Avalonia Festival II live event was on Friday night, April 20 (yes, 4/20), 2018 at Rhodywood Studios, 209 Douglas Avenue, Providence, Rhode Island, USA at 7pm. Filmmakers, film fans and the general public joined us at this free event where we will screen the winning films. Attending filmmakers will answer a few Q and A’s from the audience. Special thanks to Photographer Anne Murray of Cloud Conversations for the use of her photography on our website.
We encourage our filmmakers, their friends and family to share our website! That’s what it’s here for!
Want to get in on the excitement? Enter this year’s Avalonia Festival! Use promo code ” 420AF ” for a 24% discount off ALL your submissions!
Here is our Avalonia II festival Award Winners, starting with Best Dramatic One Minute Movie for Together (aka Ensemble) from Producer Pierre Ieong starring Marlène PonsKey as “Marlène” and Mustapha TaibiKey as “Muss”.
Here are stills from our Best Thought Crime 1 Minute Movie Award Winning film Cut Off by Ryan Cauchi.
Here’s our Best Film Poster for Fragments, a short film by Lucas Vossoughi & Artur Golczewski, with the poster created by their friend Cesare Asaro. Thanks to Lucas for bringing this intriguing image to our attention and best wishes for their film.
In Asia, in every rural village, elephants are considered to be the cousins of clouds… A film poem painted on Buddha Board. Cousin of Clouds submitted by Director Romain Claris is our Winner for both Best Animalia 1 Minute Movie and a special Avalonia Achievement Award for Best Philosophy in Animation.
In our important Avalonia Themed Category, we honor the work of photography by YASIN FARROKHI of Faya Films with Silence, in reference to the silence of women in different societies.
Our first short film is our Best ThoughtCrime Award Winner, described by the filmmaker Linnea Sage as “A satirical animation depicting what every actress that has ever lived has experienced at least once. It happened before the news of Harvey broke and it will keep happening! Brainless Agenda is a new short form digital animated series that highlights the absurdities of American and Millennial life.”
Best Comedy 180 goes to the inventive Eric Lopez M. for his work Momentum.
Best Dramatic 180 (for films 3 minutes and less) is Awarded to a very poignant piece titled Perfection by Riccardo Di Gerlando.
Our best Preview/Teaser/Trailer Award goes to The Astronot Directed by Tim Cash of FFE Films & starring Pennan Brae & Yuvia Storm and submitted to our festival by Amanda Alexandrakis.
In a very heated category, we our proud to Award I Said by Laurence Tong from Hong Kong, as our choice for Best Dramatic Short.
Our Animalia category is for films featuring any animal other than a cat or a dog (who have their own categories). We are very impressed by the work of Sarah Elizabeth Mitchell and her crustacean co-star in this very touching story of a lobster facing the boiling pot and the young woman with the power to boil or not to boil in her hands. Congratulations to co-directors Kayt Silvers and Danny Silvers for their Best Avalonia Animalia Short The Lobster.
Here’s a wonderful story and winner of Best Feline 1 Minute Movie, Kiki the Kitten by Annie Laurie Medonis.
We have a special recognition Award for Avalonia Outstanding Epic Short for Edelweiss, a truly captivating war story by Sam Bradford and a great cast and crew. Here’s a teaser.
Speaking of the war motif, Director Henry P. Gravelle and Actor Jack Shea team up for our Best 1 Actor Monologue with Johnny Waters. General George S. Patton discusses an unauthorized raid to free P.O.W.’s from a nearby German camp, including his son-in-law, Colonel John Waters.
Best Feline 180 goes to a wacky, fun piece titled Scallywags by Jason McCullough.
Karuna Cheyvan submitted by Ajay Govind is our Best Musical Short. Director Ajay says, “Karuna cheyvan is a song that my grandmother loved and she passed on her love for the song to my mother. Through the story in the music video I wanted to capture the role that a parent, in this case a mother, plays in shaping the imagination of her child.”
Click here to see Karuna Cheyvan video!
Avalonia Best Cast Photo Award goes to Michael McClendon, Director, and Jamie Spaar, Photographer, for their photo of the cast of Michael’s film titled Locations.
We have another special recognition Award for Filmmaker of the Future awarded to Abigail Friend , as an Actress and a filmmaker, whose work with her mother Alina Friend in Apples for Bullies is tremendous and heart warming.
Eric Lopez M is the winner for Best Comedy 180 with Momentum.
Our festival features films in three time lengths; Shorts (typically 11 minutes or under) 180 (3 minutes and under) and 1 Minute movie. For our Best 1 Minute Comedy, we have a great selection with Ellipsis…by Adam Langdon.
Speaking of comedy, congrats to the the gang in our Cannabis United States Narrative Award Winning film Where Are We? , written by Adrian Eledge and Luke Ostermiller, directed and produced by Luke. Zoinks, indeed!
Missed Calls submitted by Producer and Co-Director Pamela Falkenberg is the first in Outlier Moving Pictures new series of found tweet poems based on posts to Craigslist’s “Missed Connections,” and is our winner for Best 1 Actress 1 Minute Movie.
On a darker note, here’s the trailer for our Best ThoughtCrime Short Film Winner Girl Eating Banana: Audition by the provocative New York City filmmaker Natasha Babenko.
Let’s lighten the mood with a little college truth or dare, with our Best Comedy Short from Jad Jacob and his cast in Waiting for Jerry.
We made a special recognition Best Fight Sequence Award for Paul Drechsler-Martel and his fan fiction work John Wick Origins: Kirill. Note: This is fan fiction not an official studio release. Perhaps the decision makers ought to take notice of Paul’s work, here!
Avalonia Festival Creative Hybrid Award goes to Michelle Meek’s Imagine Kolle 37, which is a wonderful mix of documentary, societal concern, animation and children’s storytelling. Here is the trailer.
Here is the trailer for our Best Coming of Age Short titled Off for the Weekend by Brittany Severance, a visual artist based out of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Best 1 Minute Animation goes to Elene Sebiskveradze with her A Little Beetle represented with this image.
Here’s our winner for Best Dark Comedy 1 Minute Movie Eleven Eleven by Jeff Vande Zande. password if necessary is ” eleven ”
Our Best Dark Comedy Short goes to “the greatest film I think I’ve seen” (according to Avalonia Festival Director Mike Messier) Seafood Diet by Max Levine. Password: EATIT
In the Marijuana Legalization “For” or “Against” categories, Annie Medonis was brave enough to take a stand and has won the overall Marijuana Legalization Debate Award for his well spoken statement Medonis on 4/20.
As the world is being taken over by the Cyborg Inquisition, the humans have been forced to initiate Project EXILIUM (A mass exodus of planet earth). Based on an original script by Andreas Psaltis, Matthew Broughton, Seigfred Perolino and Yangos Hadjiyannis. Produced by Melon Crate, this is our Avalonia Best Sci-Fi 1 Minute Movie.
We had a very competitive division for Fantasy Short Films and the imaginations of the submitting filmmakers were wonderful and diverse. Our Best Fantasy Short goes to Maroš Milčík and Sonja.
Flowers of Marrakech by Yuntong Man is our Winning Best Documentary Short in another very competitive division.
Congratulations to Night Stalkers submitted by Bruno Velijanovski, which creates a real classic mood for our Best Vampire 1 Minute Movie.
Transcend Episode 1 Trailer “Who is Kylie” submitted by Writer/Director Ranelle Golden is our Fantasy 180 Award Winner.
Our Best Fantasy 1 Minute Movie Award is presented to Jamie Pitt and associates for their intriguing piece 63 Steps.
Our Avalonia Festival Best Sci-Fi Short is Awarded to author and filmmaker Chris Esper’s The DeJa Vuers starring Christie Devine and Kris Salvi, as a pair of time crossed possible romantics.
Mean McDonalds by Jake Marcks is our Winner for Best Music Video 180.
Here is the teaser to Schmoopie, our Award Winning Best Canine Short Film by Mary C. Ferrara, a film inspired by things in her life; a painful breakup and her love of animals (she has volunteered at the Quincy, MA Animal Shelter since 2008). The film is a testament that love is found everywhere and you never have to be alone. There is always something if you are willing to look for it.
Sword and Flower is our Best Animation Short. Creator Yulan Sun is an illustrator and animator from China. She has recently graduated from University of the Arts London with a Master’s degree in Animation.She specializes in digital painting and video design,especially matte painting and background design. Password: 123
Andrea Catola (1989), born in Tuscany (Italy), graduated from the National School of Independent Cinema in Florence. He follows the Direction of Photography workshop at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia held by maestro Giuseppe Lanci. After numerous experiences on film and television sets, he made his debut with the short film Be Bandit. Andrea is the Director of our Award Winning 1 Minute Documentary Memoirs.
A man in ancient Macedonia wakes up in the garden of his friend’s Vampiric wife, in our Avalonia Festival Best Vampire Short for Xandes Garden submitted to us from Writer/Director Henry P. Gravelle.
Filmmaker C. Hope Belmont, Photographer Polina Gorman, and the Vigilantes’ Art Department, and entire cast and crew, have picked up the Avalonia Promotional Award for Vigilantes.
Gods Die Too by Adam E. Stone is our Best ThoughtCrime 180 Award Winner. ThoughtCrime is a George Orwell concept mentioned in his classic Big Brother; about how in the future our thoughts will be moderated and regulated – a “thoughtcrime” being then, highly offensive and punishable by the hierarchy. Therefore, we encourage our Thoughtcrime filmmakers to explore the mind!
For billions of years, our Sun chased away darkness and brought us light and hope. But… how long will that last? Into the Dark by Director Shihyun Wang and her team is our winner for Best Animation 180 (3 minutes and under).
Avalonia Best Historical Re-enactment Photo is proudly awarded to Robin Young’s Il Solenne Ingresso (The Solemn Entry); a real life historical re-enactment event scheduled to occur in Senigalia, Italy from 8th to 10th June 2018. On 10th June, the concert begins at 6.00 pm at the Foro Annonario with the arrival of the court of Giovanni della Rovere, which was followed by the public performances of the flag-bearers and tambourines of the Historical Group Combusta Revixi of Corinaldo, the Renaissance dances of the Quam Pulchra Es group Urbisaglia, led by Chiara Marangoni, and the delegation of ladies and knights of the Castellana di Scapezzano. Most of the costumes and supervision were the work of the costume designer collaborator of the Rancia Company Massimo Eleonori and his tailor shop TUL.MA.
Motel 13 trailer is our Horror 180 Award Winner. If the trailer is any indication, the entire film written & directed by Brandon Rhiness and created by Rhiness & Mike Schaar-Ney is going to be great. Warning: Intense content!
Emma Sywyj is the winner of Avalonia Photography Traveler Award. “This photography series is called ‘China’, it was created during my travels to China. My Dad’s family live and are Malaysian Chinese but several generations before me they are are originally from China. I became interested in Chinese contemporary art and culture and travelled out there for a month and a half. I learnt a lot about Chinese art and cuisine and connected with my family’s roots whilst I was there. I spent time in Beijing, Nanjing and went out into the countryside. I got to experience city life and spent time in an ancient inn in the countryside. This photographic series marks my journey of outsider to insider, I photographed subjects I connected with or things that stood out to me.” – Emma Sywyj.
Amy Bobeda’s Inhale/Exhale , a video poem exploring identity through the monetization of health care and soul vs physical body, is our Winner for Performance Art 180.
b(l)ackstage by Daniel Limmer is our Best Vampire Micro Short, with a sexy romp, indeed!
Charlie Ford is our Winner for Best Performance Art Short with experiments in the resonance of control.
Martin Ponferrada and the whole team behind Everything is Upstream is a winner of a special recognition award as our second Avalonia Dreamer Award, for their highly valuable animation piece on the world of dreams that we hope to share on our website once it has completed its festival run.
Back to our 4/20 theme, Too High 2 die by Bruno Veljanovski has won Best Cannabis International Narrative. This is a buddy film with a real edge.
Our next film wins a very special INTENSITY AWARD do to bravery in film-making and overall power. This film is not advised for children or to be viewed in public places! This is true horror! The Slayings at Three Fork Road by Brian Nestor is both a challenging and riveting piece.
Scared, yet? If not, try on our Best Horror Short, Beautiful Eyes by Rani Crowe. Kids, don’t try this at home!
To end on a somewhat more upbeat note, we present our The Kid Stays in the Picture Award to Ken Holmes for his Old Hearts Cafe: Markus: The Adventures of a Dishwasher with Dreams of Becoming a Filmmaker. “Sit back, relax, enjoy as the old cliche goes”.
Still need an indie film fix? Here’s the 7 Award Winning Documentary that lead to the creation of Avalonia Festival; Disregard the Vampire – A Mike Messier Documentary, available here for an exclusive time.
Okay, so now, if YOU are ready to enter your film, teaser/trailer, film poster or photography into this year’s Avalonia Festival, just click the button below and get started!
Use promo code ” 420AF ” for a 24% discount off ALL your submissions!
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