alive (Germany) by Maria Hengge
Sin and Illy have a plan: on a Greek island they want to get 'clean' on their own. But the intention of the two girls fails already on the way to the airport. Finally Sin realizes she has to go the way out of heroin addiction all alone.
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Best Documentary Feature Film (tie)
Portrait of a young woman (France) by Arnoux Stephane
For those of Marion's generation, the Crisis is all they have ever known; now, they also know war. An economic, social and humanitarian war... It is now an all-out war, which makes it all the more silent. In order to assert her identity and to shape future prospects, she created the character Misungui, whose body is the place where intimacy and politics quarrel with each other, from the virtuality of cyberspace to the heart of the city.
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Best Documentary Feature Film (tie)
New York Cuts (USA, NY) by Luke Lorentzen
Six hair salons in New York City, each with a unique personality, are explored as places of social gathering. Touching on themes of ethnicity, class, and community, conversations between stylists and clients are observed and intertwined in this portrait of urban multiculturalism.
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Best Narrative Short Film (tie)
Wolf's Skin (Belgium) by Louise De Groef
After a long abscence it is hard for Soo - Min, a young concert cellist, to compete with her daughter of six for the love of the attractive man and father, Wolf.
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Best Narrative Short Film (tie)
Rainbow Party (United Kingdom) by Eva Sigurdardottir
In a tale of twisted innocence, 14-year-old outcast Sofia is offered the chance to join the popular group at school, but doing so requires making serious sacrifices. Whoever said that teenage girls were pure and innocent?
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Best Documentary Short Film
Pretty Dangerous (Canada) by Jeff Reynolds
This intimate portrait of Seleziya "Sparx" Esho finds the pro wrestler confronting a personal obsession and the strain it puts on both her body and her family.
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Best New Vision
The Stranger (Spain) by Enrique Medrano
Pedro is an Puerto rican Immigrant that lives in Madrid. Apparently, his live is quiet normal. He spends his days between staying at home and working; between talking walks with Ana, his wife, and having dinners with friends. Nobody suspects that behind the image of a loving husband and a devoted librarian, he walks the streets of Madrid at night, looking for some helpless victim -specially lonely women- to stab them to death. This is his real life, and all of this continue its course normally until one day, he and Ana decide to have a child. This decision affects his double life deeply. In his night walks, his potential victims no longer appear on the streets, and when there is one he acts awkwardly, letting her to escape. In this situation, it is inevitable that his thirst for blood grow further, immersing Pedro in an agony and despair too unbearable for him.
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Best Experimental Film (tie)
Fucking Him (Israel) by C.O. Moed, Adrian Garcia Gomez
What is fucking? What is love? What's the difference? When do you know?
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Best Animated Short Film
The Red Witch (USA) by Aron Bothman
A geologist on Mars fights alone to uncover the planet's secrets before the green of terraforming covers it forever.
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Best Music Video
ID (Poland) by Filip Zaluska
V / O is a solo project of Wojtek Urbanski, a music producer and co-founder of project "Rysy" . The distinctive style define the rough and strong rhythm combined with strong emotions in a layer of melody.
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Best Dance Film
Abismo (Canada) by Pablo Diconc
A man and a woman drifting on a raft, dance with their instincts by choosing the only possible escape...