The American Cinematheque’s PROOF Film Festival announced the innovative film festival’s filmmaker awards as it wrapped a successful 2nd edition at the Culver Theater (9500 Culver Blvd.). Leading the award winners were Liz Sargent’s Take Me Home, which took the Grand Jury Prize, and Giselle Bonilla’s The Musical, which was the Audience Choice Award winner.
Along with the Grand Jury Prize, Sargent also received a $60K camera package, courtesy of Panavision, to assist them with fleshing out a larger project from their proof-of-concept.
Established last year as one of the first-ever film festivals dedicated solely to the presentation of proof-of-concept short films looking to be expanded into feature-length productions or series, the festival upped the ante for its second outing by opening its PROOF Pitch Deck Show & Tell to the general public. That resulted in the film festival receiving over 100 submissions for feature film and series pitches, from which eight participants were chosen to present their pitch decks live in front of a panel of industry professionals at the festival.
Additional panels were added as PROOF broadened its approach to not simply turn the spotlight on a slate of innovative films from up-and-coming filmmakers, but to also generate productive conversations on the art and business of filmmaking, to help the attending filmmakers make inroads to the industry with access to mentorship workshops, professional development opportunities and more.
American Cinematheque Film Programmer and Proof Film Festival Founder, Imani Davis, said, “It was exciting to see PROOF Film Festival continue to grow and develop in our second year. The filmmakers have been ecstatic about the experience. PROOF creates a platform for great work to find appreciative audiences, but perhaps more importantly, it is already becoming an event for these filmmakers to find solid footing as they take the next steps for their current projects, as well as sow the seeds for their future projects.”
Additional winners included Ritvik Dhavale’s Hema, and Chris Capel’s Fishers of Men sharing the PROOF Film Festival’s Gold Award, Hanna Gray Organschi’s F*ck That Guy winning the Silver Award, and TUSK’s Ripe! taking the film festival’s Bronze Award. Lucy Porter had the winning pitch for her Silver Spoon project and came out on top in the PROOF Film Festival’s Pitch Deck Show & Tell.
Winning filmmakers received a free story consulting session with a screenwriting professional, with ShotDeck to providing free yearlong subscriptions to their services.
The highly curated film festival placed the proof-of-concept shorts into programming themes which included titles like “Unlikely Friendship”, “One Bad Night”, “An Examination of Learning”, “In Search of Independence”, “Adventures in Nature”, “Kin”, “Bump in the Night”, “Not As They Appear”, “Age of Change”, “Facades”, and “The Trouble With Tech”.
Additional highlights included ShotDeck, the largest searchable cinematic image library, presenting a live Shot Talk with a cinematographer guest, hosted by founder Lawrence Sher, ASC. Antigravity Academy presented The Making of DÌDI (弟弟), with filmmaker Sean Wang and producers Josh Peters and Valerie Bush in person to discuss the making of the new hit indie film. Popular panel subjects; “Represented: A Conversation with Agents and Managers”, “Next Steps: From a Short to a Feature or Series”, and “Forging Your Own Path: Actor/Producers in Conversation” were highlights.
PROOF also hosted the Los Angeles premiere of the festival hit feature film Sew Torn, which is adapted from the 2019 short film of the same name, directed by Freddy Macdonald.
Community and Industry partners for this year’s edition of PROOF Film Festival include SAG-AFTRA, the Producers Guild of America, The Black List, Film Independent, The Light Leaks, Film Girlz Brunch, Creative Cypher, The Reel Champions, Not Your Daddy’s Films, Backstage Bar & Grill, The American Film Convention, The Cinegogue, Assistants vs. Agents, Anarchists United, MACRO, HappyBad Bungalow, Antigravity Academy, and Neon. Sustaining Sponsors include ShotDeck and Neon. Other sponsors include Callo, TheWrap, and The Culver Theater. The official spirits sponsor is Hendrick’s Gin. The official beer sponsor is Toña Beer. Water is provided by Liquid Death. The 2024 PROOF Film Festival Media Partner is TheWrap.
The 2024 Proof Film Festival Filmmaker Awards Winners:
Grand Jury Award
Take Me Home
Director: Liz Sargent
Audience Choice Award
The Musical
Director: Giselle Bonilla
Gold Award
Hema
Director: Ritvik Dhavale
Fishers of Men
Director: Chris Capel
Silver Award
F*ck That Guy
Director: Hanna Gray Organschi
Bronze Award
Ripe!
Director: TUSK
Pitch Deck Show & Tell Winner
Silver Spoon
Pitched by: Lucy Porter
