SCAD Savannah Film Festival Announces 2020 Competition Award Winners

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA — The Savannah College of Art and Design announces the award winners for the 23rd annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival. A key stop on the festival circuit leading up to the Academy Awards, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival screened 153 films, including 21 narrative films, 17 documentary films, and 112 shorts with 14 world premieres. More than 1,700 films were submitted for the festival.

Thirty-three awards were announced from the 122 films chosen to compete in the categories of narrative features, documentary features, professional shorts, animated shorts, student shorts, Global Shorts Forum, Shorts Spotlight, and Southern Voices selections.

Kusasa: Best Documentary Feature. Directed by Shane Vermooten.

Killing Eleanor: Best Narrative Feature. Directed by Rich Newey.

The Seeker: Best Professional Short. Directed by Lance Edmands.

To the Dusty Sea: Best Animated Short. Directed by Héloïse Ferlay.

Benjamin Schwartz (Chuck Connelly Into the Light): Best Director

Free Color: Best Editing. Directed by Alberto Arvelo.

Matthew Mitchell (The Seeker): Best Cinematography

My Brother’s Keeper: Jury Award for Exceptional Storytelling. Directed by Laurence Topham.

Bill Heck (Small Town Wisconsin): Jury Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role. Directed by Niels Mueller.

Our Side: Best Live Action Short by a SCAD Student. Directed by Nicola Rinciari.

The Mandrake: Best Animated Short by a SCAD Student. Directed by Quincy Baltes

Gunpowder: Best Student Animation and Student Shorts Best of Show. Directed by Romane Faure, Nathanael Perron, Léa Detrain, Benoît de Geyer d’Orth, Pei-Hsuan Lin, and Anne-Lise Kubiak.

Unfinished Lives: Best Student Live Action Short. Directed by Yucong Chen.

The Light Breaks: Jury Award for Creative Storytelling with Social Impact. Directed by Hailey French.

Un Diable dans la Poche: Jury Award for Excelling in Animation. Directed by Antoine Bonnet and Mathilde Loubes.

American Dream: Best Global Short: Black Voices and Global Shorts Forum Best of Show. Directed by Nicolas Polixene and Sylvain Loubet.

Adnan: Best Global Short: Far from Home. Directed by Steven Chatterton and Mark Arrigo.

Kim: Best Global Short: HER Story. Directed by Maria Vattimo.

WhateverTree: Best Global Short: One Planet. Directed by Isaac King.

Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad: Global Shorts Forum Jury Award for Exceptional Storytelling. Directed by Camrus Johnson and Pedro Piccinini.

How Far Is Home: Global Shorts Forum Honorable Mention. Directed by Apo W. Bazidi.

Steam!: Shorts Spotlight Best of Show. Directed by Jeffrey D. Simon.

Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible: Shorts Spotlight Best Short: Overcoming Obstacles. Directed by Kristen Lappas and Tom Rinaldi.

Under the Lights: Shorts Spotlight Best Short: Trigger Warnings. Directed by Miles Levin.

I Want to Make a Film About Women: Shorts Spotlight Best Short: Pride Parade. Directed by Karen Pearlman.

Trois Francs Six Sous: Shorts Spotlight Best Short: Animated Gems. Directed by Clémence Ottevaere, Florence Blain, Louise Leblond, Varoon Indalkar, Morgane Ladjel, and Hugo Valdelièvre-Rattier.

Influx: Shorts Spotlight Jury Award for Exceptional Filmmaking. Directed by Daniel Uribe.

Tales from the Multiverse: Shorts Spotlight Jury Award for Most Innovative Short. Directed by Magnus I. Møller.

100,000 Acres of Pine: Shorts Spotlight Jury Award for Outstanding Storytelling. Directed by Jennifer Alice Wright.

Huntsville Station: Southern Voices Best of Show. Directed by Jamie Meltzer and Chris Filippone.

They Say I’m Your Teacher: Southern Voices Jury Award for Profound Storytelling. Directed by Lucy Massie Phenix and Catherine Murphy.

Professional jury members include Miranda Bailey (Cherry Picks), Clayton Davis (Variety), June Dowad (Sandra Marsh & Associates), Everett Downing (filmmaker), Kate Erbland (IndieWire) Christian Fahrenbach (journalist), Amy Grey (Dish Communications), Caleb Hammond (MovieMaker), Lynn Hirschfield (Participant Media), Shelia Jaffe (casting director), Robert Jury (filmmaker), David Kwon Kim (producer), Frank Radice (TV executive), Myra Scheer (SiriusXM), Matt Ward (SCAD alumnus), Lauren Williams (Echo Lake Entertainment), and Stevie Wong (International Film Journalist).

The Savannah College of Art and Design celebrates the 23rd annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival as an all-virtual experience Oct. 24–Oct. 31, 2020. The largest university-run film festival in the U.S., it honors both professional and emerging student filmmakers and welcomes major industry luminaries including award-winning directors, writers, and actors across the big screen.

View the festival schedule for a complete list of films.

Follow the festival on Facebook and Instagram and use #SCAD and #SAVFF.

The Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited university, offering more than 100 academic degree programs in more than 40 majors across its locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and online via SCAD eLearning and SCADnow.

The university enrolls approximately 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 countries. The innovative SCAD curriculum is enhanced by advanced professional-level technology, equipment, and learning resources, as well as opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and collaborative projects with corporate partners. In 2019, the prestigious Red Dot Design Rankings placed SCAD as the No. 1 university in the U.S. and in the top two universities in the Americas and Europe for the third consecutive year. Career preparation is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni employment rate. Visit scad.edu.