HIFF has proudly bestowed close to five million dollars in its 31-year history. This year, we are honored to be rewarding emerging filmmakers with $34,000 in cash, as well as another $90,000 in in-kind goods and services, through the following awards.
This year HIFF screened a lineup of films that are 49% female-directed and represent 42 countries from around the world. The festival had a record number of submissions in 2023, screening 72 features and 46 shorts with 8 World Premieres, 3 North American Premieres, 12 US Premieres, 13 East Coast Premieres, and 7 New York Premieres. All feature and short competition section screenings were sponsored by Silvercup Studios.
AUDIENCE AWARDS
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
FRESH KILLS
Directed by Jennifer Esposito
Spotlight + Views From Long Island
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
ANGEL APPLICANT
Directed by Ken August Meyer
Documentary Competition
BEST SHORT FILM (TIE)
FORGOTTEN FOUNDERS: DAVID HEMPSTEAD, SENIOR
Directed by Sam Hamilton and Julian Alvarez
Views From Long Island Shorts Program
MERV
Directed by Sam Roebling
Views From Long Island Shorts Program
COMPETITION AWARDS
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
20,000 SPECIES OF BEES
Directed by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
The Narrative Feature Competition honors emerging directors who represent cinema’s next generation of innovative film artists. Juried by world-class filmmakers and industry professionals, the film received a $2,500 cash prize, and $72,500 in in-kind goods and services, sponsored by Panavision, Hamptons Locations, and On Location Education.
“The narrative feature award is given to 20,000 SPECIES OF BEES, an exceptionally sensitive and nuanced portrayal of childhood, shown largely from the perspective of an eight-year-old struggling to understand their identity. The performances are heartbreaking, anchored by young Sofia Otero, who is a revelation. As gender issues are currently debated in loud and polemic terms, this outstanding film presents the feelings of a child with uncommon grace,” said Narrative Competition Jury members Arianna Bocco, David Koepp, and Matt Singer.
Special Mention
The Narrative Competition Jury also recognized THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED with a Special Mention for director Joanna Arnow’s authentic, singular, and hilarious voice.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
TELL THEM YOU LOVE ME
Directed by Nick August-Perna
Featuring an array of powerful subjects, the Documentary Feature Competition honors new and distinctive voices in documentary filmmaking. Juried by world-class filmmakers and industry professionals, the winning Documentary Feature film receives a $2,500 cash prize and $20,000 in in-kind goods and services, sponsored by GreenSlate and 91 East Productions.
“With a strong group of documentary contenders at HIFF this year, we are proud that our selection for Best Documentary Feature is Nick August-Perna’s World Premiere feature film, TELL THEM YOU LOVE ME. We were greatly impressed with the way August-Perna constructed the telling of this controversial story—one that addresses issues of power, consent, and truth in the context of race, gender, and disability—with a sophisticated nuance that respects not only its subjects but the audience as well,” said Documentary Competition Jury members Caryn Coleman, Marie Therese Giurgis, and Carlos Sandoval.
BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
XIAOHUI AND HIS COWS
Directed by Xinying Lao
Featuring exceptional technique and storytelling, the Narrative Short Competition honors the fresh perspectives of up-and-coming filmmakers. Juried by world-class filmmakers and industry professionals, the Narrative Short Competition winner will take home a cash prize of $1000 and qualify for Academy Award consideration.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
THE WAITING
Directed by Volker Schlecht
The Documentary Short Competition celebrates new and emerging voices in the documentary film world. Juried by world-class filmmakers and industry professionals, the Documentary Short Competition winner will take home a cash prize of $1000 and qualify for Academy Award consideration.
>> Meet the Competition Jury
ADDITIONAL HIFF AWARDS
The Peter Macgregor Scott Memorial Award
THE BREAKTHROUGH
Directed by Daniel Sinclair
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 Awards
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.
RUSTIN
Directed by George C. Wolfe
SUMMER QAMP
Directed by Jen Markowitz
Brizzolara Family Foundation Awards for Films of Conflict & Resolution
For over two decades, the Films of Conflict and Resolution section has showcased films that focus on the realities of war and conflict around the world and inspire possibilities for resolution. Sponsored by Kim Brizzolara, Vice Chair of HamptonsFilm Board.
A REVOLUTION ON CANVAS
Directed by Sara Nodjoumi + Till Schauder
BEYOND UTOPIA
Directed by Madeleine Gavin
Suffolk County Next Exposure Grant
THESE DAYS
Directed by Junior Gonzalez
This $3,000 grant is awarded to a feature film in the Views From Long Island Signature Program. 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, New York. Sponsored by the Suffolk County Film Commission.
The Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award
WILDING
Directed by David Allen
Presented to a film in the Compassion, Justice & Animal Rights Signature program, the award recognizes a film that inspires compassion, compels social change, and raises public awareness about the moral and ethical treatment and the rights of animals, as well as environmental protection. The film was awarded a $2,500 cash prize from Zelda Penzel.
New York Women in Film & Television Awards
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 six month membership to NYWIFT.
NYWIFT Excellence in Narrative Filmmaking
FANCY DANCE
Directed by Erica Tremblay
FRESH KILLS, directed by Jennifer Esposito
NYWIFT Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking
BEYOND UTOPIA
Directed by Madeleine Gavin
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.
SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD
Dir. Anna Hints
“I spend quite a bit of my time pondering, fretting and yes, panicking about the state of the world, a fact to which most people in my life would attest, and for most of the past few decades I agreed with the idea that the climate change was the most emergent threat to life on this planet.
That is, however, no longer the case and I submit that there is a global and ancient systemic scourge that supersedes even the warming of the planet, an insidious societal system that has been the backbone of almost every civilization on earth for millennia. Like the most virulent of pathogens, it has infected every one of us, become a part of our daily lives and gravely injures almost every living thing on earth…even those that comprise the slightly-less-than 50% of the humans that might think it’s something from which they benefit.
Yes, I’m talking about the patriarchy. A case can be made that virtually every problem facing this planet has either been directly caused or made vastly more dire by the existence of the patriarchy and without its dismantling or “smashing,” if you will, we will never solve any of the great threats of our time or the times to come.
While the women featured in this film constitute but a small group from a small nation, their stories are universal and these women, like all women need to be heard. Anna Hints’ SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD is an exquisitely beautiful and emotionally wrenching microcosmic look at the systemic and generational abuse that has been codified into every day human life.” — Mark Rabinowitz
University Film Awards: $500 each
Awarded to five student filmmakers selected from hundreds of submissions, the University Short Film Showcase highlights the extraordinary talent and achievements of exceptional students.
SO THEY SAY “Así Dicen”
directed by Natalia Luque (Columbia University)
FIRST, I DREAM “Primero, Sueño”
directed by Andrés Lira (California State University, Sacramento)
CLASSMATES
directed by Major Dorfman (Columbia University)
ME & AYDAROUS
directed by Sara Balghonaim (NYU Tisch Graduate Film Programd)
DAYDREAMING SO VIVIDLY ABOUT OUR SPANISH HOLIDAYS
directed by Christian Avilés (Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya)
