Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival Hands Out Awards; ‘We Were Meant To’ Claims $60K Prize
UPDATED with Best Screenplay Award for Switch, written by Sara Robin: The 19th HollyShorts Film Festival has handed out its awards, including the Grand Prix Best Short Award to We Were Meant To, an honor that comes with a $60,000 prize from Panavision.
Tari Wariebi directed We Were Meant To, set in a reality where “Black men have wings and their first flight is a rite of passage.” The film stars Tim Johnson Jr. The Grand Prix Award qualifies the short for Oscar consideration. Also qualifying for the Oscars are Misan Harriman’s The After, which won Best Live Action Short, Rita Basulto’s Humo (Smoke), winner of the Best Animation Award, and Elisa Gambino’s Every Day After, winner of Best Documentary Short.
More from Deadline
Indonesia Clamps Down On Piracy Of Streamer Vidio's Content On Telegram
2024-25 Awards Season Calendar - Dates For Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, Grammys, Guilds & More
The After stars David Oyelowo and Jessica Plummer. Animated winner Humo, meanwhile, “follows a boy called Daniel, who travels to a dark destination known as the smokehouse.”
Every Day After tells the short of Jary, a Philippine boy born with a cleft palate. His mother and father rejected him at birth because of his facial difference, but his older sister Jessa stepped in to take a caring and parental role in his life. The film follows Jary as he undergoes his first surgery to repair his palate, an operation facilitated by the nonprofit Smile Train. Gambino directed the film, while her husband Neal Broffman shot it (in lustrous black & white). Elaine Jose Bobadilla produced, while Dave A. Liu served as executive producer. Every Day After held its world premiere at HollyShorts.
Christina Yoon won Best Director for her dramatic short Motherland, which was produced in partial fulfillment of her MFA degree in film from the Columbia University School of the Arts. A synopsis of the film reads, “Leah, a Korean adoptee raised in America, returns to Korea to search for her birth mother. Leah is met with secrecy from the adoption agency as well as her own family but remains relentless on her solo journey, driven by her longing to discover the truth of her origins.”
Best Comedy went to Call Me Mommy directed by Hayley Alea Erickson and Taylor Erickson; Aurélien Achache’s Separation earned Best Cinematography; Daniel Bdeir’s Warsha won Best Drama, and Best Editing went to Michael Spiccia for I’m on Fire.
Switch, written by Sara Robin, earned the Best Screenplay Award, an honor presented by the Seattle Film Summit.
The HollyShorts awards ceremony was moved up a day to Saturday to avoid the onslaught of Hurricane Hilary. The festival handed out additional awards in the categories below:
Best Genre Category Presented by Hot Pot Productions – Tim Webber’s FLITE
Best Horror – Nuhash Humayun’s FOREIGNERS ONLY
Best International – Mauricio Sierra’s CIELA
Latinx Award – Duván Duque Vargas’s ALL INCLUSIVE
Best LGBTQIA+ – Niki Ang’s MAXINE
Best Midnight Madness – Will Suen and Sejon Im’s SWEET JUICES
Best Music Video – KAJO | Evelyn Lee’s REM KOOLHAUS’
Best Music Video Film – Alexandre Moors’s LOVE SICK
Best Producer – Lloyd Lee Choi’s CLOSING DYNASTY
Best SAGIndie – Logan Vaughn’s BENNY AND JAMES
Hawk Films Screenplay Award – Joaquin Palma’s EGGPLANT
Best Screenplay Presented By The Seattle Film Summit – Sara Robin’s SWITCH
Best Sci-Fi – James A. Sims’s D.A.D.
Script Compass Screenplay Award – Nick Perry’s THE GIFTING
Kodak Best Shot on Film, 35MM – Maegan Houang’s ASTONISHING LITTLE FEET
Kodak Best Shot on Film, 16MM – Joe Zakko’s SUBWAY STOPS
Kodak Best Shot on Film, 8MM – Alan Richard Halls’ WHO THE F**K IS JACKY BUMPERS?
Kodak Best Shot on Film, Honorable Mention – Alden Ehrenreich’s SHADOW BROTHER SUNDAY
Social Impact Award – Sterling Hampton IV’s MERMAN
Best Thriller – Rita Borodiyanski’s TIME OUT
Best Student Film – Marta Szymanek’s EDEN
Best TV – Arden Grier and Kirsten Knisely’s EARTH GIRL
Best VFX – James A. Sims’ D.A.D.
Best Web Series – Stacey Maltin’s MASHED
Best Female Screenplay Presented By BeCine – K.D. Chalk’s SURVIVED BY
HollyShorts Honorable Mention – Raul Sanchez and Pasqual Gutierrez SHUT UP AND FISH
Best TV Screenplay – Ari Donnelly’s POWER COUPLE
Best of Deadline
Berlin Film Festival 2024: Award Ceremony, Film Premieres & Red Carpet Gallery
Sundance Film Festival 2024 Photos: Award Ceremony, Film Premieres & Parties Gallery
Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winners Through The Years - Photo Gallery
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.