The 2018 Phoenix Film Festival in underway in Arizona, and it is the largest film festival in the state — and this year it is even bigger. The 2018 festival runs for 11 days and features over 300 films, offering something for every taste. From world premiere features from some of the biggest names in Hollywood, to student-made short films, the Phoenix Film Festival is the place to be for film lovers of all ages.
Today, the 2018 competition winners were announced in all three categories: Feature Films, World Cinema, and Shorts. The films varied in subject matter, with comedies rubbing elbows with drama, and documentaries shocking viewers as much as informing them of factual subjects.
Below, find the list of the 2018 Phoenix Film Festival winners.
FEATURE FILM AWARDS
Audience Award: Up to Snuff
Best Picture: The Idea of Manhood
Best Documentary: Forever B
Best Director: Zack Wilcox – Hunting Lands
Best Ensemble: Rich Kids
Best Screenplay: Serge Kushnier – The Idea of Manhood
WORLD CINEMA AWARDS
World Cinema Best Director: Peter Luisi – Streaker
https://vimeo.com/227605450
World Cinema Best Picture: Streaker
World Cinema Best Documentary: Becoming Who I Was
After a Buddhist boy in the highlands of northern India discovers that he is the reincarnation of a centuries-old Tibetan monk, his godfather takes him on a journey to discover his past.
World Cinema Audience Award Winner: All the Wild Horses
International riders forge unexpected bonds as they compete in the Mongol Derby, at 1000 kilometres of Mongolian steppe the longest and toughest horse race in the world. The harsh Mongolian wilderness soon takes its bone-crunching toll as the competitors are whittled down mercilessly one by one. This is their epic story.
Sidney K. Shapiro Humanitarian Award: Becoming Who I Was
FOUNDATION AWARDS
2018 Phoenix Film Festival Volunteer Of the Year: Leslie Criger
SHORT FILM AWARDS
Best-Animated Short Film: The Driver is Red
Best Documentary Short Film: Mott Haven
Best College Short Film: Night Call
Best Live Action Short Film: Control
Best World Cinema Short: Stealing Silver
Best Latino-American Short Film: Instinct
Best African-American Short Film: Baby Steps
Best Native-American Short Film: Five Dollars
The Phoenix Film Festival continues through Sunday, April 15. For more information please visit www.phoenixfilmfestival.com.
We will be posting reviews of some of the Feature Film competitors, including the Best Picture, The Idea of Manhood, which is most deserved of the accolades it has won; the documentary Forever B, which is a shocking tale of kidnapping, pedophilia, and brain washing of both adults and children; and Hunting Lands, one of the most beautifully shot films we’ve ever seen at a film festival. Look for those reviews later this week, as the Phoenix Film Festival continues.
