Sensational City
Tarik Cherkaoui
Animation Award Video: Click here to view the trailer Synopsis
Sensational City is an animation short about having one's ears wide open in a city that offers a million sounds at every corner. Recorded mostly in New York City, the film's animation invites the viewer to hear sounds we normally filter out of our consciousness and shows that beauty can be found in the ambient sounds of a bustling city. Sensational City is a partially abstract, hand-made animation, drawn with brush-tipped markers on index cards. Bio
Tarik Cherkaoui is an independent animator and filmmaker based in New York. He is interested in animation as a form of art. His earlier film, Saadia: A Moroccan Woman in the Resistance, was screened at the Human Rights Film Festival and won a gold plaque at the Chicago Film International Film Festival. Cherkaoui's recent work focuses on abstract and non-traditional narrative style where shape and sound are the sole subject. Cherkaoui is agnostic to technique; having been trained in computer 3D animation, he fell in love with the hand-made feel of traditional animation and has worked with paint on glass and markers on index cards. He is developing a live-action piece about nuclear fall-out shelters in New York City.
Eternal High
Bryce Mackie
Youth Award Video: Click here to view the trailer Synopsis
Crying uncontrollably at the kitchen table, mind racing with thoughts of suicide. How could this happen to a teen who has everything: budding film career, success as an all-state athlete, good grades, loving parents and a perfect girlfriend? Everything was great, yet suddenly everything was horrible. Why? Meet 17-year-old Bryce Mackie, a filmmaker who captured his true-life battle with depression and suicide. At the time the film was made, Mackie was unaware he was suffering from depression. The film promotes the open discussion of depression and suicide, to remove the stigma still existing today. Bio
Bryce Mackie is a high school senior in Battle Creek, Michigan. His goal is to earn a film degree from Columbia College in Chicago. Mackie's interest in filmmaking was kindled by the impact he experienced watching powerful films by directors such as Gus Van Sant and Quentin Tarantino. He intends to follow his passion to make films, professionally or as an amateur. Mackie's film festival experience began in February 2006 when he entered Eternal High in its first film festival. The film has since won awards in 10 film festivals. Tuesday
Payman Benz & Sean Becker
Narrative Award Video: Click here to view the trailer Synopsis
Tommy, a telemarketer, is having a regular day at the office until a frustrated man decides he's had enough telemarketing calls. Bio
Co-Writer/Director Payman Benz is a human man. In addition to that, he's an award-winning comedy writer/director. Benz has studied comedy since he was an awkward immigrant child trying to figure out how to survive socially in America. Since 2005, Benz has directed and/or produced five festival films, including his first one, Needle Anus. In 2006, Benz co-founded Awkward Pictures with his producing/writing partner, Sean Becker. Benz resides in Los Angeles, California. Co-Writer/Director Sean Becker is an Emmy Award-winning director whose short films have played in festivals across the country. In 2004, Becker directed video segments for a variety show that aired on the UPN network. This resulted in a regional Emmy Award in 2005 for his short film Parallel/Parallel. In 2006, Becker co-founded Awkward Pictures with producing/writing partner, Payman Benz. The company was created with the intent to produce comedy based entertainment for both the screen and the Internet. Becker resides in Los Angeles, California. Caught In Paint
Rita Blitt
Documentary Award Video: Click here to view the trailer Synopsis
Caught in Paint, a six-minute collaboration with choreographer David Parsons and photographer Lois Greenfield, joins film, dance, painting and photography. This energetic and inspiring piece captures renowned painter and sculptor Rita Blitt painting on four-by-eight-foot transparent surfaces while Parsons and members of the Parsons Dance Company are seen in mid-air, flying through the painting... a true work of art! Bio
As a child, Blitt won scholarships to the Kansas City Art Institute and returned there for further studies after attending the University of Illinois and graduating from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Her work celebrates her love of nature, music, dance and the spontaneous flow of movement captured in the drawn gesture. Her first New York exhibit was in 1969. Blitt's sculptures, up to sixty feet in height, have been permanently installed and exhibited along with her drawings and paintings in Australia, Germany, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States. Blitt's sculpture won 5th prize in the Florence, Italy, 2005 Biennale. | 
