v6 Award Winners
Visionary Award: RACHEL WEINBER & PALMER MORSE
"DEW DROP INN"
ITHACA UNIVIVERSITY
The Dew Drop Inn (New Orleans, 1945) was once the most popular and significant heritage spots for African American traditions of R&B, blues, and jazz. Its owner, Kenneth Jackson, struggles to renovate and open it's doors again for a new generation.
Rachel Weinberg, Palmer Morse, Ali Zdunczyk, & Kimberly Capehart
Excellence in scholarship: Garrett Spake
Garrett Spake
"UNIVERSAL'S FRANKENSTEIN SERIES: SEQUELIZATION, RE-ISSUES, & MARKETING BEFORE THE BLOCKBUSTER ERA"
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON
While the methodology for successful blockbuster and franchise films began to fully develop in the eighties, Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein films of the thirties and forties serve as a precedent for many of the effective formulas used in modern Hollywood film marketing.
Excellence in Narrative: Viraj Nayar
"DICE"
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY
When fate suddenly gives Jamill the break he's been looking for, in the form of a winning lottery ticket, he learns firsthand that life is a gamble.
Viraj Nayar
Excellence in documentary: ora dekornfeld
"TYESHA"
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
Caught between the incessant nagging at school and a toxic environment at home, Tyesha has never really felt like she fit in anywhere. When she was sexually assaulted, she felt like she didn’t even belong in her own skin. But when an alternative spoken word class came to her high school, she learned how to put her struggles into words.
Ora Dekornfeld & Tyesha Smith
Exellence in animation: aron bothman
"THE RED WITCH"
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS
A geologist on Mars fights alone to uncover the planet's secrets, before the green of terraforming covers the red planet forever.
Aron Bothman
Excellence in experimental: hamilton ward
"RONNIE WARD - BREWTON, AL"
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHARLOTTE
Ronnie Ward - Brewton AL is an experimental film exploring the tragic loss of a young family member and the otherworldly occurrences that loss created within the family itself.
Hamilton Ward
Regional award: zach bailey
"THRASH"
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON
Davis is a young boy in a broken home with an ambitious imagination. He is forced to come to terms with reality much quicker than most.
Zach Bailey, Sarah Royal, Louis Celano, Daniel Agre, & Phillip Jones
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD IN SCHOLARSHIP: KYLE TURNER
"WISH I WERE SPECIAL: GAY PANIC, MASCULINITY, & THE QUEER OTHER IN CREEP & THE GIFT"
UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD
In the horror films Creep (2015) and The Gift (2015), the restrictive frameworks of (toxic) masculinity provide contexts for this very form of othering, the former as unironic perpetuation of the trope and the latter as satirical critique of those frameworks.
Kyle Turner
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD IN FILMMAKING: CALEB ENNIS
"EVERYDAY HEROES: THE STORY OF DOCTOR HOOVES"
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Doctor Hooves is a brave surgeon who lives the American dream until he encounters danger during an operation that changed the course of his family’s life.
Emily Rayl & Caleb Ennis