Edited by John O’Brien
CIFF48 at Playhouse Square, which took place April 3rd-13th, held its Closing Awards Ceremony on Saturday, April 13th in the Connor Palace, where the winners of the Festival’s esteemed awards were announced.
Closing Night was sponsored by Case Western Reserve University.
FEATURE FILM AWARD WINNERS
Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film
Sponsored by the Callahan Foundation
AMERICAN DELIVERY, directed by Carolyn Jones (USA)
$20,000 cash prize
Reel Women Direct Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman
Presented with generous support from Deborah Bachman Ratner
Maggie Contreras (for MAESTRA; USA)
$10,000 cash prize
George Gund III Memorial Central and Eastern European Competition
Endowed by The George Gund Foundation
WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN, directed by Matěj Chlupáček (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
$10,000 cash prize
Nesnadny + Schwartz Portrait Documentary Competition
MAY THE SCHWARTZ BE WITH YOU Director’s Award
Presented with generous support from Nesnadny + Schwartz
BYE BYE TIBERIAS, directed by Lina Soualem (France, Palestine, Belgium, Qatar)
$10,000 cash prize
New Direction Competition
FEMME, directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping (UK)
$10,000 cash prize
Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Competition
Endowed by The George Gund Foundation
SECRET MALL APARTMENT, directed by Jeremy Workman (USA)
$10,000 cash prize
Global Health Competition
Presented with generous support from Mark Smith and Janet Rosel Smith
SMALL TOWN UNIVERSE, directed by Katie Dellamaggiore (USA)
$7,500 cash prize
American Independents Competition
Presented with generous support from Mike and Nicki Cancelliere
THELMA, directed by Josh Margolin (USA)
$7,500 cash prize
Local Heroes Competition
Presented with generous support from Lauren Rich Fine and Gries Financial Partners
ROUGE, directed by Hamoody Jaafar (USA)
$7,500 cash prize
Ad Hoc Docs Competition
Presented with generous support from Tom and Anita Cook
CHASING CHASING AMY, directed by Sav Rodgers (USA)
$7,500 cash prize
International Narrative Competition
Presented with generous support from Tom Piraino and Barbara McWilliams
THANK YOU GUYS, directed by Riccardo Milani (Italy)
$7,500 cash prize
FilmSlam Student Choice Award for Best Feature Film
Presented with generous support from Overdrive
FALSE POSITIVE, directed by Ismail Al-Amin (USA)
$2,000 Cash Prize
SHORT FILM AWARD WINNERS
Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film Overall
Sponsored by Char and Chuck Fowler
Jane Austen’s Period Drama, directed by Julia Aks and Steve Pinder (USA)
$1,000 Cash Prize
Best Animated Short Award*
Sponsored by MP Star Financial
Anita, Lost in the News, directed by Behzad Nalbandi (Iran)
$1,000 cash prize
Best Documentary Short Award*
Sponsored by Jules and Fran Belkin
Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World, directed by Julio Palacio (USA)
$1,000 cash prize
Best Live Action Short Award*
Sponsored by Jules and Fran Belkin
Room Taken, directed by TJ O’Grady – Peyton (Ireland)
$1,000 cash prize
FilmSlam Student Choice Award for Best Short Film
Sponsored by Overdrive
LUKI and the Lights Directed by Toby Cochran (USA, Netherlands)
$1,000 Cash Prize
*These award winners will qualify for consideration in the Short Films category of the annual Academy Awards.®
For a full list of short subject film award winners, please visit https://www.clevelandfilm.org/festival/awards-winners-ciff48.
In addition, the Festival presented two very special awards that each come with a $5,000 cash award to help support the filmmakers’ future work, the DReam Maker Award and the Groundbreaker Award.
Celebrating its sixth year, CIFF48 was thrilled to present its DReam Maker Award to pioneering LGBTQ+ filmmaker, and director and producer of the CIFF48 film CHASING CHASING AMY: Sav Rodgers.
The DReam Maker Program and Award is generously supported by Jinny and John Johnson.
The Festival was honored to present its fourth Groundbreaker Award to the director of the CIFF48 film UNSEEN: Set Hernandez. During their time in Cleveland, Set connected with organizations whose missions support the themes and topics in their film.
The Groundbreaker Program and Award is generously supported by Stephanie and Bruce Hearey.
CIFF48 Streams, presented by PNC, takes place April 14th-21st online. Hundreds of films are available on demand. Tickets and passes are now on sale at clevelandfilm.org.
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CIFF49 will take place March 26-April 5, 2025 at Playhouse Square.
The Cleveland International Film Festival is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Also, the Cleveland International Film Festival is made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically.
