Festival of Cinema NYC wraps 10th Anniversary edition with awards going to NOXTURNE, DRIVEN BY ANGELS, JUDGE NO BOOK, LONE RIDER, and more
Festival of Cinema NYC announced this year’s filmmaker award winners at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center as it concluded the 10th record-breaking edition of the Forest Hills-based film festival. Kristina Klebe’s Noxturne won Best Narrative Feature Film. Brett Buescher’s Driven By Angels took Best Documentary, with Christopher Mormando’s Judge No Book winning Audience Choice for Best Feature Film.
Top individual awards went to; Jason Hyun Kim (Selfless) for Best Director, Jack Alcott (Lone Rider) for Breakthrough Male Performance; and Kim Berrios Lin (America) for Breakthrough Female Performance.
Festival of Cinema NYC Founder and Executive Director Jayson Simba, said, “This 10th edition was a celebration of what we, and our filmmakers, have achieved year after year since Festival of Cinema NYC began. Bringing back past filmmakers whose films made an impact with our audiences in prior editions of the festival side-by-side with filmmakers responsible for some of the best films travelling the film festival circuit this year for our Forest Hills/Queens film fans underlined what is truly great about FOC NYC. Making that connection between those filmmakers and our audiences generates the fun and excitement that is such a huge part of our reputation. This year’s award-winners truly earned the acknowledgment of the great work they have put on the big screen.”
Winners in the short film categories included Laura New’s America (Best Short Film – Narrative); Jacob Melamed and Romy Palan’s Future Tense (Audience Award – Short Film); Lazarus’ Our Wonderful Future! (Best Experimental, Music Video, or Animation); and Andrea Ashton’s Margo For Real (Best Web/TV Series).
Additional individual award winners included Holger Borggrefe and Swenja Karsten, who won Best Screenplay for The Poetry of Failure. John Gebhart’s Under One Roof took the award for Best Ensemble. Derek Mindler was cited for Best Cinematography for Return to Lake Ouachita, Jesse Cowell won Best Editing for his film, Bitch I’m Early (B.I.E.), Luis Lazo-Martinez and Christian Proa took the Best Sound Editingaward for their work on Otreum. Shroomery’s Yasmine Mistry won Best Make Up and EFX, and Virginia Austin won FOC NYC’s award for Best Unproduced Script for his work on “Autumn and Everything After”.
This year, in partnership with Festival of Cinema NYC, New York Women in Film and Television awarded the NYWIFT Award for Excellence in Directing to Julia Muecke for the work on her film Todd & the Toad.
Celebrating the best of FOC NYC’s first ten years, winners of the Audience Choice feature films were screened and followed by a Q&A with the cast and crews from those films. 5 winners of past Audience Choice short film winners screened with cast and crew delivering live commentary while the film plays, following non-commentary screenings.
This year, FOC NYC put a strong focus on 1st time feature filmmakers launching their careers. The festival will once again offered free film related workshops and seminars all week long at the Queens Library in Forest Hills, including a work in progress preview screening of the film Jewface written and directed by past festival winner and current Board Member Melissa Center.
Festival of Cinema NYC is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Funding for this year’s festival was also provided in part by the Mosaic Network and Fund, and The Mathis-Pfohl Foundation, as well as an anonymous donation from members of Americans for the Arts Foundation . Sponsors for the 2026 Festival of Cinema NYC include: Aminov Law Group, Resorts World NYC, A&P Dispensary, Raising Cane’s Chicken, Target, and Ponce Bank. Award sponsors include XTRA, Soundview Media Partners, Aigner Chocolates, Ink Tip, Mongo Media Solutions, and Silver Sound.
For more information about the festival, please visit http://www.festivalofcinemanyc.com/.
2026 FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC AWARD WINNERS
FEATURE FILMS
BEST FEATURE FILM – NARRATIVE
Noxturne
Director: Kristina Klebe
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Driven By Angels
Director: Brett Buescher
AUDIENCE CHOICE – FEATURE FILM
Judge No Book
Director: Christopher Mormando
SHORT FILMS
BEST SHORT FILM – NARRATIVE
America
Director: Laura New
AUDIENCE CHOICE – SHORT FILM
Future Tense
Directors: Jacob Melamed, Romy Palan
BEST EXPERIMENTAL, MUSIC VIDEO, OR ANIMATION
Our Wonderful Future!
Director: Lazarus
BEST WEB/TV SERIES
Margo For Real
Director: Andrea Ashton
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
NYWIFT Award for Excellence in Directing
Julia Muecke (Todd & the Toad)
BEST UNPRODUCED SCRIPT
“Autumn and Everything After”
Writer: Virginia Austin
BEST DIRECTOR
Jason Hyun Kim(Selfless)
BREAKTHROUGH MALE PERFORMANCE
Jack Alcott (Lone Rider)
BREAKTHROUGH FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Kim Berrios Lin (America)
BEST ENSEMBLE
Under One Roof
Director: John Gebhart
Cast: Meghan Sinclair, Eleanor Reissa, Neal Joshi, Jesse Ruuttila, Gabriel Goodfellow, Joseph Adams, Rachael Dutta
BEST SCREENPLAY
The Poetry of Failure
Writers: Holger Borggrefe, Swenja Karsten
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Return to Lake Ouachita
Director of Photography:Derek Mindler
BEST EDITING
Bitch I’m Early (B.I.E.)
Editor: Jesse Cowell
BEST SOUND EDITING
Otreum
Sound Editors: Luis Lazo-Martinez, Christian Proa
BEST MAKE UP AND EFX
Shroomery
VFX: Yasmine Mistry