Ann Arbor Film Festival
The Ann Arbor Film Festival is proud to announce this year’s award-winning filmmakers selected by jurors Thorsten Fleisch, Lynn Loo, and Sheri Wills.
The 2021 awards competition presents $22,500 to filmmakers through mostly cash and some in-kind awards such as film stock, film processing, and camera equipment.
This year we are excited about the addition of two new awards, the Barbara Hammer Feminist Film Award and the Best Experimental Animation Award!
An award from the AAFF confers prestige and financial support; it can also qualify filmmakers for an Oscar® nomination by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the short film category. Qualifying awards are the Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival, the Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film, and the Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film.
Watch two programs of the award winners today.
Awards 1 | 4:30pm | Tickets
Awards 2 | 6:30pm | Tickets
Ken Burns for Best of the Festival
13 - Shinya Isobe
Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker
Iwianch, el Diablo Venado - José Cardoso
Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film
Sun Dog - Dorian Jespers
Best Experimental Film
Revolykus - Victor Orozco Ramirez
Kodak Cinematic Vision Award
Mt Albban the attrition of time - Ebrahim Mirmalek
Best Documentary Film
Instructions for Survival - Yana Ugrekhelidze
Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film
KKUM - Kang Min Kim
Gil Omenn Art & Science Award
Mad Mieter - M+M (Marc Weis, Martin de Mattia)
Prix DeVarti for Funniest Film (split)
Danni the Champion - Laura Cameron-Lewis AND Stunting Cunts - Gina Kamentsky
The Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for an Emerging Experimental Video Artist
-force- - Jennie MaryTai Liu, Simon Liu
The Eileen Maitland Award
Cause of Death - Jyoti Mistry
George Manupelli Founder’s Spirit Award
Primavera - Adrian Garcia Gomez
The No Violence Award
Just a Guy - Shoko Hara
Barbara Hammer Feminist Film Award
Silver Femme - Nico Reano, Jimena Lucero
Best Experimental Animation Award
Displacement - Maxime Corbeil-Perron
Leon Speakers Award for Best Sound Design
Piz Regolith - Yannick Mosimann
Martin Contreras and Keith Orr \aut\ FILM Award for Best LGBTQ Film
Breath Control - Carson Parish
Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film
Valpi - Richard Tuohy, Dianna Barrie
Tíos Award for Best International Film
( ( ( ( /*\ ) ) ) ) ) aka echoes of the volcano - Charles Fairbanks, Saúl Kak
UMCU Audience Award
First Light - Amy Lee Ketchum, Ellen Boscov
Best Michigan Filmmaker Award
Dream of Emma and Tony - Natalia Rocafuerte
Jurors’ Awards
BUTTERFLY BIRTH BED - Virginia Lee Montgomery
Circular - Páraic Mc Gloughlin
Daily Life of Human - Siavash Naghshbandi
Ici - Sylvie Denet
Just a Movement - Vincent Meessen
Night Reflection (IV) - Benjamín Ellenberger
One Image, Two Acts - Sanaz Sohrabi
Queen of Dots - Michael Lyons
Reminiscences of 15 musicians in Beirut attempting a re-imagination of the Egyptian classic Ya Garat Al Wadi - Charles-André Coderre
Self Portrait With Bag - Dianna Barrie
Ser Feliz No Vão / Happy In The Gap - Lucas H. Rossi dos Santos
uchronia, no.1 - Kamila Kuc