Award Winners – Grand Prize Vertical – NFT’S – 20+ Classic & Technology Categories at 12th New Media Film Festival®

Grand Prize Winner: Disappearing Stories (Mobile) – US Premiere
Director - Oleg Ageychev, Alexander Gornovsky - Russia
Every 24 hours millions of people upload video about their day to Instagram. We are used to perceiving life as a set of interchanging stories. And we all want attention to our Stories. But among us there are people with real stories, for whom our attention is vital. These are war veterans and witnesses, old people in nursing homes. They don’t have virtual Stories, although they do have real stories to tell. They cannot draw attention to themselves in social networks, although it is attention that can improve and prolong their lives.

Best NFT: The New Media Film Festival® is the first event of its kind in the world to accept non-fungible tokens (NFT) in competition. NFT's announced & bought during Awards
"This year's programming incorporates some of the most innovative and technologically creative work we have ever presented," according to Founder and Director, Susan Johnston. “Especially our NFT competition, which supports artists who are truly trailblazing a new genre. This is an event we expect to see grow in years to come.”

Best Animation: Boy Scientist – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – Susan Lim, Samudra Kajal Saikia – USA
A brilliant boy scientist meets the girl scientist of his dreams, poised and beautiful, surrounded by flasks and beakers. The best he can do is bottle her image in his flask, so he may serenade and waltz with her in his Quantum Physics Lab.

Best Art: Myth (World Premiere)
Director – George Maple – Australia
Luna and Sol; Two star crossed Lovers, born into a genetically engineered society, destined to change the course of history with their love.

Best Artificial Intelligence: AI La I Artificial Intelligence La
Director – Carlo Christian Spano – China
An experienced Silicon Valley engineer who has dedicated his life to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for over a decade felt confused and concerned about his future after realizing the rapid evolution of AI. Therefore, in order to find his potential in nature, he joined an international trekking expedition through the mysterious Caucasus region. Being inspired and protected by Natural Intelligence, he started a new AI journey exploring China, the UK, and the USA.

Best Digital Comic: Lead City (World Premiere)
Writer – Eric Borden – USA
Before Deadwood. Before Tombstone. Before Durango.

Best Documentary: Cheyenne – World Premiere
Director – Rich Underwood – USA
Facing kidney failure at the age of 20, Cheyenne’s options for a donor are dwindling until an unexpected turn of events presents love and a lifesaving gift. A set of skilled caregivers operate on Cheyenne and her living donor to give her a second chance at a life that had only begun to blossom.

Best Drone: Perspective – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – Timothy Hay, Simon Mulholland – South Africa
“Perhaps it requires such depth of oppression to create such heights of character. My country is rich in the minerals and gems that lie beneath its soil, but I have always known that its greatest wealth is its people, finer and truer than the purest diamonds.” – Nelson Mandela

Best Feature: Adam’s Apples – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – John Strasberg – USA
A New Vision of a Classic Work. John Strasberg – actor, director, author, teacher – has created an unconventional reimagining of one of Chekhov’s greatest romantic comedies, “The Cherry Orchard.”

Best Mixed Reality: The Safe Shipment of Small Cargo – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – Tizzy Canucci – UK
The viewer is introduced to a new innovation: ‘a steel container called a cargo van.’ The connecting link is the shipping container, through three locations with different arrangements of reality, actuality and virtuality.

Best Mobile/Tablet: Colombia 2020
Director – Nicky Woodhouse – Colombia
Surreal, sound led documentary shot on iPhone following a family backpacking around Colombia.

Best Music Only: Roots-Sequoia – World Premiere
Artist – emaé – UK
Emaé would see her family move from Scotland to England, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana before settling in London. A feel-good blend of soul-pop, emaé is a fusion of all the cultures that embraced her and the places she’s called home.

Best Music Video: After the Lockdown
Director – Joy Shannon – USA
Title song for After the Lockdown: Black in LA

Best New Media: Colorful and Creative Leipzig in 3D Audio – World Premiere
Director – Martin Rieger – Germany
Experience Leipzig museums and art spaces as an immersive tourist. A completely new version of the sounds of Leipzig in 3D audio.

Best Pilot: Loved Ones – World Premiere
Director – Sam Coyle – USA
The inside of the hard side of funeral workers.

Best Podcast: Coffee with Karina Ep Don Mclean – World Premiere
Director – Karina Michel – USA
Inspirational chats within the entertainment industry.

Best Script: Peach Blossom

Top 3 Scripts:
• The Gorilla Group
• Ms. Pearl’s Private School for Posh Pigs
• Blackout

Best Short: The Corona Mechanism – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – Al Jazeera Media Network – Qatar
This report is one of the rare scientific explainers broadcasted in Arabic on how Covid-19 works to replicate itself in our bodies. It explains the importance and danger of the virus’ spike protein. The report illustrates the lock and key mechanism it uses to “fool” our cell reporters.

Best Snipler: Around the World in 80 Plates with Leslie Durso – World Premiere
Director – FoodAllergy.org – USA
Host Leslie Durso recreates top-9 allergy-free fishes she puts on menus in resorts in the world’s hottest destinations.

Best STEAM: LIGO – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – Les Guthman – USA
The LIGO project made the first historic detection of gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes. “Top 20 Discoveries of the Decade” – National Geographic and which earned Kip Thorne, Rai Weiss & Barry Barish the Nobel Peace Prize in Physics. This documentary is made in collaboration with Caltech, M.I.T. and the LIGO Laboratory, funded by the National Science Foundation, MathWorks and Caltech,

Best Student: A Beautiful Brain in a Beautiful World
Director – Grade 9 Student Martin Thaw – Canada
How Stem Cell-Derived Cerebral Organoids Revolutionize Treatments for Brain Diseases. The recent advancements will provide scientists with amazing insights into how the human brain develops and the possibility of discovering effective treatments for neurological diseases.

Best Socially Responsible: Before I Knew – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – Hans Augustave – USA
A powerful visual poem depicting both the subtle and harsh ways Black men come to the realization that they are seen as less than Human.

Best Trailer: Riders of the Purple Sage, the Making of a Western Opera – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – Emmy Award Winner Kristen Atwell Ford – USA
LogOpera’s hallowed traditions and America’s cowboy culture converge to celebrate the collaborative power of art.

Best TV: Detention Adventure – Los Angeles Premiere
Director – Joe Kicak – Canada
Three nerdy friends and the school bully must get themselves thrown into detention to find the entrance to a labyrinth of trap-laden tunnels protecting the fabled hidden lab of Alexander Graham Bell.

Best VR-360: Hominidae – Los Ángeles Premiare
Director – Brian Andrews – USA
Hominidae depicts an ecosystem of x-ray visibility. Creatures have evolved in surprising ways, where humans, birds, spiders and frogs share unique anatomies.

Best Web Series: The Fash Life Series – World Premiere
Director – Rebecca Hu – USA
Fashion, beauty and the Influencer life, starring your favorite real-life influencers. #unfiltered and #irl.

Best Web Series Promo: The Gliwensbourg Chronicles – World Premiere
Director – Emilie Tommasi – France
Gilwensbourg, winter 1915, a French trench is pounded, all the soldiers are buried making only one survivor. Underground, the soldier who survived managed to get out of an air pocket and crawl into a hole leading to a mysterious tunnel that leads to… 1925!

Audience Award: Into the Night – Feature – US Premiere
Director – Amy Richman – Arctic
Hop on an icebreaker and join an international team of scientists as they venture out on a year-long scientific expedition to study the Arctic climate system.

New Media Film Festival
The Landmark 10850 Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064

New Media Film Festival ®, an innovative and award-winning festival created in 2009, celebrates global stories, technology, and platforms. We continually implement new opportunities outside the norm to bolster creators in media. Through our boundary-pushing ideology, we create an environment for creators to thrive.

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