Heartland Film announced and honored films in several categories at the first-ever Indy Shorts International Film Festival, with winners receiving grand cash prizes of up to $5,000 and automatic Academy Award®-qualification for two winners. Those categories include: Best Narrative Short Film ($5,000 Grand Prize/Academy Award®-qualified), Best Documentary Short Film ($5,000 Grand Prize/Academy Award®-qualified), Best Animated Short Film ($5,000 Grand Prize), Indiana Spotlight Competition ($2,500 Grand Prize), High School Film Competition ($2,500 Grand Prize), Best Student Film, and Student Choice Award. Audience Choice Award Winners will be announced post-Festival.
Below is a complete listing of the award-winning films, as selected by the Indy Shorts Finalist Juries of film professionals, academics and critics:
Indy Shorts’ Award-Winning Films:
Best Narrative Short Film – “Abu Adnan”
Director: Sylvia Le Fanu
Best Documentary Short Film – “Zion”
Director: Floyd Russ
Best Animated Short Film – “The Burden”
Director/Writer: Niki Lindroth von Bahr
Indiana Spotlight Competition – “When the Kids Wrote the Headlines”
Director/Writer: Michael Husain
High School Film Competition – “Middleweight”
Director/Writer: Jeremy Kemp
Best Student Film – “$30 to Antarctica”
Director/Writer: Joey Chu
Student Choice Award – “Opening Night”
Director/Writer: Margaret Bialis
Audience Choice Award for Documentary Short – “The Happiness Machine”
Director: Rebecca Blumhagen
Audience Choice Award for Indiana Spotlight – “Grateful – The Jenni Berebitsky Story”
Director: Paul Nethercott
Audience Choice for Narrative Short – “Alternative Math”
Director: David Maddox
Audience Choice for Animated Short – “The Driver Is Red”
Director: Randall Christopher
Indy Shorts has earned the special designation of being a qualifying festival for the Annual Academy Awards® within the Live Action and Documentary short film categories. This means that the winner of the Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short Film and Grand Prize for Best Documentary Short film will each qualify for consideration in the Short Films category of the Annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.
