2025 Festival Award Winners

And So It Begins

• Distant Shore — Cooper Richman, Bradley Schatz (USA)
• How Fast Can You Eat A Pickled Egg? — Daniel England (UK)
• Saverio — Ellen Ancui (USA)
• Te Seguiré a la Oscuridad — Nicholas Luciano (USA)
• The Big Everything — Salvador Paskowitz (USA)
• Wrestle-Off — Sabatino Ciatti Jr.

World Cinema One

• Beyond — Bettina López Mendoza (Canada, Colombia, USA, Venezuela)
• Bus — Andre Balbuena (Peru)
• Friends — Zihao YU (China)
• Little Rebels Cinema Club — Khozy Rizal (Indonesia)
• Lost & Found — Wiktoria Kwoka (Poland)
• Theatre of Dreams — Fatma Al-Ghanim (Qatar)
• Undeletable — Benjamin Blaine, Christopher Blaine (UK)

A Hard DOCs Life

• A Strong Woman — Theo Gee, Will Atherton (UK)
• Breaks — Christina Yianni (UK)
• Simple Machine — Sara Hendren (USA)
• Town Square — Josh Izenberg (USA)

Opening Night Premiere Screening

• Xmas Tree — Herman Karlsson (Finland)
• Retirement Plan — John Kelly (Ireland)
• The Ride — Slava Denisov (USA)
• Rise — Jessica Rowlands (Zimbabwe)
• Once More, Like Rain Man — Sue Ann Pien (USA)
• Night Session — Ballard C. Boyd (USA)

The Road Not Taken

• Dandelion — Fiona Obertinca (USA)
• In Your Gaze — Puyu Wang (USA)
• Moti — Yash Saraf (India)
• Sorry For Your Loss — Courtney Karwal (USA)
• The Cockroach — Mary Pat Bentel (USA)
• The Last Ride — Vijesh Rajan, Yashoda Parthasarthy (India)

World Cinema Two

• Blacky The Metal Arm Cat — Nic Ho (Hong Kong)
• Cardo — Allan Riggs, Guilherme Suman (Brazil)
• Collage — Marius Conrotto (Spain)
• Merman — Madeleine Wynn (UK)
• Rocked By The Wind — Hsiao-Shan Huang (Taiwan)
• Romchyk — Alexis Bicât (UK)

More From A Hard DOCs Life

• Grit — Vanina Feldsztein (USA)
• Home From Work — Alex Fleming-McNeil, Michael Beuttler (USA)
• Saving Superman — Adam Oppenheim, Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian (USA)
• Shoreline — Paul E Overstrom
• The Rider — Roberto Serrini (USA)
• The Shift — Sami Abdou (USA)
• The Song of the VIllage — China

Our Flesh, Our Blood

• Brown Bread — Shaunagh Connaire (Ireland)
• Cherry-Colored Funk — Chelsie Pennello (USA)
• Énouement — Angel Lu (USA)
• I Came with Earrings — Jonathan Caren (USA)
• My So-Called Iraqi Wedding — Ayser Salman (USA)
• Such a Pretty Girl — Deborah Puette (USA)
• The Last Sunday in May — Alejandro Bordier (Luxembourg)

I’ve Got A Bad Feeling About This

• All Things Corrode — Sidney Kreitzer (USA)
• Berta — Lucía Forner Segarra (Spain)
• Foxbody — Cameron Monaghan (USA)
• Paranoia — Alina Bichieva (UK)
• Ride or Die — Liliana Tandon (USA)
• Scope — Emma Moffat (UK)

Make ‘Em Laugh

• Babka — Serena Dykman (USA)
• Back in Baby’s Arms — Jackson Giuricich (USA)
• Christo the Civilized Barbarian — Shaddy Safadi (USA)
• Gibranistan — Gibran Saleem (USA)
• Halfway Haunted — Sam Rudykoff (Canada)
• Learning How To Drive — Tyler Cunningham (USA)
• Night Session — Ballard C. Boyd (USA)
• Sock — Anna Leah Maltezos (USA)

Life Interrupted

• 11:11 — Mahnoor Euceph (USA)
• A Sisyphean Task — Gus Flind-Henry, George Malcher (UK)
• Clutter — James Card (UK)
• Don’t Leave Home — David Japaridze (Georgia)
• Power — Jordan Canning (Canada)
• Where the Deer Sleep — Matt Udvari (USA)

It Was A Dark & Stormy Night

• A Drive at Dawn — Joe D’Ovidio (UK)
• Haint — Jahmil Eady (USA)
• Loud — Adam Azimov (Canada)
• Platanero — Juan Frank Hernandez (Canada, Dominican Republic)
• Shelf Life — Greg Derochie (USA)
• The Littles — Andrew Duplessie (USA)
• The Pearl Comb — Ali Cook (UK)

Family Films

• Belief — Christian Loubek (USA)
• Bukra. — Alex Aljouni (USA)
• Cardboard — Jean-Philippe Vine (UK)
• Christopher & the Bug — Vanessa Esteves, Kevin Micallef (Canada)
• Éiru — Giovanna Ferrari (Ireland)
• Who Are You Nanu? — Anjini Taneja Azhar (USA, India)

An Uncomfortable Truth

• 29 Palms — Brandon Shypkowski (USA)
• Awit Natin (Our Song) — Pacqui Pascual (USA)
• Don’t Be Late, Myra — Afia Serena Nathaniel (Pakistan)
• Sadness of Men — Eli T Moss (USA)
• She is Guilty — Zihao YU (China)
• Sins of the Father — Dominic Fogarty (USA)
• The Stress Tester — Harley Idris Hamer (Australia)

True: Stories Inspired By Life

• After What Happened at the Library — Syra McCarthy, Kyle Casey Chu (USA)
• Filming Under Fire: John Ford’s OSS Field Photo Branch — Dan Gagliasso (USA)
• Sound of the Somme — Michaël Vermaercke (Belgium)
• The Demon Core — J. Zachary Thurman (USA)
• Watching Walter — Mitch Yapko (USA)

The Alternative Universe

• Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting — Alexander Thompson (USA)
• Rodent — Joe Fereday (UK)
• Samia — Selma Alaoui, Bruno Tracq (Belgium)
• The Clock — Cameo Wood (USA)
• Two People Exchanging Saliva — Alexandre Singh, Natalie Musteata (France)

The World Beyond

• 1 Million Deaths — George Chrysanthakopoulos (Greece)
• Anesthesia — Jeff Osborne (USA)
• Don’t Watch This — Daniel Pineros (USA)
• Dreamlink — Kalani Gacon (Australia)
• Inventing — Benjamin Myrick (USA)
• Time Setters — Oliver Mack Calhoun (USA)

What The What?!?

• Caught in the Frame — Shaobo Chen (China)
• Chips Or Crackers — Michael Gabriele (USA)
• Christo the Civilized Barbarian — Shaddy Safadi (USA)
• Fishmonger — Neil Ferron (USA)
• Love, Rehearsed — Martim David Gomes (USA)
• Satomi — Rayner Wang (Hong Kong, Japan, USA)
• Worst. Experience. Ever. — Alex Boutell (UK)
• Xmas Tree — Herman Karlsson (Finland)
• Your Own Flavor — Alisha Ketry (USA)

The Human Experience

• Is It Like, A Date?!? — Eliana Pipes
• Once More, Like Rain Man — Sue Ann Pien (USA)
• Resaca — Joe Borg (UK)
• Rise — Jessica J. Rowlands (Zimbabwe)
• The Giant Wheel of Life — Mohammed Ali Rukadikar (India)
• The Ride — Slava Denisov (USA)

Make ‘Em Laugh: After Dark

• Fenced — Richey Beckett (USA, UK)
• Giving Mom the Talk — Vidhya Iyer (USA)
• Ouija Go Out With Me — James Kennedy (UK)
• Some Of Us Watch The Sunset, Too — Brigitte Muñoz-Liebowitz (USA)
• Special Delivery — Emily Everhard (USA)
• Tacocunr — Erin Brown Thomas (USA)
• The 12 inch Pianist — Lucas Ansel (USA)
• The Pic — Frances Chewning (USA)

World Cinema One (Encore Screening)

Encore presentation of World Cinema One.

And So It Begins Encore

Encore presentation of And So It Begins.

World Cinema Three

• Anno Domini — Filip Antonio Lizatović (Croatia)
• Carbonara for Room H203 — Selma Munksgaard Hansen (Denmark)
• Going — Rupert Ratcliffe (UK)
• Priest and The Ugly Christmas Tree — Maarit Lalli (Finland)

Return of the Ink & Paint Club

• 113 Words For You Today — Bo Qing Tang, Lan Zeng (China, Taiwan, USA)
• Bird Drone — Radheya Jang Jegatheva (Australia, UK)
• Bridge – My Little Friends — Kazuyuki Ishihara (Japan)
• Clay Bird — Kiran Bhakta Joshi (Nepal)
• Dormilón — Olivia Marie Valdez (USA)
• Forevergreen — Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears (USA)
• Retirement Plan — John Kelly (Ireland)
• The Ottoman — Mike Stamm (USA)
• The Whistle — Greg Franklin (USA)
• Unbearable — Samantha Ho (USA)

Triggered: Stories of Survival

• Aria — Federica Belletti (Italy)
• G.S.W. — Jonny Durgan (UK)
• Miles Away — Sarah Harkins (UK)
• Millie — Pedro Greig (Australia)
• Public Freakout — Julia Bales (USA)
• Two Sisters — Antonio De Palo (Italy)

All The World’s A Stage

• A King’s Curtain — Grant M Johnson (USA)
• Ado — Sam Henderson (USA)
• I Want to go to Moscow — Sarah Baskin (USA)
• My Last Martini — Rob Christopher (USA)
• The Last Audition — Michael Wang (Luxembourg)
• The Witch Pricker and The Hare — Brynn Mitchell (USA)

Blame It On My Youth

• Blue Check — Nickolaus Swedlund, Robert Henry (USA)
• Koi — Taige Shi (USA)
• Never — Barak Stern (Israel)
• Pack Rat — Lucy Suess (New Zealand)
• Uncaged — Jay Richardson (USA)
• You & Me (& Chaz & Rodney) — Lilly Lion (USA)

Closing Night Screening

A closing-night program of films awarded Best Of in their categories.

Audience Choice Selections

Highlights from the films voted favorites by festival audiences.

Best of the Fest

A special presentation of award-winning shorts.