H. Nelson Tracey ’s Breakup Season leads Honors at Waco Indie Film Festival 2024 filmmaker awards

H. Nelson Tracey ’s Breakup Season leads Honors at Waco Indie Film Festival 2024 filmmaker awards

The Waco Indie Film Festival announced the award winners for the 8th edition of the film festival (It’s first as Waco Indie following 7 years as the Deep in the Heart FF) which concluded its in-person presentations with a warm and familial Awards Brunch held at Art Center Waco (701 S. 8th Street).

H. Nelson Tracey ’s Breakup Season won Best Narrative Feature and Ben Judkins’ The Cigarette Surfboard won Best Documentary Feature.

Breakup Season’s Chandler Riggs also took home Best Performance, and Vivian Kerr won Best Director for her film Scrap.

Co-Founders and Co-Directors Louis Hunter and Samuel Thomas, said, “This edition of the film festival had an added excitement and energy thanks to our name change and a little added star wattage with Chandler Riggs (The Walking Dead) joining us, but was also a wonderful reminder of why Waco Indie/Deep in the Heart keeps landing on the ‘top film festival’ lists. Our attending filmmakers immediately created such a cohesive creative community supporting each other, going to each other’s films, exchanging notes on filmmaking, that you couldn’t help but get caught up in that supportive spirit. Our award-winning films this year could not have been better examples of that spirit, that energy, and the specific exuberant joy that comes from creating and making film independently, then sharing it with an audience that fully appreciates it.”

Screenings at the Texas Music Café were added to the film festival’s familiar presentations at the historic Waco Hippodrome and Cultivate 7twelve, as Waco Indie grew its city-wide footprint and once again saw the size of its audiences also grow. Those audiences chose Linda Broock’s documentary Unleashed as their feature film Audience Award winner, and Alexander Jeffery and Chris Alan Evans’ Caught on Tape as the Audience Award winner for short film.

Films cited with Special Jury Awards due to the impact they made on the film festival’s directors and top programmers and included: Baseball Behind Barbed Wire (Director: Yuriko Gamo Romer), The Coyote Sisters (Directors: Autumn Harrison and Tory LeClair), Just Laugh (Director: Kemp Brinson), and We Rise (Director: Michael A. Afendakis).

Leading the award winners in the short film categories were Liam LoPinto’s The Old Young Crow, which took the prize for Best Short Film; Joshua Gallas’ Smoke, which garnered the Best Texas Short Film award; Erin Brown Thomas’ (subtext), which won Best U.S. Short Film; Martin Strange-Hansen’s On My Mind, which was named Best Foreign Short Film; and Madoka Belda Yamamoto’s Where We Belong, which won Best Student Short Film.

Film awards by genre in the Short Film category went to; Marta Roncada’s Deliberate for Best Drama Short; Alexander Jeffery and Chris Alan Evans’ Caught On Tape, which took Best Comedy Short (earning the pair their second award for the film); and Alec Goldberg’s What Happened To You, which was named Best Documentary Short. Maja Costa’s Mångata was named Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi Short; Dakota Millett and Michael Fischer‘s Up On the Housetop took the award for Best Horror/Thriller Short; Charlotte Oxley’s Purple and Green got the nod for Best Family Short, and Chris White won Best Music Video for “Come and Save Me.”

Filmmaking craft awards were given to; Elizabeth Sherman for Best Director – Short Film for Ring By Spring; Jake Hart for Best Performance – Short Film (Drama) for his role in Big George; and Bixby Elliot for Best Performance – Short Film (Comedy) for The Yellow Sponge is the Dish Sponge. Best Cinematography – Short Film went toSteven Gunter (Leverage), Best Editing – Short Film was given toAndrew Schwab for Eating 38 Cheeseburgers, Best Screenplay – Short Film went to Clayton Henderson for Clownfish, and Best Production Design went to Andrew G. Smith for Your Move.

Waco Indie FF also presented its Waco Indie Screenplay Grant to Amanda Pfeiffer for her script “As Luck Would Have It.” The third year that Waco Indie has presented this grant, also marked the first in which a past winner was selected to screen at the film festival. Gregory JM Kasunich’s The Heart of Texas, which was written by, and starred Lauren Noll, won the inaugural presentation of the award in 2022.

 
The winners of the Waco Indie Screenplay Grants are fast-tracked to shoot in Waco thanks to real production assistance including up to 4 nights of complimentary hotel stay provided by the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau for pre-production scouting or during the production, up to $2,500 in actual dollar-to-dollar rebates provided by the Waco Indie Film Festival, camera and lighting Packages and 5 hours of free filmmaking consultation courtesy of Vision Vehicle Studios. An Honorable Mention in the competition went to Clark Childers’ “Ashes To Dust.”

To find more information on the Waco Indie Film Festival, please go to: https://www.wacoindie.com/.

---

2024 Waco Indie Film Festival Filmmaker Award Winners

Feature Film Awards

Best Feature Film (Narrative)

Breakup Season

Director: H. Nelson Tracey

Best Feature Film (Documentary)

The Cigarette Surfboard

Director: Ben Judkins

Best Director – Feature Film

Vivian Kerr (Scrap)

Best Performance – Feature Film

Chandler Riggs (Breakup Season)

Audience Awards

Feature Film

Unleashed

Director: Linda Broocks

Short Film

Caught On Tape

Directors: Alexander Jeffery, Chris Alan Evans

Short Film Awards

Best Short Film

The Old Young Crow

Director: Liam LoPinto                     

Best Texas Short Film

Smoke

Director: Joshua Gallas

Best United States Short Film

(subtext)

Director: Erin Brown Thomas

Best Foreign Short Film

On My Mind

Director: Martin Strange-Hansen                  

Best Student Short Film

Where We Belong

Director: Madoka Belda Yamamoto              

Short Film Awards by Genre

Best Drama Short

Deliberate

Director: Marta Roncada

Best Comedy Short

Caught On Tape

Directors: Alexander Jeffery, Chris Alan Evans

Best Documentary Short

What Happened To You

Director: Alec Goldberg

Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi Short

Mångata

Director: Maja Costa                      

Best Horror/Thriller Short

Up On the Housetop

Directors: Dakota Millett, Michael Fischer

Best Family Short

Purple and Green

Director: Charlotte Oxley

Best Music Video

“Come and Save Me”

Director: Chris White

Short Film Craft Awards

Best Director – Short Film

Elizabeth Sherman (Ring By Spring)

Best Performance – Short Film (Drama)

Jake Hart (Big George)

Best Performance – Short Film (Comedy)

Bixby Elliot (The Yellow Sponge is the Dish Sponge)

Best Cinematography – Short Film

Steven Gunter (Leverage)

Best Editing – Short Film

Andrew Schwab (Eating 38 Cheeseburgers)

Best Screenplay – Short Film

Clayton Henderson (Clownfish)

Best Production Design – Short Film

Andrew G. Smith (Your Move)

Special Jury Awards

Baseball Behind Barbed Wire (Director: Yuriko Gamo Romer)

The Coyote Sisters (Directors: Autumn Harrison, Tory LeClair)

Just Laugh (Director: Kemp Brinson)

We Rise (Director: Michael A Afendakis)

Screenplay Competition

Best Unproduced Screenplay – First Place

“As Luck Would Have It” (Writer: Amanda Pfeiffer)

Best Unproduced Screenplay – Honorable Mention

“Ashes To Dust” (Writer: Clark Childers)

H. Nelson Tracey ’s Breakup Season leads Honors at Waco Indie Film Festival 2024 filmmaker awards