San Pedro International Film Festival 2023 announces awards led by Moby’s PUNK ROCK VEGAN MOVIE
The San Pedro International Film Festival (SPIFF) announced its filmmaker awards on Sunday night prior to an enthusiastic Closing Night screening of Moby’s Punk Rock Vegan Movie at the Historic Warner Grand Theatre. Coincidentally, the film also took SPIFF’s Best Documentary Award to add to the celebratory night on behalf of the film and its pro-animal/Vegan message.
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SPIFF Festival Director Ziggy Mrkich, said, “Our Closing Night celebration was a wonderful and perfect conclusion to this year’s edition which really highlighted our film festival’s unique personality and ability to connect our filmmakers to our audiences and each other. We were thrilled to give Moby and his filmmaking team a platform to not simply show their film but underline their message to a very receptive audience.”
Additional award winners included a Special Mention in the Feature Length Documentary category for Matthew Solomon’s Reimagining Safety. Best Short Film went to Drew Marquardt’s Act of War, with a Special Mention in the category going to Leclercq David’s Doffice. The award for Best Documentary Short Film went to Susan Gray’s Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops. Cheryl Allison’s Honk, which screened in the newly created ECO DOX section, received a Special Mention in that category. Marisa Cohen and Peter Issac Alexander’s The Cloaked Realm “The Knight and the Queen” won the top prize for Best Episodic, with Amanda DeSimone’s Slug Seeks Shell, Episode 1 receiving a Special Mention in the category. The Screenplay competition winners included Craig Stewart’s “Three Rivers Meet” for Best Feature Length Screenplay, and Adam Kelly Morton’s “Die Ahle (The Awl)” for Best Pilot Screenplay.
This edition of the San Pedro International Film Festival had a strong theme of activism and social justice running throughout the festival, with the pairing of Solomon’s Reimagining Safety, a documentary that looks at the challenge of reforming the country’s policing and the systemic problems with incarceration, paired with John Salcedo’s short, Racial Idiocracy on Friday night, with both politically charged films including in-depth panels with several representatives from politics and journalism participating.
SPIFF also emphasized its focus on the indie filmmaker, both in promotion of their work and furthering the dialogue on the business of independent filmmaking including a panel on Saturday night featuring director Indy Saini (Women in the Front Seat), discussing her film’s recent release and the process leading up to that film’s distribution on streaming platforms. However, the film festival returned to the activist theme with the Closing Night appearance by Moby, and his Punk Rock Vegan team, including producer Lindsay Hicks, editor Alessio Schiazza, and Director of Photography Bibby Sud, and even four-legged star of the film, Bagel. The filmmaking team spoke passionately about what led to the film and their activism on behalf of animal rights and veganism to a rapt crowd prior to the screening of the film, providing an entertaining and very appropriate conclusion to the film festival.
The 2023 San Pedro International Film Festival’s Award Winners:
Best Feature Length Documentary
Punk Rock Vegan Movie
Director: Moby
Special Mention – Feature Length Documentary
Reimagining Safety
Director: Matthew Solomon
Best Short Film
Act of War
Director: Drew Marquardt
Special Mention – Short Film
Doffice
Director: Leclercq David
Best Documentary Short Film
Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops
Director: Susan Gray
Special Mention – Documentary Short Film
Honk
Director: Cheryl Allison
Best Episodic
The Cloaked Realm “The Knight and the Queen”
Directors: Marisa Cohen, Peter Issac Alexander
Special Mention – Best Episodic
Slug Seeks Shell, Episode 1
Director: Amanda DeSimone
Best Feature Screenplay
“Three Rivers Meet”
Written by Craig Stewart
Best Pilot Screenplay
“Die Ahle (The Awl)”
Written by Adam Kelly Morton