2025 Awards!

Thank you to our 2025 jury: Lilli Carré, Kelly Gallagher, Dani Wasserman.

Category Awards (Given by the jury)

1st Prize Feature Documentary
Seeds Director: Brittany Shyne, Documentary, USA, 122 min
Brittany Shyne’s quietly powerful black and white cinematography deftly and intimately shares a cinematic portrait of American Black farmers in the South, in her stunning directorial debut.

1st Prize Feature Narrative
More Beautiful Perversions Director: Pavli Serenetsky, Narrative, USA, 70 min
The best coming of age stories embrace the awkward, the confusing, and everything that takes us out of our comfort zones and into the wider, weirder world. They also point us in the direction of realizing that everyone is coming of some age at all times. More Beautiful Perversions does all this as its protagonist navigates their way out into the squishy, messy, queer and perverse wooded landscape of the film’s backdrop and back home again.

1st Prize Short Animation – Academy Qualifying
Speed Reader Director: Jennifer Levonian, Animation, Spain, 5 min
The jury loved the internal logic of this funny and colorful handcrafted paper cut-out film that explores themes of paying attention and sibling connection.

1st Prize Short Narrative – Academy Qualifying
Beyond Failure Director: Marissa Losoya, Narrative, USA, 9 min An effortlessly funny and relatable film about body image, failure, self-motivation, and the absurdities one will go through in the quest for attaining a nice ass.

1st Prize Short Documentary
We Are On the Map Director: Santiago Rodríguez Cárdenas, Documentary, Colombia, 10 min
A beautiful personal and formally inventive exploration that brings together a community to point out the inequalities in mapping technology.

1st Prize Short Experimental
Razeh-del Director: Maryam Tafakory, Experimental, Iran, Italy, UK, 28 min
Tafakory’s mesmerizing use of the archive, pulling from the short-lived Iranian women’s newspaper Zan, takes the viewer through an exploration of gender, subversion, and the creativity and resilience of two young schoolgirls.

1st Prize Music Video
Hunky Dory Director: Steven Vander Meer, Music Video, USA, 6 min
Utterly charming, with a remarkable sense of transformation, this film invites us to feel the care and effort poured into it by its creator.

Ohio-Based filmmaker Award (Sponsored this year by Ohio Goes to the Movies)
Time Capsule Director: Constanze Brodbeck, Experimental, USA, 5 min
Clever and touching, Constanze Brodbeck’s Time Capsule expands a bedroom vlog onto a movie screen while extending her own self into the future. Brodbeck’s wit—punctuated by tenderness—saturates a stream of consciousness short which leaves us with a lingering sense of hope and visible queer joy.

Named Awards

Film House Award (Given by the jury for visionary filmmaking and named after Ohio University alumnus and cinematographer Ed Lachman)
Olivia & the Clouds Director: Tomás Pichardo Espaillat, Experimental, Dominican Republic, 81 min
A feature animation like no other we have seen — a kaleidoscopic poetic narrative that is warm and surreal, where an artist’s hand and imagination is felt in every gorgeously crafted frame.

Research Award (Given by the jury to a film exhibiting a strong engagement with research. Sponsored by Ohio University Libraries)
Bob Morgan’s Just Going To Tell Some Stories Directors: Grayson Tyler Johnson, Tom Marksbury, Documentary, USA, 86 min
Fascinating and moving portrait of the very charismatic Bob Morgan, his assemblage artwork, and the queer community and history of Lexington Kentucky. This doc helps further preserve and share the archive work that Bob has committed himself to, through the oral history of his anecdotes and his establishment of the Faulkner Morgan Archive, the largest LGBTQ archive in the South and one of largest in the US. A deep exploration of grief, community, mentorship, and expression.

Black Bear Award (Given by the jury for the best use of sound. Named after our friend John Butler)
Full Out Director: Sarah Ballard, Experimental, USA, 14 min
Different aspects of the film are re-tuned throughout the piece — a piano, the tense of the narration, bodies as they flip in competition, the levels of suspense — in this distinctive reflection on performance.

Director’s Prize (Given by AIFVF director David Colagiovanni)
Moi-même Directors: Mojo L Lorwin, Lee Breuer, Experimental, France, USA, 65 min
A truly unique collaboration between father and son, seamlessly blending their creative voices to bridge generations. It brings a 1960’s avant-garde theater collective into dialogue with the present day, creating a moving meditation on legacy, memory, and artistic continuity.

Another World is Possible Award (established 2025 by Kelly Gallagher)
Shoulder To Shoulder Directors: Adi Hockenberry, Brooklyn Collier, Jett Kincer, Documentary, USA, 13 min
In an Appalachian town, artists, activists and community members of all ages come together to create vibrant art, collaborating with one another to beautify their skate park, and remind us that we all have the power to create meaningful third spaces in our own locales. The radical and tender political praxis of the filmmakers and town members moved jury member Kelly Gallagher to create and support a new AIFVF award, entitled, Another World is Possible, because this beautiful film illustrates what can materialize when members of a community vigorously value the effort, labor and joy of building connection, care and relationships in the fight against capitalism’s increasing alienation and isolation. Another world is possible when we work together, hand in hand, to build it.

From the Booth Award (Given by the Projection Team: Rachel Allegra, Dan Bruell, and Dan Moray)
Perfectly a Strangeness Director: Alison McAlpine, Documentary, Chile, 15 min
Weird, wonderful and quietly cosmic donkeys traverse the earthly and celestial landscapes of an observatory at the top of the world. A cinematic and contemplative universe to spend some time within.

Programmer’s Prize (Given by the assistant Programming Team: Trey Barret, Yulia Dmitrieva, Travis Eskins, Lydia Smith, Terra Talamh, Josh Vieth)
Mother’s Child Director: Naomi Noir, Animation, Netherlands, 9 min
Through a distinct and inventive mixed-media palette, Mother’s Child, presents a deeply personal glimpse into the unseen struggles of being a single parent.

Special Jury Mentions

This is a Movie Director: C. Jacqueline Wood, Experimental, USA, 8 min
Mail Myself to You Director: Imogen Pranger, Documentary, USA, 16 min
Fumble Director: Mahsa Talebiani, Experimental, USA, 15 min
The Melting Director: Lananh Chu, Experimental, USA, 20 min
The Night of the Minotaur Director: Juliana Zuluaga Montoya, Documentary, Colombia, 11 min
What Goes Up Director: Samar Al Summary, Documentary, USA, 30 min
A Quiet Storm Director: Benjamin Nicolas, Documentary, Japan, 30 min
Retirement Plan Director: John Kelly, Animation, Ireland, 8 min
Caries Director: Aline Höchli, Animation, Switzerland, 10 min