WINNERS of 25th Arpa IFF (2022)

November 21, 2022 2022, News

Best Feature Narrative

It's Spring...

Directed by Roman Musheghyan (Armenia)

Genre:  Drama 

Running Time:  1 hour 45 minutes

Synopsis:  Depicts paternal relationships spanning three generations and their conflicting ideologies.

Best Feature-Length Documentary

The Captain's Heart

Directed by Simon Bang (Denmark)

Genre:  Feature-Length Documentary

Running Time:  1 hour 34 minutes

Synopsis: Years after the death of the captain, Sion inherits his grandfather’s sea chest, and thus begins an adventure for Simon to find out who his much admired grandfather really was.

Best Short Documentary

Spokespeople

Directed by Ryan Mekenian (United States)

Genre:  Short Documentary

Running Time:  23 minutes

Synopsis:  For Los Angeles natives living in the early 1900’s, bicycles and streetcars shared the road as our primary modes of transportation. But the arrival of the freeway effectively wiped them out. Today, a collective of cycling communities fight for protected bike lanes and road safety; determined to bring a new era of mobility justice to the city.

Best Short Film

Lion's Cage

Directed by Linus von Stumberg (Switzerland)

Genre:  Short Film

Running Time:  15 minutes

Synopsis:  To free herself from her two pimps, Klea hires a hitman whose assassination plan leads up to a tense reunion.

Best Animated Film

The Record

Directed by Jonathan Laskar (Switzerland)

Genre:  Animation

Running Time: 8 minutes 38 seconds

Synopsis:  An antique music instrument dealer receives a magical vinyl record from a traveler: “It reads your mind and plays your lost memories”. Obsessed by this endless record, the antique dealer listens to it again and again and the forgotten memories of his childhood reemerge.

Best Music Video

Valerine

Directed by Andrea VONJAKO Giacomini (United States)

Genre: Music Video

Running Time:  5 minutes

Synopsis:  The long journey of carrying secrets.

Best Director

It's Spring...

Directed by Roman Musheghyan (Armenia)

Genre:  Drama 

Running Time:  1 hour 45 minutes

Synopsis:  Depicts paternal relationships spanning three generations and their conflicting ideologies.

Best Screenplay

The Justice of Bunny King

Screenplay by Sophie Henderson (New Zealand)

 

Genre: Drama

Running Time:  1 hour 41 minutes

Synopsis:  A triumph over adversity tale about women fighting their way back from the bottom of society.

Audience Favorite

Car 24

Directed by Matias Desiderio (United States)

Genre:  Drama

Running Time:  1 hour 30 minutes

Synopsis:  Two men walk down the street from opposite directions to end up meeting at a parked black Mercedes with tinted windows in front of a Los Angeles Downtown warehouse. A mercenary Sicilian and a Latino assassin encounter one another for the first time in preparation for zero hour. Both highly recommended in their field to prominently eliminate a high profile target in the warehouse. They have been hired separately to work in one accord to kill a trader. As they wait for the target, who is supposed to come out in two hours the plan is forever altered. They receive a call from their boss informing them to remain in the car no matter what until the target arrives. Unbeknownst to them this would be 24 hours. Aside from their differences both hit men end up on an unexpected journey where they will have to face each other emotionally, personally and professionally. On their journey together both men will meet different characters from the streets that will ultimately change the entire direction of their mission, leading them to an unpredictable and violent end.