LAMA Spring 2018 Winners & Selections
Best Narrative Short
Best Narrative Feature
Best Documentary Short
“ The Frozen Warriors “
Dir. by Chris Schmid
1st Place Winners
“ The Burying Party “
Dir. by Richard Weston
“ Wandering Eyes “
Dir. by Makan Talayeh
Wilfred Owen returns to the Somme against the advice of his mentor Siegfried Sassoon, determined to follow his subject 'The Pity of War' to the very end.
The betrayed parties of an adulterous affair inadvertently collide in a story of revenge and coincidence.
Audience Award
“ Unstately ”
Dir. by Paul Cuoco
Award winning wildlife photographer Chris Schmid has completed an ambitious project to document one of nature’s most resilient animals. In a bid capture the musk oxen in their most natural habitat, Chris travelled in freezing temperatures and winds of up to 100 km per hour searching for the perfect snowstorm.
Best Documentary Feature
Best Animation
Best International Film
“ Five Minutes “
Dir. by Ilya Podolsky
“ Dystopia “
Dir. by Bellopropello
“ Two Sides: Eric Garner “
by Viola Davis, Julius Tennon,
Lemuel Plummer & Andrew T. Wang
soap bubbles are infiltrating a robot factory of arms. Subversiveness against logical reasoning. Who will get the upper hand?
In the summer of 2014, Eric Garner was choked and killed by NYPD officers while being arrested. The 43-year-old was standing outside of a beauty supply store in Staten Island, New York when police tried to arrest him for illegally selling loose cigarettes. The video of Officer Daniel Pantaleo putting Garner in a chokehold went viral. Although the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, a grand jury has thus far declined to indict Pantaleo.
Two men get into a criminal story on their way through the counrty roads. Two young men driving a car through suburb roads of Ukraine and they are getting into
serious troubles, one of them just wants to save his dying mother, the other one just wants to earn some good money in a criminal way. They have one job to do, but both of them have different goals. And they meet a stranger on their way.
Best Experimental
Best Student Film
“ Witness “
Dir. by Chen Xu
“ Mimesis “
Dir. by Patrick Lee
Hao is an illegal immigrant working at a Chinese restaurant. Modest, honest, and hard-working, Hao has been a happy and optimistic man, though he is still poor. His wife, Shasha, is three months pregnant. On his way to the work in one early morning, Hao witnesses a suspect dumping a dead human body in an alley near the restaurant.
Mimesis is an obsessive art project I've worked on for 3 years, building models and sets, traveling around Western US states including my home state of Montana with a truck full of props as well as creating makeshift sets at home. Nothing in the film is digital, all the visuals are analog, created using miniatures, home-made machines, smoke and mirrors. Plato and Aristotle saw in mimesis the representation of nature. I wanted to depict other beings harnessing these forces to create a super nature while no one seems to notice.
Best Music Video
Best Script
“ The Traveling Salesman “
by G.N. Giovanni
“ This War “
Dir. by Cristiano Pedrocco
ZACK, a high school student in love with his girl, DIANA, are expecting parents. Not knowing how to handle their situation, they postpone letting their parents know until after the prom. A tragic event sends ZACK into a coma while the soon to be mother of his child dies from her injuries, but not before giving birth to their son. Three decades later, ZACK awakens to find he is no longer a teenager in body and must adjust to being a grownup, parent and grandparent while coming to grips with life’s inevitable and sometimes cruel paths. Having more in common with his grandson DRAKE, they bond and help each other cope with life as a teenager only to find that a healthy new bond between ZACK and DRAKE can easily be severed by a shortened life while never losing sight of his one true love, his soulmate DIANA.
So dear to the artists as to who has lived it, it is the fault of the central core of the piece. Saving oneself from sin is not the only way to go:
we could find ourselves in front of it just like that "pearl fisherman" who, attracted by the abyss of his own conscience, ends up by succumbing to it.
Best Director
“ The Burying Party ”
Dir. by Richard Weston
Best Actor
Derek Chariton
“ Wandering Eyes ”
Best Actress
Isabel Serrano
“ Birth ”
Best Cinematography
“ Birth ”
Dir. by Olzem Altingoz
Best Costume Design
“ The Burying Party ”
Dir. by Richard Weston
Best Editing
“ Harmonica ”
Dir. by Ye Kuang
Best Original Score
“ Wandering Eyes ”
Dir. by Makan Talayeh
Best Production Design
“ The Burying Party ”
Dir. by Richard Weston
Official Selections, Category “Best” and Honorable Mention Winners
“ As If... ”
Dir. by Martha Elcan
“ Birth ”
Dir. by Ozlem Altingoz
“ Going To The Beach ”
Dir. by Tom Colley
“ Harmonica ”
Dir. by Ye Kuang
“ Heavy Rain ”
Dir. by Motaz Elbahaey
“ Just Kidding ”
Dir. by Michele Love Santoro
“ Richard ”
Dir. by Martijn Rijnberg
“ Unstately ”
Dir. by Paul Cuoco
“ Beyond The Glass ”
by Francis DiClemente
“ Don ”
by Alberto Battistutti
“ Makabi ”
by Jim Massie
“ Perry ”
by RJ Watson
“ The Music Box ”
by Stephen Curran
“ The Worst Holiday ”
by Mike Cochnar
Category Winners
Honorable Mention
Stage IV:
Living With Cancer
“C.T.R.L”
Dir. by Mariana Conde & Mariana Conde
“Caught Inside”
Dir. by Dwight Thompson
“Chuck Ransom”
Dir. by Arian Harandi
“Daddy Come Home”
Dir. by Mendel Katz & Yisrael Dubov
“FELONY”
Dir. by Thanos Kermitsis
“Jaysin Voxx 'Hands on Me'”
Dir. by Carlos Hurtado
“Mateo”
Dir. by Nancy C. Mejia
“The Courier”
Dir. by J.Mackye Gruber
“The Equation of Life”
Dir. by Gerry Orz
“The Stop”
Dir. by Marc Ruiz
“Two and a Quarter Minutes”
Dir. by Joshua Ovalle
Official Selections
