2021

Best Animated Film
Animation
United States
Runtime:
5 minutes
15 seconds
Director:
Jo Meuris

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who fell in love with a beautiful horse named Aurora...

Expressively animated in a naive drawing-style that evokes children’s drawings and the texture of storybook illustrations, Aurora is a bittersweet story about love, friendship, and growing up.

Best Experimental Film
Experimental
Turkey
Runtime:
5 minutes
23 seconds
Director:
Ceylan Özgün Özçelik

A woman, released from prison, drifts between nightmare and reality.

Best Documentary Short
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
30 minutes
9 seconds
Director:
Melissa Armstrong, Jason Pidgeon

A film crew follows Amber for one day. During that day, she rescues 19 dogs. Some are dumped on the roadside and left to survive on their own. Others are living in unhealthy conditions at the unregulated and pitifully funded shelters. Watch as one woman saves these homeless animals from certain death.

Amber’s Halfway Home is an exploration of the conditions at government-funded shelters and the consequences of ignoring our country’s homeless animals. But, it’s also a celebration of a woman battling for change in her Southern community, a warrior who saved 2000 dogs in one year.

Best Documentary
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
54 minutes
10 seconds
Director:
Chris Spencer

For years, members of the city leadership discredited findings of racial bias while continuously increasing the police budget. Advocating for raising taxes instead of laying off officers, the Vergennes Police Chief singled out a domestic violence victim in front of a packed hall to instill fear. After the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, discussions of police oversight turned personal, forcing the mayor and three city council members to resign; the city was left with no functioning government.

In the end, The Price of Safety stitches together a discussion about the issues facing Vermont’s smallest city through interviews with residents, scholars of race and policing, and elected officials. As conversations surrounding policing and racism evolve nationally, we watch a community reckon with a vital question: what does it mean to be safe?

Raw
Best Narrative Short
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
10 minutes
29 seconds
Director:
Drake Shannon

Past and present are blurred by a horrifying transgression as a female soldier faces the aftermath of a military patrol in the Middle East. RAW exposes military sexual trauma through the eyes of a soldier struggling to readjust to everyday life.

Best Narrative Feature, Best of the Fest
Narrative Feature
Germany
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
20 minutes
56 seconds
Director:
Katharina Ludwig

Actress Charlotte is struggling with her craft and even more with herself. She has messed up yet another audition and even her self-written apple tree monologue seems to be working against her. Frustrated by the realities of an artistic career and her fear of failing, Charlotte escapes on a camping trip to sunny Croatia with her boyfriend Georg. But the trip’s dynamic changes when their plans of a fun-filled couples vacation misfire: While Georg spends his time at a music festival in the hope of scoring a DJ gig, Charlotte is left stranded in the middle of nowhere. She embarks on a journey of her own, encountering happy campers Benno, a self-proclaimed shaman, and mysterious dropout Tami, to whom Charlotte feels an attraction. Both of them quickly become close companions on Charlotte's journey of self-discovery.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
Israel
Runtime:
18 minutes
51 seconds
Director:
Eyal Tzadik, Yotam Kislev

This is a tale of two beggars.

A friendship that could end miserably. Sasha prepares Simon for a meeting with the woman who ran him over with her limousine. A ridiculous heir. If they succeed, Simon could live a better life, and Sasha will stay alone in the streets.

Official Selection
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
54 minutes
Director:
Paul Zehrer

Parents and teachers around the world struggle with their kids’ dependence on devices today. As Covid has forced our kids to rely on technology more than ever, “#KidsOnTech” looks at the impact on children’s developing bodies and brains, and asks: “How might we better prepare our kids for this digital world?” Voices from India to the U.S., France to China, Mexico to Japan explore what children need to truly excel in a future dominated by tech, including a Google designer, a German brain scientist, and New York Times journalist, Matt Richtel, whose story on a Silicon Valley school created an international media frenzy.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
21 minutes
16 seconds
Director:
Ross Kagan Marks

Two men form an unlikely bond during Covid in an assisted living facility in the last days of their lives.

Official Selection
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
23 minutes
Director:
Kathy Kuras

Meet quarterback Sami Grisafe, San Francisco 49ers coach Katie Sowers and other legends of women’s tackle football who played for the love of the game against all odds. With commentary from Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris and 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan, OPEN FIELD tells the story of the women who leave everything on the field in their drive for greatness, earning recognition and respect.

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