And the award-winners are...

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

These are the award-winners for the 59th AAFF:

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