HIFF has proudly bestowed close to five million dollars in its 33-year history. This year, HamptonsFilm continued to present emerging filmmakers with awards totaling $246,500 in cash, goods and services, with special events taking place throughout the duration of the festival.
This year HIFF screened a lineup of 89 features and 57 short films representing 54 countries from around the world, including entries from 14 countries into the Academy Awards® race for Best International Feature. Out of the 190 screenings in the festival, there were 12 World Premieres, 2 International Premieres, 8 North American Premieres, 21 US Premieres, 20 East Coast Premieres, and 27 New York Premieres.
“We congratulate all of our award winners for sharing their incredible stories and creative work with our audience,” said HamptonsFilm Chief Creative Officer David Nugent. “This year’s filmmakers brought projects from across the globe, bringing a true international perspective to our East End audience. We are thankful to everyone involved in the festival including our staff and volunteers, filmmakers, jury members, sponsors, board, and audiences who bring the festival to life each year.”
AUDIENCE AWARDS
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
SENTIMENTAL VALUE reunites Renate Reinsve with director Joachim Trier (THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, HIFF 2021) in this Cannes Grand Prix winner. After the loss of their mother, Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) reconnect with their estranged father, the charismatic, once-renowned filmmaker Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). When Nora turns down a role written for her in Gustav’s ambitious, highly personal new film, she soon finds he has instead given her part to an eager young Hollywood star (Elle Fanning). With masterfully rendered emotion, Trier delivers a stirring portrait of a family grasping for connection through grief and art when ordinary language fails. Norway’s entry in the Academy Awards® race for Best International Feature Film. A NEON release.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BEST NARRATIVE SHORT FILM
When a family dinner spirals into theatrics, retired actress Lydia must take control of the situation.
LIGHTNING BUG, directed by Zane Pais
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
The community on Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island–home to more endemic species per square kilometer than the Galápagos–defends its culture of stewardship against outside pressures.
ISLAND WILLING, directed by Cece King
COMPETITION AWARDS
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE, directed by Hasan Hadi, won the Award for Best Narrative Feature. The film received a $2500 cash prize plus a film production package of in-kind goods and services valued at $92,500 from TCS, Neon Diesel Finishing, Hamptons Locations, and On Location Education.
“Through the eyes of a young girl torn between tradition and survival, Hasan Hadi’s expansive drama THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE shows us what’s really at stake in a dictatorship led with violence and fear,” said Narrative Competition Jury members Jody Arlington, Matt Donnelly and Brian Burns.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
TO THE WEST, IN ZAPATA, directed by David Bim received the Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film received a $2500 cash prize plus a film production package of in-kind goods and services valued at $50,000 from Neon Diesel Finishing, TCS, and Greenslate.
“No film quite took this jury’s breath away like the stunningly gorgeous TO THE WEST, IN ZAPATA. David Bim’s black-and-white cinema verite-style masterpiece is a heartbreaking look at the struggle of everyday Cubans in the face of insurmountable odds, yet it is told with such compassion and love. This documentary can move an audience without words and capture its attention just by depicting the care this family has for each other. For its extraordinary achievement, we are awarding the best documentary feature prize TO THE WEST, IN ZAPATA,” said the Documentary Competition Jury members Monica Castillo, Agnes Chu and Loren Hammonds.
BEST NARRATIVE SHORT FILM + BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
SAMMI, WHO CAN DETACH HIS BODY PARTS, directed by Rein Maychaelson, received the Award for Best Narrative Short Film, and CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG, directed by Hao Zhou, the Award for Best Documentary Short Film, with each taking home a $1000 cash prize and qualifying for consideration at the Academy Awards® for Best Live Action Short Film and Best Documentary Short, respectively.
Special Jury Prizes
The Narrative Competition Jury recognized Hanna Heckt (SOUND OF FALLING), Baneen Ahmad Nayyef (THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE), and Molly Belle Wright (OMAHA) with a Special Jury Prize for their performances. “This trio of young women actors, in three different narrative competition titles, showed skill and presence far beyond their years,” said the jury. “Vulnerable and daring, these performances give us a timely reminder of the consequences familial and societal abuse pose to children.”
Additional Special Jury Prizes for screenwriting and directing, respectively, included Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s “intellectually stimulating” script for HYSTERIA, and THE CURFEW, directed by Shehrezad Maher, “for subverting expectations with a short that proves communication transcends language.”
The Documentary Competition Jury recognized ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT with a Special Jury Prize for director Tony Benna’s impactful storytelling. In the short films category, the jury recognized HOOPS, HOPES & DREAMS with a Special Jury Prize for director Glenn Kaino’s innovative storytelling through his artistic use of animation, social commentary, and interviews.
ADDITIONAL HIFF AWARDS
The Subject Matter Award
ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS, directed by Joshua Seftel, was awarded the The Subject Matter Award, which is awarded to a documentary film in the HIFF program that highlights an urgent social issue. Subject Matter awarded the film a $25,000 grant in an effort to reach more audiences, along with a $25,000 grant to a nonprofit working on the issue featured in the film. The Subject Matter team attended the festival screening to invite inspired audiences to create a positive community action in response to the film.
The Artemis Rising Foundation Award for Social Impact
THE CYCLE OF LOVE, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, was awarded the 2025 Artemis Rising Foundation Award for Social Impact. The Artemis Rising Foundation champions powerful stories about our most challenging social justice issues by raising the vibrations. The award is accompanied by a $10,000 cash prize.
The Peter Macgregor Scott Memorial Award
PUNTER, directed by Jason Adam Maselle, was awarded the 2025 Peter Macgregor-Scott Memorial Award. The award, which is accompanied by a $10,000 cash prize, aims to continue the celebrated producer’s mentorship for a new generation of passionate filmmakers. Sponsored by Susan Macgregor-Scott, this award is specifically designed to recognize narrative short filmmakers and reward creative approaches to solving practical production challenges in the service of storytelling.
The Sherzum Award
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, directed by Bill Condon, was awarded the 2025 Sherzum Award. Sponsored by producer Jayne Baron Sherman, a long time LGBTQ+ activist, this award is designed to acknowledge and foster stories about LGBTQ+ people, issues and concerns. Named for Jayne and her wife Deborah Zum, the Sherzum Awards encourages films that show the realities and challenges—as well as successes—of the people and communities it represents. The film was awarded a $5,000 cash prize.
Brizzolara Family Foundation Awards for Films of Conflict & Resolution
HOLDING LIAT, directed by Brandon Kramer, and THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, were awarded the Brizzolara Family Foundation Award for Films of Conflict and Resolution. The films will each receive a $5,000 cash prize. This award recognizes films in the Films of Conflict & Resolution program, which is dedicated to showcasing films that focus on the realities of human conflict and injustice around the world, and inspire discussion about the possibilities for resolution.
Suffolk County Next Exposure Grant
LET’S NOT SUFFER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, directed by MC Harvey, was awarded the 2025 Suffolk County Next Exposure Grant. The $3,000 Suffolk County Next Exposure Grant is awarded to a film in the Views From Long Island section. This program supports the completion of high quality, original, director-driven, low-budget independent films from both emerging and established filmmakers who have completed 50% of principal photography within Suffolk County.
The Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award
TRADE SECRET, directed by Abraham Joffe, received the Zelda Penzel “Giving Voice to the Voiceless” Award, presented to a film in the Compassion, Justice and Animal Rights section that raises public awareness and provokes discussion about contemporary issues of social concern, with a focus on the rights, as well as moral and ethical treatment of animals. The $2,500 award is presented to a film that inspires compassion, motivates action, and compels change, and is given by Zelda Penzel—a long time educator, advocate, and a volunteer at HIFF since its inception.
Victor Rabinowitz & Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice
THE LIBRARIANS, directed by Kim A. Snyder, was presented with the Victor Rabinowitz & Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice. The annual award, which is accompanied by a $2,000 cash prize presented by Mark Rabinowitz, is presented to a film that exemplifies the values of peace, equality, global justice, and civil liberties, and is named in honor of two people who spent their entire lives fighting for those values: civil rights lawyer Victor Rabinowitz and his wife Joanne Grant, an author, filmmaker and journalist.
“We in this country find ourselves living in a reality unlike any we’ve known. The protections we’ve enjoyed for so long are being rapidly reduced to pale shadows of themselves and what was previously ‘free; speech can now be weaponized against the speaker with astonishing alacrity and essentially no due process. It’s too bad we don’t have a group of educators dedicated to preserving access to written collections of factual and allegorical representations of past events that might have acted as a… wait, what? We did? Canaries in a coalmine, you say? Oh, hell. To find out what happened – and continues to happen – to these underappreciated, undefended and heroic bulwarks against authoritarianism, please go see Kim A. Snyder’s THE LIBRARIANS, this year’s recipient of the Victor Rabinowitz and Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice!” — Mark Rabinowitz
New York Women in Film & Television Awards
ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU, directed by Cherien Dabis, and NATCHEZ, directed by Suzannah Herbert, were awarded the New York Women in Film & Television Award for Excellence in Narrative Filmmaking, and the New York Women in Film & Television Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, respectively. These awards honor outstanding female filmmakers who have demonstrated exceptional artistic vision and dedication to their craft. Both films received a $1,000 cash prize and a one-year membership to NYWIFT.
University Film Awards
The festival also announced the recipients of the University Short Film Awards, honoring emerging young talent and awarding five filmmakers cash prizes of $500 each. Awardees include BREASTMILK, directed by Ifeyinwa Arinze (NYU), CRAZY FOR YOU, directed by Greta Díaz Moreau (Columbia University), MOTHER AND ULYSSES, directed by Mushi Cai (London Film School), OUR OWN SHADOW, directed by Agustina Sánchez Gavier (Academy of Media Arts Cologne), and PUNTER, directed by Jason Adam Maselle (NYU).
