Plus jury line-up, new Future of Film is Female prize, and original commissioned bumper NITEHAWK SHORTS FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 9TH YEAR PROGRAM And of course we feel so lucky to have gotten to know these filmmakers – we can’t wait to see what they do next! We’re grateful for the whole Nitehawk team for all of their efforts in bringing the festival to life to our sponsors MUBI and Heard City for support as well as all of the prize sponsors. Tij D’oyen, winner of the Midnite prize for his film Lollygag, with programmer Desmond Thorne Rebecca Rajadnya learning she won the Jury Prize for her film Balikbayan A full list of winners and prizes can be found here. Jury members programmer/writer Monica Castillo, Factory25 distributor Matt Grady and filmmaker Amber Schaefer made up the main jury, with entertainment lawyer Alex Threadgold awarding the Music Driven prize and actress Jessica Pimentel selecting the Midnite winner. ![]() The Closing Nite party was also the chance for us to announce our prize winners. With parties for both Opening and Closing Nite, we had complimentary cocktails courtesy of Campari, named after a few of the shorts ( The Singles Retreat, Super Happy and Hang Out 2Day) with DJs spinning records and our signature Queso fountain flowing. It was an amusing surprise to hear from director Alex Spott that her film No Other Gods But Me was based on her realization early in her religious upbringing that the figure of Jesus was kind of a hot guy. The Q&As with filmmakers following each show gave insight into the films, providing an opportunity to learn more about the origins of the work, challenges of producing on a small budget, and how casts and directors worked together. Jo Firestone and the cast of The Singles Retreat (I had also recognized one of the actresses, Bibi Elvers, in David Byrnes’s 1986 film True Stories when we showed it in January). This was definitely the case with The Singles Retreat, a charming comedy about seniors on a weekend trip with romantic potential. As I said in my introduction to the program, we spend months watching these films, so when we meet the filmmakers and the cast, sometimes we get starstruck. On Opening Nite we were giddy with excitement when we realized the cast of The Singles Retreat – a World Premiere by Jo Firestone – were all in attendance. Many filmmakers attended, some NYC based, others traveling in. Over seven shows to almost all full houses, we watched each program play to laughs, tears and applause. The audiences really got a kick out of it, and it was the perfect way to introduce each program. Leah’s work knocked us all out – they created something hilarious and unique in the short 1.5 minutes run time. The concept: I asked my father to pitch a short film and Leah used the audio, cutting it down and animating it to bring the vision to life. We tapped filmmaker Leah Shore, who had both animated and live action pieces in the 2022 festival ( Launch and Puss ). Looking to engage past filmmakers of the festival, we commissioned an original bumper to open each show of the festival. One new addition to this year’s festival also made its big screen debut. So when we finally found ourselves prepping for Opening Nite, we felt confident that the audience and the filmmakers would be happy with what awaited them. We spent a lot of time piecing each program together, viewing all on our big screens. ![]() Back towards the end of 2022, as we were digging into the 500+ submissions we received, Desmond, John and I knew it was going to be challenging narrowing it down to the 60ish films we would ultimately include. We’re all still smiling in the days following this year’s Shorts Festival. By Cristina Cacioppo, Director of Programming
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