A Friend of Dorothy – Lee Knight
2026 ACADEMY AWARD nominee
Lee Knight (United Kingdom), A Friend of Dorothy, Film Short – Oscar-nominee Knight delivers a quietly powerful and deeply moving portrait of loneliness, identity, and the transformative force of human connection. Set against the stillness of an elderly widow’s isolated life, the story follows Dorothy, a sharp-witted but fading woman whose days are shaped by routine, memory, and absence. When a teenage neighbor, JJ, accidentally kicks a football into her garden, an unlikely friendship forms between two people separated by generations, yet bound by loneliness and the need to be seen. As JJ becomes drawn into her world of literature, theater and hidden emotional truths, their connection deepens into something quietly transformative for them both. What begins as small, tentative exchanges gradually opens into a fragile sanctuary where humor, honesty, and vulnerability allow for healing, understanding, and self-discovery. BAFTA-winner Miriam Margolyes (Harry Potter franchise) delivers a luminous performance, supported by BAFTA-nominee Stephen Fry (Gosford Park) and co-star Alistair Nwachukwu’s (Shadow and Bone) achingly authentic portrayal.
Renowned award-winning composer Stuart Hancock (BAFTA nominated Kinsuke’s Kingdom) creates a beautifully evocative score creates emotional richness, elevating the film’s quiet intimacy with elegance, warmth and haunting emotional precision. Lush cinematography and lighting deepen the emotional texture of every frame, capturing both the fragility and quiet beauty of the characters’ inner worlds. In just over twenty minutes, the film delivers the emotional depth of a feature – becoming not only a story about friendship, but a celebration of the people who quietly give others permission to become themselves. Co-stars Oscar Lloyd (Doctor Who).
The Raftsmen – Chadden Hunter
Chadden Hunter (Australia), The Raftsmen, Doc Feature – EMMY & BAFTA nominee Hunter’s (BBC Planet Earth) brilliantly insightful direction frames an audacious explorer’s dream: twelve men from seven countries in the 1970’s attempting to cross the world’s largest ocean on three handmade wooden rafts, guided only by the sun and stars. What begins as an experiment in endurance and idealism quickly becomes a fight for survival as the crew battles violent storms, circling sharks, and the psychological strain of months adrift at sea.
Fifty years later, the surviving raftsmen revisit the journey that defined their lives. They sift through diaries, memories, and faded memorabilia, confronting moments long buried. For some, it is the first time in nearly half a century they have been asked to speak of what happened and emotion surfaces with striking immediacy. Through restored 16mm footage, now meticulously remastered into 4K, and intimate present-day testimony, the film reconstructs an extraordinary ocean expedition that pushed human endurance to its limits, revealing both the fragility and resilience of those who lived it.
Bloody Trophy – Ewa Galica
Ewa Galica (Poland), Bloody Trophy, Doc Feature – An unflinching investigation led by award-winning director Galica exposes the shadowy global network behind the illegal rhino horn trade, tracing its reach from South Africa to Europe and Asia. With exceptional investigative precision and rare access, Galica reveals a system where the line between sport, profit and crime dissolves – leaving an endangered species to tragically bear the cost. What emerges is a chilling portrait of how easily exploitation is normalized: trophies vanish without consequence, accountability dissolves across borders, and a fragile wildlife population is pushed closer to collapse while the machinery of demand continues unchecked. The investigation reveals a world where moral distance allows devastation to persist in plain sight.
Through exclusive footage and intimate access, it becomes a confrontation with complicity itself – both institutional and individual – asking what is lost when greed is allowed to outrun consequence. With striking wildlife imagery it is a stark, emotionally charged testament to what is at stake: not only a species on the brink, but the ethical line separating protection from destruction. Galica’s masterclass in documentary filmmaking. For TVN, Warner Bros. Discovery.
HOLY HEAVÊNESS – Farnoosh Abedi, Negah Khezre Fardyardad, Mohammad Ghaffari
Farnoosh Abedi, Negah Khezre Fardyardad and Mohammad Ghaffari (Iran), HOLY HEAVÊNESS, Animation – Co-directors Abedi and Fardyardad, with exceptional finishing by Ghaffari, craft a deeply poetic and hauntingly beautiful animated short that transforms grief into lyrical, visual experience. Renowned for a distinctive and imaginative style, Abedi shapes the film with extraordinary sensitivity, where memory, absence, and love dissolve into striking metaphor and image. At its core, the film reflects on how the death of loved ones can become an overwhelming emotional weight – an invisible burden that turns everyday life into quiet endurance.
Through expressive, symbolic animation, grief unfolds as visual poetry – fluid and emotionally charged – where each image feels like a fragment of memory refusing to fade. The result is both heart-wrenching and unexpectedly uplifting, holding sorrow and beauty in the same breath. Hauntingly lyrical and profoundly moving, the film becomes a meditation on loss, love, and the quiet courage it takes to step forward when the past refuses to loosen its grip.
Reflection – Daniel Robichaud
Daniel Robichaud (USA), Reflection, Animation – Renowned digital artist Robichaud (The Fifth Element, Titanic) brings extraordinary visual imagination and cinematic craft to a striking animated fable about transformation, perception, and inner awakening. Known for his visionary design sensibility and world-building artistry, Robichaud delivers a work of rare visual richness and emotional clarity, where imagery itself becomes the language of change. A man without a face lives a life defined by absence – until a mirror reveals an impossible threshold into a vivid parallel realm, one overflowing with sensation, beauty, and peril. Drawn into this living dream, he moves through a world where wonder is tangible and danger feels almost alive, escaping only by a breath.
But the boundary is no longer fixed. Something from that other place follows him back: fleeting signs of grace, sudden light where there was none, and fragile moments of renewal that begin to reshape his reality. In that quiet intrusion, what was once emptiness begins to shift into becoming. Through lush, immersive visuals, the film explores how perceived lack can become a passage rather than a void—suggesting that identity is not found by escape, but slowly formed through encounters with wonder that linger long after they fade.
Mike Hill (Australia), Conquering Skin Cancer, Doc Feature – Oscar-nominee Hugh Jackman delivers an emotionally compelling interview with Emmy-winning Hill – whose deft direction and research explores skin cancer as a widespread but preventable disease in the USA. It blends survivor testimony, expert insight and science to explore UV exposure risk, urging prevention, early detection, and better access to treatment.
Jacoba Atlas (USA), The (M) Factor 2: Before the Pause, Doc Feature – Emmy-winner Atlas’s compelling doc – exceptional research, potent interviews and pitch-perfect editing. Explores how perimenopause impacts women’s health, work and relationships. Confronts dismissed symptoms, care gaps and real-world impact. Producers: Emmy-winners Joanne LaMarca Mathisen, Tamsen Fadal, Peabody winner Denise Pines.
Bill L Wisneski (USA), My Wild Life: Photographer Suzi Eszterhas, Doc Feature Emmy-winner Wisneski’s insightful direction shapes a vivid portrait of a wildlife photographer risking life-threatening conditions to capture newborn animals in the wild. It reveals the danger and devotion in her work, as she earns trust in fragile environments and mentors young women, in photography to build empathy and protect endangered ecosystems.
Klaus Naumann, Naumann Film GmbH (Germany), EURA Mobil – Integra Line GT, Sales / Branding / Commercials – Naumann Films sets a benchmark for commercial filmmaking, transforming branded work into cinematic storytelling rich with creativity and emotional impact. Striking visuals, innovative editing and powerful music, elevate products into immersive, filmic experiences. The Integra Line GT mobile home through high-impact film.
Artur Molęda (Poland), Only Russia Beyond, Doc Short – Exceptional investigative reporting by renowned Molęda and striking cinematography chronicle a Polish Navy intelligence vessel near Russian waters. They intercept signals, analyze transmissions and map hostile activity, exposing increasingly aggressive Russian tactics and the escalating threat in and beneath Baltic waters where modern warfare unfolds in chilling silence.
Phillip Large (USA), Love Does Not Ask, LGBTQ+ – Emmy-winner Large’s lyrical spoken-word AI short blends poetic narration, cinematic imagery and music present love as a force beyond labels, permission, or fear. It moves through shifting visual metaphors of separation and connection, showing intimacy emerging without definition or constraint, affirming emotional truth as something felt rather than explained in a fractured world.
Jessica Walsh and Brendan Walsh, (Great Lakes Media & Film) and Mary Walsh and Amy Jewitt (Western PA Conservancy) (USA), Seeing The Unseen: Aquatic Invaders & What’s at Stake, Documentary Feature – Emmy-winners Jessica & Brendan chronicle invasive aquatic species transforming Great Lakes ecosystems. Lush cinematography, meticulous research and intimate fieldwork, both crisis and pathways to restoration.
Tony Doupé and Ronald Lamont Canfield (USA), A Fateful Weekend, Film Short – JFK’s assassination from a child’s perspective, seeing adult grief without grasping its full weight. His attention stays on his world, shaped by play, routine and what is real to him. A birthday celebration unfolds, where cake and laughter sit beside a quiet, personal sense of absence that echoes beneath his everyday life. Touching and impactful.
Fangji Leo Yin (China), Driven by You, 17-years and under – After years of being overlooked, a 16-year-old ice hockey player in China faces pressure to abandon the sport he loves for a future chosen by his parents. An American football coach enters his life, challenging his doubts and forcing him to reconsider what truly matters between duty and passion. A talented young filmmaker with a bright future. Stars Fangji Leo Yin and Yang Xu.
Talya Lotan (Israel), Stonewall -The Making of, AI Film – a very creative concept and an excellent AI film. A behind-the-scenes style piece about a fictional historical feature on Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Through interviews, staged rehearsals and on-set fragments, it presents a production that exists only as it is being observed, where fiction takes shape as fact and the making becomes the story itself.
Artur Molęda (Poland), Only Russia Beyond, Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising, Direction
Autumn Libengood (USA), Life After – Pilot – Haunted, Script / Writer, Television – Pilot Program
Bill Stephens (USA), Hidden History Unlocked presents UTICA, Documentary Short, Television – Pilot Program, Direction
Bradford May (USA), Mendel’s Messiah, Christian Theme, Film Feature
Celeste Luccitti (USA), The Zip-Up Man, Film Short, Children / Family Programming, Ensemble Cast
Chadden Hunter (Australia), The Raftsmen, Editing, Original Score
Cláudio Jordão (Portugal), Vasco da Gama – The Infinite Sea, Animation, Original Score (João Paulo Nunes), History / Biographical / Travel
Daniel Robichaud (USA), Reflection, Special Effects: Animation, Sound: Overall Impact
Doug Clyde (USA), The Tell-Tale Heart, Original Score (Kelly Joe Richardson)
Enrique R. Carrasco (USA), The Encounter, Script / Writer, Viewer Impact: Content / Message Delivery, Latin / Hispanic Filmmaker
Eric Lotter (USA), Age of Aquarius, Script / Writer
Ewa Galica (Poland), Bloody Trophy, Nature / Environment / Wildlife, Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising
Fangji Leo Yin (China), Driven by You, Asian Filmmaker (Student), Asian Theme (Student)
Farnoosh Abedi, Negah Khezre Fardyardad and Mohammad Ghaffari, HOLY HEAVÊNESS, Asian Filmmaker
Franco Dupuy, Naumann Film GmbH (Argentina/Germany), Van Heusen – Born of Art, Commercial / Infomercial, Set Design
Ilie Stepan (Romania), The Guardian Angels, AI Film, Experimental
Jacoba Atlas (USA), The (M) Factor 2: Before the Pause (Perimenopause), Women Theme, Women Filmmakers
Jean-Michel Loutoby (France), NKOA, Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising, Film Feature, Script / Writer
Jessica Walsh and Brendan Walsh, (Great Lakes Media & Film) and Mary Walsh and Amy Jewitt (Western PA Conservancy) (USA), Seeing The Unseen: Aquatic Invaders & What’s at Stake, Nature / Environment / Wildlife, Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising
Jonathan Brooks (United Kingdom), Stargazers, Original Score (Stuart Hancock), Film Feature
Kevin Schewe (USA), Bad Love Strikes, Christian Theme, Jewish Theme, Script / Writer, Television – Program / Series
Klaus Naumann, Naumann Film GmbH (Germany), EURA Mobil – Integra Line GT, Editing
Klaus Naumann, Naumann Film GmbH (Germany), 8com, Commercial / Infomercial
Klaus Naumann, Naumann Film GmbH (Germany), MAN MY25, Cinematography, Direction, Sales / Branding / Product Demonstration, Script / Writer
Kristin Samuelson (USA), The Funeral, Script / Writer
Lee Knight (United Kingdom), A Friend of Dorothy, Original Score (Stuart Hancock), Actor: Leading (Alistair Nwachukwu as JJ)
Lynn Elliott (USA), ONCE THERE WERE STORIES, Script / Writer
Marcin Zaborski (Poland), ROBBED OF CHILDHOOD, Liberation / Social Justice / Protest, Documentary Short, Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising
Marco Calvise (Italy), THE MARIANAS WEB, Actor: Leading (Ruben Soriquez as Fosco Mancini)
Mark Starr and Arlo Carter (United Kingdom), Scarlet, Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising, Film Short, Women Theme
Mike Hill (Australia), Conquering Skin Cancer, Viewer Impact: Motivational / Inspirational
Nick Lyon (USA), The Surprise Visit, Film Feature, Actor: Leading (Rob Riordan as Casey), Cinematography (Nate Haban & Ross Headley)
Patrick Baucelin (Martinique), THE COLOR OF SLAVERY, Documentary Feature, Direction, Creativity / Originality
Rob Loos (USA), MEARS: How One Woman Changed American Christianity, Editing (Anthony Bari, Jr.), Original Score (Ed Smart), Christian Filmmaker, Direction
Roman Evdokimov (Russia), It’s Such a Bliss, Music Video
Shigeto Sayama (Japan / United Kingdom), The River, Original Score (Jee Choong)
Susan Mey Lee Lim (USA), 2020: The Cosmic Mandate, Original Score
Talya Lotan (Israel), Stonewall -The Making of, History / Biographical / Travel
Tobias Elvhage (USA), China’s Stealth Invasion, Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising
Tony Doupé and Ronald Lamont Canfield (USA), A Fateful Weekend, Narration / Voice-Over Talent (acting) (Tony Doupe), Script / Writer (Ronald Lamont Canfield)
Violet Lee, Bella Gao and Anna Xie (China), Encountering the Village, Documentary Short
Weidong Zhang (China), Little Navel Orange Prince, Animation
Weidong Zhang (China), Mysterious Dinosaur Valley, Animation
Xinsong Liu (China), Spark Within, Animation
Yongjun Su (China), Legend of Little Xuanzang, Animation
Ziqi Jia (USA), My Silk Road, Documentary Short (Student), Young Filmmaker – 17 and younger
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