2018 Awards

Grand Jury Prize Winners

Best Feature Film – Long Lost
Best Short Film – Your Call is Important to Us
Best Documentary Film – The Running Man of Pasadena

Best Director, Feature Film – Erik Bloomquist, Long Lost
Best Director, Short Film – TJ Power, Your Call is Important to Us

Best Performance in a Lead Role – Kassie Thornton in Chasing Sunshine
Best Performance in a Supporting Role – Trevor Penick in Chasing Sunshine
Best Performance by a Full Cast – Adam Weppler, Catherine Corcoran, Nicholas Tucci, & Fran Kranz in Long Lost
Best Screenplay – Erik Bork, I Got This
Best Art Direction – Brett Hatcher, Nadine

Best Screenplay (Unproduced) – Empire of Blood by Mark Hedges & Isabel Oliver Marcus; Mine by Anita Justice Skibski; The Lost Opera by Rachel Thomas-Medwid

Audience Award Winners

Audience Award, Feature Film – Chasing Sunshine
Audience Award, Short Film – Because We Can
Audience Award, Documentary Film – Jonah

Filmmakers Award Winners

Outstanding Short Films – Cathedrals, I Got This, One Dark Night
Outstanding Directors – Benjamin Caro, Cathedrals;  Erik Bork, I Got This; Michael Trainotti, One Dark Night
Outstanding Cinematography – Darren Streibig, Allerton
Outstanding Screenplay – TJ Power, Your Call is Important to Us
Outstanding Acting, Cast – Your Call is Important to Us
Outstanding Acting, Individual – Brendan Sexton III, Cathedrals;
Jillian Ferry, Because We Can

Programmer’s Prize

Chirp, Buzz, & Other Sensations;  STUCK;  They Fall Fast

Prize Definitions/Explanations

Grand Jury Prizes – determined by the festival’s official selection committee.
Audience Awards – determined by highly scientific instruments placed throughout the theater to determine audience satisfaction.
Filmmakers Awards – given only to short films, these are determined by a panel of fifteen filmmakers whose films have been Official Selections previous years.
Programmer’s Prize – given to film(s) that festival programmer Jeff Howard cannot bear to see go without an award. This prevents him from pressuring the juries and/or fixing the results.