AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:
Best Short Film: PROJECT-19
Best 1 Minute Film: THE DECISIVE MOMENT
Best Cinematography: WHAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID
Best Performances: BELLY UP
Best Sound & Music: AIN’T GOIN’ OUT LIKE THAT
Best Direction: LOST KEYS

Theme of night: Standing up to emotional conflict

NOTE: Festival took place during the COVID-19 virus lockdown so all screenings were held in private.

Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Videos:

LITTLE BOXES, 2min., UK, Music Video

THE DECISIVE MOMENT, 1min., UK, Comedy

WHAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID, 4min, USA, Drama

PROJECT-19, 4min., USA, Sci-Fi

BELLY UP, 5min., USA, Family

OUR JOURNEY, 1min., Canada, Animation

AIN’T GOIN’ OUT LIKE THAT, 5min., Canada, Music Video

YOU MAY FEEL, 2min., USA, Animation

REPURPOSED – THE ARTIST INSIDED ME, 5min., Documentary

ADVENTURES OF AYA – KENYA, 4min., Documentary

OUSIA, 5min., Brazil, Experimental

TRACE, 4min., China, Experimental

LOST KEYS, 5min., USA, Comedy

THE HILL WE CLIMB, 2min,. USA, Documentary

The beginning of a (temporary) new era.

See you at the festivals. Whenever that happens!

– Matthew Toffolo

Yuxi Jiang, professional dancer, choreographer. MFA in Dance Choreography,Beijing Dance Academy; MSc in Dance Science and Education, University of Edinburgh; Master of Science, Class of Award with Distinction,University of Edinburgh; Member of the International Dance Council; Full scholarship of China Scholarship Council Artistic Talents Training Program in 2019; Second Prize of the 13th Seoul Dance Competition;Second prize of Beijing Dance Competition; Represented Beijing Dance Academy globally for ethnic cultural communication activities, performances and competition with excellent results.Yuxi Jiang is currently working on cross-boundary fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, screen dance production, and very committed to the inheritance and development of Chinese folk dance and has her own thoughts on the positioning and expectation of Chinese folk dance as a performing art and national heritage within current global trend of education and communication.

Go trace it, have you ever had a moment in your memory, never mentioned, but it is difficult to forget…

Project Links

•  Website

After Adventures of Aya – Iceland, My Daughter Aya and I embarked on a new journey, in Africa!

We visited Kenya and spend under a week there. This is our film, our sequel.

Director – Christian Ghammachi

Project Links

•  Website
•  Instagram

Based in New York City, Matt Dessner’s background is as a Creative Storyteller. He founded Creative Taco, a NYC based content creation company with over 15 years of making commercials and marketing content for the advertising industry.

Matt has recently blown the dust of his degree in Documentary filmmaking and begun to purse his passion of short form storytelling.

Matt Dessner also founded The Original iPhone Film Festival and iPhoneFilmMaker.com to support the emerging community of iPhoneFilmMakers and to provide a home for anyone that has a story to tell or who wants to learn more about iPhoneFilmMaking.

As a teenager, Matt appeared in commercials as a child actor for McDonalds, Jell-O Pops and Ora-Gel. As well as ‘if you blinked you missed it” extra parts in various movies.

Matt has given presentations at Macworld in San Francisco, hosted panel discussions at SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX , and appeared on CBC Morning News Program with Heather Hiscox, CBC Radio “As It Happens” and ABC”s syndicated show “Electric Playground”.

Above all else, Matt believes in the democratization of filmmaking through accessible technology like the iPhone. He is passionate about the empowerment of new technology and shiny bright objects.

Director Statement

Nothing is more empowering than using the camera to shine a light on a person or topic that would otherwise remain in the shadows. Everyone has a story to tell and its a privilege to be part of it.

On the Gold Coast of Long Island New York lives Tom Malloy. A third generation master lawn mower and farm equipment welder and repairman. He is also a prolific artist, creating abstract and realistic sculptures from found objects he has collected from the estates on the Gold Coast for over 50 years. From initial sketch to final sculpted artwork, Tom Malloy can not only create magnificent art from found pieces, but completely repurposes them and his own sense of being.

Project Links

•  Website

Joe Greenwell is a student in the Wright State class of 2021. He thrives to be a versatile film maker using different methods to tell stories. His goal is to use film to spread positive and character filled stories to connect with the audience.

Director Statement

This project began a few years ago at a friend’s funeral. Looking around the room, I noticed so many different feelings and people being there for each other. At that moment I wrote a note going through what I was seeing. Later on, I revisited the message and rewrote it into a script. Using what I’ve learned about animation I was able to finally bring this idea to life. It was an extremely cathartic experience for me as I went frame by frame to create this. It was truly an experience to really let down my guard to explore emotions, something that can be very frightening.

With a powerful narration by Dylan Tacker, this brief animated short exploring four different characters experiencing a variety of reactions to the grief of loss. You May Feel shows a few of the many ways someone might express their emotions as they attempt to process them in such a dark time.

Project Links

•  Facebook
•  Instagram

Agatha se encontra aos 73 anos, entre a vida e morte. Em seu último suspiro, ela pede por uma chance para se reconciliar com seu maior amor.

Summary: Agatha is a 73 years old lady, and she lives at hospital, between life and death. In her last breath, she asks for a chance to reconcile with her greatest love.

Project Links

•  Instagram

Peter Sapira received his BA in English from San Francisco State University and his MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He teaches composition and public speaking at Smith College where he also directs a creative writing program for high school students. Peter has been publishing short stories and working on a novel over the past few years, when he realized that short films were the most powerful medium through which to share the themes he explores in his writing: finding humor in the small but excruciating social disasters we all face each day. His dream is to produce a TV series based on his novel and protagonist, “Billy Hill.”

Director Statement

As someone who fulfills all the criteria on the ADHD checklist, I have always been obsessed with order and control while simultaneously living in bumbling disarray. I wrote “Lost Keys” because I wanted to dramatize the insanity that overcomes me when I lose my keys (or any other object). I realized that beyond “annoyed,” I start to hate myself and everything in my life. As my desperation and frustration grows, and as I am reduced to searching in the freezer and the trash, I start finding fault with anyone who lives with me. Thankfully, this experience has always remained an internal disaster, but after developing some objectivity, I started to see the humor in this pattern, so I wanted to dramatize this lunacy in hopes that other people could see themselves in, and laugh at, the struggle.