SR Socially Relevant Film Festival 2019(SRFF 2019) wrapped up its Sixth Edition at Cinema Village on March 21, 2019, revealing the winners of its various competition categories. Stand-out awards were the Empowering Women and Girls Award, given to Laura Hinman for her doc short, California Girls, this short that depicts indigenous California women was picked by the festival for the Vanya Exerjian award, in memory of festival founder Nora Armani's cousin. The Grand Prize Narrative Feature award was presented to Yeva, directed by Anahid Abad.
The awards comprise the following categories: Vanya Exerjian - Empowering Women and Girls Award, Grand Prize Narrative Feature, Grand Prize Documentary Feature, Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short, three finalist scripts for the scriptwriting competition with a first place winner, Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) Award, Best Ensemble Work, Audience Award, Humanitarian Award, Brave Documentarian Award, the IndiePix Vision Award, and finally several jury mentions.
The SRFF 2019 narrative film slate offered six titles, 14 documentary features, and 32 shorts that complete the balance of 52 highly select films on offer. Industry workshops, panels and networking opportunities, not to forget parties and happy hours, make SRFF 2019 another unforgettable year.
SRFF presented the winners with an original trophy, the Twist Bowl, designed and donated by Michael Aram, and a special wine by City Winery bearing the specially designed 6th anniversary label of SR Film Festival. In-kind awards included distribution for select films by IndiePix, consultation services by Cinema Libre Studio, free listing for winning scripts on InkTip, and more to the winners.
GRAND PRIZE NARRATIVE FEATURE:
The jurors for this category included: Artsvi Bakhchinyan, Emilie Caillon, Victoria Harwood Butler-Sloss, and Sebastien Sisak.
Yeva | Anahid Abad | Iran, Armenia | 2017 | 94 min
Yeva is a young woman who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh after her husband's tragic death and takes refuge in one of the villages of Karabakh, Armenia. Yeva is a complete stranger in this village and is obliged to hide her true identity in her daily life, until one day... Trailer
GRAND PRIZE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
The jurors for this category included: Arpiar Elmayan, Christopher Wheatley, Dirk Robertson, Elda Awad, Naela Refaat, and Sonia Herman Doltz.
Danseur | Scott Gormley | USA | 2018 | 70 min
Enter any dance studio in the US and the classes will be brimming with little bunheads dreaming of crossing the stage at Lincoln Center. But you will be hard pressed to find a single boy among them. The film explores why in a country that strives for gender equality where young women are encouraged to cross the gender barrier and participate in male-dominated fields does this disparity exist?
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--The Vanya Exerjian Empowering Women & Girls Award: Laura Hinman - California Girls
--Grand Prize Narrative Feature: Yeva by Anahid Abad
--Special Jury Mention (Narrative Feature): Doing Money by Lynsey Miller
--Grand Prize Documentary: Danseur by Scott Gormley
--Best Documentary Short: Wild Utah: America's Red Rock Wilderness by Chris Lee and Alex Lee
--Special jury mention (Documentary Short): bOObs by Megan S. Smith
--Best Narrative Short: The Mandarin Tree by Cengiz Akaygün
--Finalist Scripts 1st place/Winner: Dukkha by Rachana Suri
--Finalist Scripts 2nd place: The Late Great Race by Ben Lokey
--Finalist Scripts 3rd Place: Liberation by Stephen Colley
--The Women Film Critics Circle Award: In the Executioner's Shadow by Maggie Burnette Stogner
--IndiePix Vision Award:
Narrative: The Merger by Mark Grentell, and Big Earth (Hotel California) by Patrick Merz and Benno Gut
Documentary: Danseur by Scott Gormley, and Monument of Pride by Sebastiaan Kes
--Brave Documentarian Award: M.A. Taylor for The Creepy Line
--Humanitarian Award: Lorena Luciano & Filippo Piscopo for It will Be Chaos
--Best Ensemble Work: The Merger team - producer Anne Robinson
--Audience Award: Public Figure by Brian Corso
"In our sixth year, SRFF had the privilege of spotlighting some of the most impactful stories from around the world," said Nora Armani, Founding Artistic Director of SR Socially Relevant Film Festival. "Our mission is to highlight films and filmmakers who tell socially relevant stories, and who are often not given a commercial platform. The most important ingredients for a successful festival are impactful films, and a faithful audience of followers. SRFF is proud to see both these ingredients present and thriving annually."
Highlights of SRFF 2019 included a documentary feature film on 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege, called The Man Who Mends Women directed by Thierry Michel, followed by a panel on Women and Children in Conflict Zones, in the presence of His Excellency Marc Pecsteen Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the UN, and with the participation of distinguished panelists CSW Chair Susan O'Malley, The Children of Panzi Director Cathleen de Kerchove and Rwandan survivor Dr. Marie Claudine Mukamabano. The film screening was preceded by a reception at Vapiano.
ABOUT SR SOCIALLY RELEVANT FILM FESTIVAL NY
SR Socially Relevant ™ Film Festival New York is a 501(c) 3 non-profit film festival founded by actress Nora Armani. The Mission of the SR Film Festival is to shine the spotlight on filmmakers who tell compelling, socially relevant™, human interest stories dealing with social issues. SR™ believes in the power of cinema in raising awareness and promoting positive social change. Submissions re-open May 2019.
The mission of SRFF is the promotion of films and filmmakers that deal with socially relevant film content. In its first six years, the festival has successfully served as a platform for 340 films from 35 countries, has offered industry panels covering such topics as distribution, storytelling, diversity casting, funding, marketing, low budget filmmaking, filming in New York, and scriptwriting, and has presented over 50 awards to deserving talented filmmakers from all over the world and has helped them reach larger audiences year after year. SRFF believes that positive social change can happen through the impact of Socially Relevant™ films on people.
