‘Undercurrent’ Takes the Nancy Green Founders Award; ‘Here & After’ Receives a Double Win
– The Cambria Film Festival hosted a virtual awards night celebration in February to announce the winning films of this year’s festival. The program capped four days involving nearly 60 competition films, filmmaker talks, special programming and special events—all held online.
The Nancy Green Founder’s Award for the film that best exemplified the festival’s goal of exploring romance and the complexities of love went to Undercurrent. The American short film directed by Abbey Sowick and Robert Perez explores the dynamics of the first date in an era of social distancing.
The judging panel made its official selections from nearly 350 feature and short films submitted from around the world. The judges awarded Best Feature Film to Dreamover, a film from the Russian Federation directed by Roman Olkhovka. They awarded Best Short Film to Noisy, an American film directed by Cedric Hill. The Best Animated Film went to Aurora, an American film directed by Jo Meuris. The award for Best Long-Form Short (a new award in 2022 for short films more than 20 minutes in length) went to 5 Hours, 39 Minutes, 25 Seconds, a Spanish film directed by Tomás Rojo and Santiago Rindel.
This year also included two additional awards. The Director’s Award for Artistic Achievement was given to Indian director Faraz Arif Ansari for Sheer Qorma. The Cambria Heart Award, given to acknowledge a unique or special exploration of the festival theme, was presented to Here & After, from Canadian director Shaun Crawford.
Two additional awards were based on audience balloting. The Audience Award for Favorite Short was given to a film from the United Kingdom called Signs and Gestures, directed by Itandehui Jansen. In its second win, the Audience Award for Favorite Feature was received by Here & After, directed by Shaun Crawford.
The Cambria Film Festival is an official activity of the Cambria Center for the Arts, a non-profit dedicated to local arts. This year’s presenting sponsors were James and Elaine Levin Anderson, Ami Belli (in memory of Nancy Green), and many other local businesses and individuals. The festival will return in 2023, with in-person screenings and parties, the weekend of February 8 -12.
For more information about the Festival, visit www.CambriaFilmFestival.com.
