AIFF2025: The Awards

 Notice that I didn't say, "The Winners."  Awards is a little better.  There are objective criteria, but if the technical quality is more or less equal, and the content is good, and the story - whether a narrative or a documentary is compelling and well told, then picking who gets an award and who doesn't gets subjective.  The topic is one you are interested in.  You 'like' the actors.  The story touches close to home.  

But awards play an important role for the film makers.  They can use them as evidence that people liked their film.  It gets the attention of other festivals and distributors.  

As  I went through the list, I've added a √ to the movies I thought were really good and I agree it was deserving.  But I didn't see all of the films, so no √ doesn't mean I didn't like them.  In fact, I think all the film makers - particularly those who completed features - have accomplished something noteworthy.  They've managed to pull together a story, a cast, a crew, funding, and pulled off, despite the odds, a full length movie.  That's like running a dozen marathons.  Even if there are flaws, it's still a huge achievement and my respect and gratitude goes out to all the filmmakers whose films we saw this last week.  

So with that preface, here's the email filmmakers got this morning from the directors of AIFF2025.

25th - ANCHORAGE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS 

 

JURY AWARDS

 

Burt at guitar

Narrative Feature - Burt - Joe Burke    

 

Documentary Feature - Remaining Native - Paige Bethmann √

 

Made In Alaska [Narrartive] Feature - The Ladder - Emilio Torres  

 

Made In Alaska Doc Feature - K'etniyi: The Land Is Speaking to Us - Rory Banyard

 

Wáats'asdíyei Joe 
and Nayak'aq Yaahl
Yates

Made in Alaska Narrative Short - My Message To You -  'Wáats'asdiyei Joe Yates √

 

Made In Alaska Doc Short - Carving Lines - Dimitri Surnim

 

International Feature - The World Outside - Katrine Eichberger, Nikolas Mühe √

 

Humanitarian Award - Hidden Roots - Brad Hilwig √

 

Narrative Short - The Singers - Sam Davis 

Josefin Kuschela

 

Documentary Short - Greenland: Living with the Inuit - Josefin Kuschela 

 

International Short - Pierre West - Henrik Larson, Jakob Arevarn 

 

Anchorage Wolverines Sports Documentary Award - Bonnie Thunders: That Beautiful Moment - Corey Bayes 

 

Anchorage Wolverines Sports Short Documentary Award: Shaped By Land - Emily Sullivan 

 

Music Documentary: Goddess Of Slide - Alfonoso Maiorana

 

Music Video: Begin Again - Ava Acres and Matt Farren  tied with Ideal Distance - Danny Chandia 

 

Pilot: Bad Survivor - Alex Dvorak , Katie North 

 

iPhone Super Short  -  Mom And Max - Jade Song 

 

Animation Short: A Little Story About Forever - Max Romey  √

 

Katrine Eichberger and
Nikolas Mühe

Director of Narrative Feature: Katrine Eichberger, Nikolas Mühe - The World
Outside √

 

Director of Documentary Feature: Ryan Flynn - You're No Indian √

 

Director of a Narrative Short:  Chelsea Christer -  Out For Delivery

 

Carrie Lederer

Director of Documentary Short: Carrie Lederer - Wild Horses at the Door √

 

Actor in a Feature film - Laurence Shou for Rosemead √ and Burt Berger for Burt

 

Actress in a Feature film - Katrine Eichberger for The World Outside  √  and Renne Gagner for  I've Seen All I Need To See 

 

I've Seen All I Need To See
Team

Independent Voice Narrative - I've Seen All I Need to See, Zeshaan Younus, tied with Lockjaw - Sabrina Greco 

 

Independent Voice Documentary - Blood and Guts, Katie Green and Caryle Rubin

 

Reel World Impact Award: Comparsa, Vickie Curtis, Doug Anderson, Lesli Pérez and Lupe Pérez  √

Greg Rubner

 

Comedy Short:  What The Heck is Going On. - Greg Rubner 

 

Thriller Short: Hide - Brenden Hubbard

Explorer's Club Alaska Chapter Recognition Awards 

 

Exploration Documentary - The Bride of Mont Blanc - Grace T.S.P. 

 

Exploration Documentary -  In Search of the Arctic Fox - Zach Hellmuth

 

Exploration Documentary - Ashes of the Mountain - Joseph Lindley

 

Exploration Ethics Documentary - Special Recognition Award - Among Thieves -  Dr. Gino Caspari and Trevor Wallace √

Explorer's Achievement Award: The Last Dive, Cody Sheehy and Terry Kennedy 

 

 

Native Voices Legends Awards:

 

Jerry Laktonen - Culture Bearer (For reviving Alutiiq Mask-making)

 

Velma Wallis: Storyteller (Author of Two Old Women)

AUDIENCE AWARDS

 

Ryan Flynn

Narrative Feature - Rosemead - Eric Lin √

 

Documentary Feature - You're No Indian - Ryan Flynn √  

 

International Feature - The Mariana Trench -  Elieen Byrne 

 

Emilio Torres

Made In Alaska Feature Narrative - The Ladder - Emilio Torres √

 

Made In Alaska Documentary Feature -  K'etniyi: The Land Is Speaking to Us - Rory Banyard 

 

Made in Alaska Narrative Short - Matt Megan and Mike dont give an F about Codependency - Justin Lawrence Hoyt, Matt Jardin

 

Made In Alaska Documentary Short - Sunrise Summer -  Ian Mayer, Erin K Stein

 

Narrative Short - The Singers - Sam Davis 

 

Documentary Short - Greenland: Living with the Inuit -  Josefin Kuschela 

 

International Narrative Short - Hearts of Stone - Tom Van Avermaet

 

Music Video - Soiree -  Hannah Claire McDaniel  

 

Animation - A Little Story About Forever -  Max Romey √

SCREENPLAYS 

 

Feature  Screenplay:

Pangea Ultima - by Estevan Padilla -TIED with Mythomania by Nick Jones 

 

Short Screenplay

Parking by  Andrew Klaus-Vineyard

 

Pilot  Script 

Betty Lee Is Missing by Alysson Morgan 

In the past, I've sometimes blogged the awards as they were announced.  But in the past there were much fewer awards.  There was:

Winner, Runner Up, and Honorable Mention

in four or five categories - Narrative and Documentary Features, Narrative and Documentary Shorts, Made in Alaska.  These categories held for Jury Awards (from the judges within the Festival organizers, or film makers they reached out to), and Audience Awards - based on the ballots the audience marked after each showing.  

Sometimes the jurors came up with a special award to recognize an outstanding film that had some unique qualities and/or that didn't quite fit into the festival's categories.  

As I said above, awards play an important role in the post production struggle to get your film seen by audiences and even make some money.  So I think having more awards is good, but there are limits.  A festival doesn't want to be known as giving awards to everyone, because then the awards mean nothing.  Just getting accepted into a festival is a major achievement.  

I hope to follow up with my thoughts on some of my favorite films of the festival.