Here are the awards for the 2023 Political Film Festival season. Over 2000 films were submitted and these are the best of the best from around the world today. We are proud to showcase these amazing films that fall under the political umbrella.
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Best Activist Film: FREEDOMTOWN: NOT SO BLACK AND WHITE
Best Animation: DON’T CRY
Best Autobiography Film: TIDES – MAREE
Best Black & White Film: AND YOU SLEEP
Best Cinematography: OSMILDO
Best Comedy Short: NEUTRAL
Best Direction: HOUSE
Best Documentary: KATH DUNCAN – THE UNTOLD STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
Best Drama Film: 15
Best Editing: #blacklivesmatter
Best Feature Film: WHY NOT
Best Fantasy Film: ANCESTRAL LAND
Best Historical Film: MARCH OF SILENCE
Best Human Rights Film: STOLEN FISH
Best IPhone Film: SKIN SHOW / LIVE
Best LGBTQ+ Short: FLAG ACT
Best Long Form Short: WEB TATTOO. GOLDEN SKETCHBOOK
Best Message Film: THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN OF CONGO
Best Mini-Short: POLITICS
Best Music Video: THE ZERO PERCENT
Best Performances: WHAT DO WE HAVE FOR DINNER?
Best Period Piece Film: WET POWDER
Best Politics Film: PANDEMIC POWERS: WISCONSIN’S STATE OF EMERGENCY
Best Sci-Fi Short: THERE WAS A MAN
Best Short Form Short: REVOLUTION OF A HEART
Best Story: THE FALLEN ONE
Best Student Film: HERCULES
Best Style Film: DAY IN BLACK
Best Sound & Music: 8-M
Best War Film: MAMA, WHY ARE THEY KILLING US?
INFO of each film that played at the festival in 2023:
15, 20min., USA
Directed by Melody Brooke
When a 15 year old girl discovers she is pregnant in a state where abortion is illegal, hard decisions have to be made
http://melodybrookefilms.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ActorMelody/
https://twitter.com/ohwowmelody
https://www.instagram.com/ohwowmelodyme/
PANDEMIC POWERS: WISCONSIN’S STATE OF EMERGENCY, 19min., USA
Directed by Dugan Bridges
The COVID-19 Pandemic renewed the debate over state powers and their limits, specifically state emergency action. In Wisconsin, resident Jeré Fabick sued Governor Tony Evers for his repeated extension of the statewide emergency declaration. Fabick v. Evers, decided at the WI Supreme Court, offers a fascinating exploration of taxpayer standing doctrine as well as the limits on an executive’s power in times of crisis.
https://fedsoc.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Federalist.Society/
https://www.instagram.com/fedsoc/
THE ZERO PERCENT, 4min., Canada
Directed by John Osborne
“The Zero Percent” is an animated video created for a song by the same name. Written and performed by U.S. composer Joseph Bell, this piece is one of a number of songs from a yet to be produced animated film called “Defiance”. This video explores the inequities in todays society around the subject of money.
FREEDOMTOWN: NOT SO BLACK AND WHITE, 15min., USA
Directed by Morteza Rafiei
Freedom Town: Not So Black And White takes viewers on a journey to explore the tension between activism and police forces around George Floyed’s death amidst the 2020 pandemic chaos. Through two filmmaker lenses, we follow an activist and former cop over 2 years as they navigate their respective worlds.
https://freedom-town.com/
#blacklivesmatter, 7min., USA
Directed by One Single Rose
The struggle we face for racial equality has been ongoing for over 400 years. After so many lives have been lost due to systemic racism and police brutality, I penned a piece entitled #blacklivesmatter chronicling a few moments in our history. Unfortunately, in 2020, this piece is timely and more names continue to be added to the list of black lives taken from us. 2020 has brought support for #blacklivesmatter from all over the globe. WE NEED CHANGE YESTERDAY! One day, I hope to be able to retire this piece. Until then, I’ll stay on my knees for us with pen afire, because writing is what I do…
http://www.onesinglerose.com/
https://www.instagram.com/onesinglerose313
STOLEN FISH, 30min., Poland
Directed by Gosia Juszczak
In the tiniest country of mainland Africa, The Gambia, fish is now being powdered up by Chinese corporations and exported to Europe and China to feed animals in industrial farming. As a result, Gambians are being deprived of their primary source of protein and overfishing is depleting marine ecosystems. The film follows Abou, Mariama and Paul, three Gambians who share intimate stories of daily struggle, anger, hope and longing for their loved ones in the midst of difficult migration routes. The first film on Gambia’s fishmeal factories, offering a unique insight into untold drivers of migration and the role played by women in new economic systems.
https://www.facebook.com/stolenfishdocumentary/
https://www.instagram.com/stolenfish_documentary/
KATH DUNCAN – THE UNTOLD STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, 40min., UK
Directed by Ray Barron Woolford FRSA
A Documentary film about the life and activism of LGBTQ Scot Kath Duncan The most important Uk Civil rights leader past 100 years but almost forgotten in time until my Highly acclaimed stage play #liberty and my biography of Kath The Last Queen Of Scotland stage play Liberty
http://www.kathduncan-equality-civilrights-network.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/RaymondWoolford
https://www.instagram.com/ray_woolford
THERE WAS A MAN, 2min., Poland
Directed by Kamil Wojcik
A short story about a man – one of the species that once inhabited Earth.
A story intriguing and surprising as the renovation of the bathroom, but at the same time condensed like a cistern walled in the wall and hard to unscrew like a valve in the main sewer line.
https://www.instagram.com/w8jek/
AND YOU SLEEP, 12min., UK
Directed by Elzbieta Piekacz
Story about love and the search for meaning of life inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s „Stalker”.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082102970917
https://www.instagram.com/elzbietapiekaczfilmmaker
TIDES – MAREE, 45min., Ireland
Directed by Alessandro Negrini
Is the story of a river able to reveal a sense of life imprisoned by History? Despite the end of the conflict, in Northern Ireland there is still a city with two different names: Derry, for Catholics, Londonderry for Protestants. In the middle of the city, flows the river Foyle, which acts as their liquid border. A visionary and surreal autobiography of a river that ended up being what it wasn’t supposed to be: a liquid wall, dividing two sides separated by 40 years of conflict.
http://www.alessandronegrini.com/
https://www.instagram.com/alessandronegrini_filmdirector/
DON’T CRY, 9min., Germany
Directed by Hisham Zreiq
A Palestinian girl, a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman meet at a celestial lake, the meeting triggers a conflict between the man and the woman caused by previous encounter, the girl tries to mediate. Will she succeed? Would it be possible to bridge between them?
https://hishamzreiq.com/dontcry/
https://www.facebook.com/Dont-cry-103970008806350
8-M, 5min., Spain
Directed by Vicky Calavia
8-M is a date on the calendar that celebrates “International Women’s Day”, a historical milestone resulting from the fight and effort of many women throughout history.
MARCH OF SILENCE, 16min., Columbia
Directed by Santiago Echeverry, Sandra Liliana Rengifo, Kostas Tsanakas
‘March of Silence’ is a work that studies the recent history of Colombia through the eyes of the members of the collective “Post Punk Revolutionary Front” (FPPR). Combining the radio memory of the country in contrast to its ruined railway landscapes, this triptych video seeks to understand the relationship that each of the members of the FPPR has with a country that leaves an indelible mark on each of them: Sandra as a resident, Kostas as foreigner, and Santiago as a member of the Colombian diaspora.
https://instagram.com/sechevere
WHAT DO WE HAVE FOR DINNER?, 14min., Brazil
Directed by Beto Oliveira
Seo Mariano’s wife decides to leave him right at dinnertime. Now alone, he begins to notice that the world is dominated by women.
http://www.frame7cinema.com/
https://www.instagram.com/frame7_cinema
DAY IN BLACK, 15min., Brazil
Directed by Beto Oliveira
In a despotic future, Carolina prepares for the Dia de Preto, or Dia de Zumbi dos Palmares. Only day black people can go out freely to celebrate their blackness. But how can a 65-year-old black woman look pretty for a special day? The day you can go to the place where your son was killed by a security guard in front of a mall.
http://www.frame7cinema.com/
https://www.instagram.com/diadepretofilme/
THE FALLEN ONE, 14min., Brazil
Directed by Alexandre Estevanato
Isolated in a rundown house in the middle of nowhere, he only wants to be left alone, without the disturbances of those who blame him for the miseries and misfortunes of their own lives, but an unexpected visit will be crucial for his destiny and the course of humanity.
REVOLUTION OF A HEART, 3min,. Brazil
Directed by David Daldegan Balduino
In an alternative 1920’s France, after the Entente lost the Great War against the German Kaiser and the Central Powers, France was over taken by revolutionary fervor as the Neo-Jacobins staged a violent takeover over of Paris and fought the remnants of the army and police force. Yet in the chaos, two lovers find themselves on opposing sides. A man of the police and a young lady who gave herself to the revolution.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/394429939030953
OSMILDO, 27min,. Brazil
Directed by Pedro Daldegan
Grandson of India Regina, the only remnant of the
“hunting of Indians” in the in search of rubber, Osmildo fights for ransom of the Kuntanawa origins, as well as the mother tongue, the differentiated indigenous school, the sacred rituals,
of traditional medicine and his demarcated land.
http://www.quartaparede.wixsite.com/cinema
https://www.facebook.com/Osmildo-o-filme-481218169085192/
WEB TATTOO. GOLDEN SKETCHBOOK, 19min., Russia
Directed by Vladislav Dubkov
In post-apocalyptic world, great tattoo designs are valued even more than water. According to legend, the greatest sketchbook with the coolest sketches in the history of mankind is buried in the desert of death. It’s time to find this treasure !!!
https://twitter.com/DubkovVlad
https://www.instagram.com/pulich_and_spidich/
HOUSE, 6min., Afghanistan
Directed by Zainab Entezar
A girl that search a home for rent in kabul but she can’t find any where for shelter
https://facebook.com/oscarentezar
POLITICS, 2min., United Arab Emirates
Directed by Komalankutty Methil
Politics restricts freedom of movement of the mind in more ways than one.
https://www.instagram.com/komalankutty/
THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN OF CONGO, 46min., UK
Directed by Alex Tweddle
Narrated by Robert Powell this powerful and harrowing documentary focuses on the plight of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s street children, who were found to be commonly involved in witchcraft, cannibalism and as child soldiers.
https://www.alextweddle-producerdirector.com
https://www.instagram.com/angrymanpictures/
HERCULES, 13min., USA
Directed by Alec Palumbo
A high school wrestler uses steroids and bad influence to try outshine his little brother for his last season.
http://www.5diceproductions.com/
https://instagram.com/alecp_500
ANCESTRAL LAND, 6min., Canada
Directed by Gabriel Bissonnette
A young traveler thrives on the forest that surrounds him until, by chance, he spots an evil ax that makes him greedy.
http://www.heroiquefilms.com/
https://www.facebook.com/gaming/heroiquefilms
https://www.instagram.com/stevedethiboutot/
FLAG ACT, 10min., USA
Directed by Susana Darwin
Settling in for a quiet evening at home, free-spirited Simone is surprised to hear a knock at her door. Two local cops tell Simone she has run afoul of the FLAG Act, a new law which prohibits the flying of “provocative” flags. Simone coolly defends her right to free speech, including the flying of a rainbow flag. The porch-side conflict escalates, and ultimately the more by-the-books officer is left perplexed as to how he winds up left holding the bag … or in this case, the pole.
https://www.burmesetigertrapproductions.com/flag-act
https://www.facebook.com/flagact.indiefilm
https://www.instagram.com/flagact.indiefilm/
NEUTRAL, 6min., Austria
Directed by Danielle Bouteille
When United Earth is attacked by aliens, only Switzerland survives… …it is neutral.
WET POWDER, 10min., France
Directed by Eli Garcia
18th century. A group of ordinary people are watching two nobles duel. They allow themselves to debate over who deserves to win. But as they argue, a possible contest could disrupt this duel, and consequently the established order.
MAMA, WHY ARE THEY KILLING US?, 9min., Bulgaria
Directed by Dima Proykova
February 24th, 2022.
Ordinary people on an ordinary morning suffered from a violent attack on their country. And everything changed forever. The people, their mornings, their land, their Ukraine. Ukrainian people, Ukrainian children and Ukrainian mothers. Everything!
SKIN SHOW / LIVE, 13min,. USA
Directed by Richard Daniels
Artist Dan Romer paints a live model for an audience at an event during the run of his exhibition Skin Show at Soho Project Space, New York City.
https://www.facebook.com/DanielsFilms/
https://www.instagram.com/justonemec/
HOUSE, 6min., Afghanistan
Directed by Zainab Entezar
A girl that search a home for rent in kabul but she can’t find any where for shelter
https://facebook.com/oscarentezar
WHY NOT, 60min., South Korea
Directed by Shekh Al Mamun
Bangladesh engaged in a War of Independence to become independent from Pakistan in 1971. This war created countless war refugees, and Bangladesh, where the majority of the fighting took place, suffered great damage. Eventually, with India’s participation, the war was eventually won by the allied Bangladesh-Indian forces and Bangladesh gained its independence. Countless women were exposed to war crimes during this conflict, but their story is still not well known.
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