Films A-Z | Competitions | Programs

Emerging Filmmaker AWARD

Jurors: Claudia Puig, Tim Horsburgh, Helen du Toit
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This juried competition recognizes new and up-and-coming filmmakers from around the world for their achievements in narrative filmmaking. A $2500 cash prize is awarded to the film that demonstrates standout excellence in creativity, storytelling, technique, and innovation in the narrative form.

JURORS’ STATEMENT
Our selection for Best Emerging Filmmaker was Saskia Diesing’s pitch-perfect, emotionally –layered Nena, a story of a 16-year-old girl, impeccably played by Abbey Hoes, as she comes of age while simultaneously coming to terms with the suicidal depression of her paraplegic father, terrifically portrayed by Uwe Ochsenknecht.

Hoes is astounding in this break-out role and her scenes with the scholarly father she adores and is deeply angry at are fascinating in their complexity, wit and believability.

Whether Nena spends time across a chessboard with her complicated father, or in the company of Carlo (Gijs Blom), the uncomplicated blue-haired teen charmer from her baseball team, or her unemotional, independent mother (Monic Hendrickx), Nena is a mesmerizing, fully-drawn character.

She must face and absorb the shattering realization that her father cannot bear his existence. The story is profoundly intelligent, filled with empathy and humor, but never predictable. Diesing and co-writer Esther Gerritsen’s masterful script is nuanced, remarkably economical. The ensemble cast is terrific.

Nena’s headlong rush into life and youthful lust is contrasted poignantly with her father’s physical decline. The right to determine one’s own life—and death—is a key component of the film, but this is no polemic. A celebration of life in the most unorthodox sense, it is modest and direct and yet deeply artful and provocative.

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AWARD

Jurors: Deirdre Haj, Peter Kinoy, Michael Tuckman
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The juried Documentary Competition recognizes national and international documentary filmmaking that exemplifies the very best in presentation, diversity, innovation, and powerful storytelling. A $2500 cash prize is awarded to the chosen film.

JURORS’ STATEMENT
We award Songs of Rice with the MSPIFF Documentary Award. This film is visually stunning, and conveys a broad range of emotion through expert cinematic storytelling. Without benefit of narration or dialogue, the director explores a world few see and allows us to “hear” the story of a food staple so familiar with many cultures via the people who grow, live and celebrate the cultivation of rice. The filmmakers succeed in reminding us how intricately connected the worlds of work and culture are.

 

Special Jury Prize – Documentary Competition

Jurors: Deirdre Haj, Peter Kinoy, Michael Tuckman
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The Russian Woodpecker

Director: Chad Gracia | UK, Ukraine
A victim of the Chernobyl disaster discovers a dark secret and must decide whether to risk his life revealing it amid growing political tensions.

 

Minnesota Made Narrative FEATURE AWARD

Jurors: Kirk Hokenson, Meghan McGurie, Mike Reano, Henry Schneider, Jon Thomas, jason Wallace, Maya Washington, Greg Winters, Will Wright, Mariko Yoshimura-Rank.

Knucklehead

Director: Ben Bowman | USA
When his brother is shot, mentally disabled Langston is left without a protector and must learn to take his future into his own hands.

Minnesota Made Documentary FEATURE AWARD

Jurors: Kirk Hokenson, Meghan McGurie, Mike Reano, Henry Schneider, Jon Thomas, jason Wallace, Maya Washington, Greg Winters, Will Wright, Mariko Yoshimura-Rank.

Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile

Director: Norah Shapiro | USA
High in the Himalayan epicenter of the exiled Tibetan world, a maverick impresario stages a most un-Tibetan spectacle: a western-style beauty pageant.

Narrative Short Award

Jurors: Paul Aaron, Shelli Ainsworth
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Muted

(Tied with Day One)
Director: Rachel Goldberg | USA
Muted follows the Gladwells, a family who struggles to get support from the media & law enforcement when their teenage daughter disappears.

Day One

(Tied with Muted)
Director: Henry Hughes | USA
On her first day in Afghanistan, an interpreter for the US Army is forced to deliver the child of an enemy bomb-maker.

Documentary Short Award

Jurors: Selina Lewis Davidson, Simon Edery
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The Gnomist

Director: Sharon Liese | USA
In this true story about the mysterious appearance of fairy homes in a suburban forest, three broken women discover that magic is real.

Audience Choice Awards

Narrative Feature

Belle and Sebastian

Director: Nicolas Vanier | France
Young Sebastian befriends a wild dog known locally as “The Beast.” When German Nazis arrive, the courageous duo decides to join the resistance.

Documentary Feature

Medicine of the Wolf

Director: Julia Huffman | USA
Filmmaker Julia Huffman travels to Minnesota and into wolf country to pursue the deep intrinsic value of the wolf and our forgotten promise to him.

Narrative Short

Stealth

Director: Bennett Lasseter | USA
The heartwarming story of a brave, transgender tween.

Documentary Short

Not Done Loving

Director: Jeff Brandt | USA
A loud Greek woman moves into a sleepy Scandinavian town and the reserved townspeople are drawn to her zest for life. When she develops cancer, they fight for her in a wonderful and unexpected way.

Animated Short

Wire Cutter

Director: Jack Anderson | USA
A chance encounter proves fateful for two robots mining on a desolate planet.