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GEMS: October 30 – November 3, 2024

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GEMS: October 30 – November 3, 2024

Audience Awards

Our Festival’s audience-voted awards are determined by the audience of each screening being invited to rate the film on a numeric scale on a paper ballot. The average of the audience’s scoring is multiplied by the fractional audience participation in the voting process (that is, the number of people who choose to vote out of the total attendance at each screening) in order to come up with a final score. At the conclusion of the Festival, the film with the highest over-all score in each audience-voted category is the winner of that category’s Award. Should two top final scores be separated by less than 1/10 of a percentage point, a tie will be declared. Ratings and final scores are confidential and not published or shared.

Narrative Feature Film Audience Award 
Presented to the filmmaker of the Festival audience’s choice of best non-documentary feature (60 min or more) of the entire Official Selection.

Short Film Audience Award
Presented to the filmmaker(s) of the Festival audience’s choice of best non-documentary short (30 min or less) of the entire Official Selection.

2024 WINNERS

Audience Feature Film Award: The Shadow of the Sun directed by Miguel Angel Ferrer

First runner-up: The Performance directed by Shira Piven

Second Runner-Up: Los Frikis directed by Tyler Nilson & Michael Schwartz

Audience Documentary Film Award: Skywalkers: A Love Story, directed by Jeff Zimbalist & Maria Bukhonina

First Runner-Up: Stories from the Lighthouse directed by Deborah Dickson

Second Runner-Up: Women of Iran directed by a group of filmmakers inside and outside of Iran 

Short Film Audience Award: Objects of Desire directed by Alejandro Renteria

First Runner-Up: Not Rod directed by Becca Greene & Alex Pollack

Second Runner-Up: Yuck! directed by Loic Espuche

PAST WINNERS

2023 WINNERS

Audience Feature Film Award: Plantadas, directed by Lilo Vilaplana and Camilo Vilaplana.

First runner-up: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, directed by Aitch Alberto.

Second runner-up: Febrero, directed by Hansel Porras Garcia.

Documentary Achievement Award: The Padilla Affair, directed by Pavel Giroud.

First runner-up: El Trueno Y El Viento, directed by Jorge A. Solino.

Second runner-up: The Disappearance of Shere Hite, by Nicole Newnham.

Short Film Audience Award: Save the Flea, directed by Michael J. Ruiz-Unger.

First runner-up: Brownsville Bred, directed by Elaine Del Valle.

Second runner-up: Python Huntress, directed by Nicholas Orris and Mae Deblinger.

 

2022 WINNERS

Narrative Feature Film Audience Award goes to PARSLEY (PEREJIL), directed by José María Cabral.

First runner-up: Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea, directed by Marcel Barrena.

Second runner-up: The Lost Children of Jarabacoa (Dossier de Ausencias), directed by Rolando Díaz.

Documentary Achievement Award goes to SOUTH BEACH SHARK CLUB: LEGENDS AND LORE OF THE SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK HUNTERS, directed by Robert Requejo Ramos.

First runner-up: Strangers to Peace, directed by Laura Angel Rengifo and Noah DeBonis

Second runner-up: Keep the Cameras Rolling: The Pedro Zamora Way, directed by William T. Horner and Stacey Woelfel.

Short Film Audience Award goes to “Cariño,” directed by Fernanda Lamuño.

First runner-up: “Un Pequeño Corte,” directed by Mariana Serrano.

Second runner-up: “Madame Pipi,” directed by Rachelle Salnave.

 

2021 WINNERS 

Narrative Feature Film Audience Award goes to Plantados, directed by Lilo Vilaplana.

Documentary Feature Film Audience Award goes to A New Dawn, directed by Manny Soto.

Short Film Audience Award goes to “Petra,”directed by Randy Valdes.

 

2020 WINNERS

Narrative Feature Film Audience Award goes to 90 Minutes, a portrait of contemporary Honduras through the lens of its societal obsession with soccer, directed by Aeden O’Connor Agurcia.

Documentary Feature Film Audience Award goes to Magnolia Pictures’ The Fight, depicting the struggles of a quartet of ACLU lawyers as they work on hot-button issues of our times, directed by Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg and Eli Despres.

Short Film Audience Award goes to “Endure The Suck”, a documentary about two disabled military veterans who find new challenges in the sport of sailing, directed by Isaac Mead-Long.