Festival of Cinema NYC 2023 Announces Filmmaker Awards
Festival of Cinema NYC announced this year’s filmmaker award winners at a typically enthusiastic and emotional celebration at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center as it concluded the 7th edition of the Forest Hills-based film festival.
Aly Yeganeh’s Sibel’s Silence won Best Narrative Feature Film, and Pierre Guillet’s The Book of Harth took Best Documentary, with Althea Root’s Good Side of Bad winning Audience Choice for Best Feature Film.
Top individual awards went to; Robert Haufrecht (Subterranean Love (Olga)) for Best Director, Damien De Dobbeleer (Interviewing Guillaume Bogaert) for Breakthrough Male Performance; and Sophia Massa (Come Find Me) for Breakthrough Female Performance.
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Festival of Cinema NYC Founder and Executive Director Jayson Simba, said, “Our film festival, like many festivals, looks at the filmmakers and the films’ cast and crew or documentary subjects as an extended family of film artists. Once again this year, attendees from all over New York City came out in large numbers to celebrate cinema with those filmmakers, some of whom who flew in from Europe to share their work. and became the latest members of our FOC NYC extended family. From our Opening Night party to That enthusiasm and support was evident – from the Forest Hills Community to the final award being announced it always thrills us to see friendships and relationships had been forged throughout the 10 days at our film festival. I don’t know of another NYC-based fest that can claim that.”
Winners in the short film categories included John Cappello’s Floppies (Best Short Film – Narrative); Melissa Rodriguez’s Helado (Audience Award – Short Film); Jamin Mears’ Static (Best Experimental, Music Video, or Animation); and Laurence Shanet’s How Did That Happen?! (Best Web/TV Series). Cappello received a second award as he also took the prize for Best Editing.
Additional individual award winners included Anna Capunay, who won Best Screenplay for Your Silent Face, with Katja Sallay’s Five Seasons – Eine Reise taking the award for Best Ensemble. Radiant Ties’ Director of Photography Logan Floyd won Best Cinematography; Stars’ Christian Anderson and Devin Gasteiger cited for Best Sound Editing; and Fog of War’s Ashley Valdez and Jessica Valdez winning Best Make up and EFX. Richard Hohenrath won FOC NYC’s first award presented for Best Unproduced Script for his work on “Real Heroes”.
The evening also included the film festival’s inaugural presentation of its Indie Film Vanguardian Award to local film hero Dito Montiel, famous for A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, among a number of films. Montiel attended a screening of the film and participated in a conversation on the making of that film, based on his book about his upbringing in Astoria, as well as the entirety of his career. The talk was moderated by Awards Radar’s Joey Magidson and was an entertaining talk with a number of audience members gleeful at the opportunity to see Montiel and ask questions as well.
Additional highlights included nearly sold out screenings of Mars Roberge’s screen adaptation of Doron Braunshtein’s drama about a group of women struggling to survive in an NYC women’s shelter, and Alethea Root’s drama Good Side of Bad about a brother and sister who struggle to care for their sister dealing with mental illness. Eventual Best Narrative Feature Film winner Aly Yeganeh gave an impassioned talk after the screening of his film Sibel’s Silence about his campaign to bring attention to the plight of young Iraqi girls forced into sexual slavery by ISIS. The filmmaker had made the trip to NYC from Paris to represent his film and speak on the subject.
Festival of Cinema NYC also added a live performance to its presentations for the first time as part of Greg Brownderville and Bart Weiss’ one-of-a-kind multi-media creation, FIre Bones. Created with smartphones in mind, the project included a big screen presentation with a dramatic performance weaved in as well to beguile the audience.
The 2023 Festival of Cinema NYC was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. It is also supported and made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additionally, the festival is funded in part by the Mosaic Network and Fund in The New York Community Trust, Resorts World Gives, and Yant Tattoo Studios. Other sponsors for the 2022 festival include Regal Cinemas, Final Draft; Soundview Media Partners, and Simple DCP. For more information about the festival, please visit http://www.festivalofcinemanyc.com/.
2023 FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC AWARD WINNERS
FEATURE FILMS
BEST FEATURE FILM – NARRATIVE
Sibel’s Silence
Director: Aly Yeganeh
BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Book of Harth
Director: Pierre Guillet
AUDIENCE CHOICE – FEATURE FILM
Good Side of Bad
Director: Alethea Root
SHORT FILMS
BEST SHORT FILM – NARRATIVE
Floppies
Director: John Cappello
AUDIENCE CHOICE – SHORT FILM
Helado
Director: Melissa Rodriguez
BEST EXPERIMENTAL, MUSIC VIDEO, OR ANIMATION
Static
Director: Jamin Mears
BEST WEB/TV SERIES
How Did That Happen?!
Director: Laurence Shanet
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
BEST UNPRODUCED SCRIPT
“Real Heroes”
Writer: Richard Hohenrath
BEST DIRECTOR
Robert Haufrecht(Subterranean Love (Olga))
BREAKTHROUGH MALE PERFORMANCE
Damien De Dobbeleer (Interviewing Guillaume Bogaert)
BREAKTHROUGH FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Sophia Massa (Come Find Me)
BEST ENSEMBLE
5 Seasons – Eine Reise
Director: Katja Sallay
Cast: Mutlu Acar, Christoph Gawenda, Pegah Ferydoni, Max Hegewald,
Katja Hutko, Yanina Lisovskaya, Misel Maticevic
BEST SCREENPLAY
Your Silent Face
Writer: Anna Capunay
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Radiant Ties
Director of Photography: Logan Floyd
BEST EDITING
Floppies
Editor: John Cappello
BEST SOUND EDITING
Stars
Sound Design: Christian Anderson, Devin Gasteiger
BEST MAKE UP AND EFX
Fog of War
Make up: Ashley Valdez, Jessica Valdez