2025 Film & Music Competitions
We received many entries in multiple categories. It is a difficult task reviewing all these projects and selecting two winners from each category but that is what a competition is all about. Here are this year’s winners and runners-up.
US NARRATIVE FEATURE FILM
winner
Evil Insight
Directed by Don Close and Fiore DeRosa
runner-up
Whiskey Dixie & The Big Wet Country
Directed by Amanda Richards
INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURE FILM
winner
Eugene O'Neil - The First Man
Directed by Hardeep Giani
runner-up
Pégame
Directed by Dylan Verrechia
US DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
winner
Triumph of Hope
Directed by Steve Mason
runner-up
Power, Not Persuasion: The Susan Sandler Legacy
Directed by Chelsea Hernandez
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
winner
Best in the World
Directed by Clint Arthur
runner-up
Nocturno
Directed by Isabel Rivero Vila
US NARRATIVE SHORT FILM COMPETITION
winner
The Tip
Directed by Peter Vazquez
runner-up
Clone Juice
Directed by Kevin Varghese
INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE SHORT FILM COMPETITION
winner
Sisters
Directed by Songnia Xiao
runner-up
Memories of the Future
Directed by Keishi Suenaga
US DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM COMPETITION
winner
Harmony of the Azores
Directed by Maria T. Luskay and Lou Guarneri
runner-up
Janke
Directed by Jordan Hendrickson
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM COMPETITION
winner
Kumeyaay Land
Directed by Dylan Verrechia
runner-up
Trauma: The New Epidemic
Directed by Matthew Jacobson and Backer Hamada
STUDENT NARRATIVE SHORT FILM COMPETITION
winner
Capsule
Directed by Xiaoying Qu
runner-up
Shy Boy's Virtual Sex Dreams
Directed by G. Gotham Smith
STUDENT DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM COMPETITION
winner
Nuclear Resurgence
Directed by Joseph Machosky
runner-up
Crossing Paths
Directed by Sean Dong
ANIMATED FILM COMPETITION
winner
Where the Tide Whispers
Directed by Michelle Mullin
runner-up
Unafraid
Directed by Lauren Wolk and Jackie Reeves
MUSIC VIDEO COMPETITION - ENGLISH
winner
The Symptones - MRI
Directed by Matt Collings
runner-up
Cali Tucker - Country Couture
Directed by Dustin J Robison
MUSIC VIDEO COMPETITION - INTERNATIONAL
winner
Mould - Wheeze
Directed by Martyn Thomas
runner-up
LVX Machina - Thug Deluxe
Directed by Cristian Balint and Béla Baptiste
TV/WEB EPISODE COMPETITION
winner
Nesting
Directed by Allana Harkin
runner-up
Breaking Strongholds
Directed by Jake Allen
FILM/TV/WEB TRAILER COMPETITION
winner
Custom Made: The Royal Council
Directed by Aaron Sean Umanoff
runner-up
Apocalypse Death Party
Directed by Russ Emanuel
COMMERCIAL COMPETITION
winner
Eternal Blue
Directed by Freddie Connor
runner-up
Break the Silence
Directed by Dax Phelan
SOUNDTRACK COMPETITION
winner
Infinity
by Stacey Chan
runner-up
The Clockmaker
by Arthur Moore
ORIGINAL SONG COMPETITION
winner
I See In You
by Samantha Rae and Anthony John Dellisola
runner-up
When We're Rich
by Michelle Rose, Austin Hellar, Jake Neumer and Paula Winger
SCREENPLAY COMPETITION
Judging the works of so many talented writers is truly hard. In the end our judges have to assign numeric scores in multiple categories to each screenplay and these scores are tallied up. So you may miss being included in the list of winners below by very few points but this is how competitions work.
Congratulations to this year’s winners!
String Lights
VP Boyle
As a brutal snowstorm brings the country to a standstill, a group of wildly imperfect strangers collide across cities and timelines—grappling with purpose, grief, and reinvention—until they discover that what feels like the end of the road might just be the start of something brighter.
Vengeance Valley
Purnesh Konathala
A small-town milk delivery boy discovers a grisly murder scene at an old mansion where five men have been killed by what a witness describes as "ghosts." As the new sheriff investigates, he uncovers a dark history of sexual assault, political corruption, and a revenge plot three years in the making.
South Lands
K.E. Lanning
After a catastrophic global Melt, an engineer turned pioneer races to stake a claim on an ice-free Antarctica, but the UN Land Rush of 2204 turns into a battle against ruthless, armed competitors and a corrupt oligarch determined to control this new land.
Honorable Mentions
(in alphabetical order by title)
Borderline Justice
Lynn Elliott
A judge has to choose between professional promotion, and the love of a woman determined to open his eyes to the politically charged world of power, money, illegals, drugs, and borderline justice.
Hearts in Cellophane
Thomas Paul Rossi
The Stasny family has their hearts wrapped in cellophane. What happens when they are unwrapped is a story of first love, last love and all the joy and pain in between.
Knowing
Victoria Perry
When an aspiring lawyer and the black sheep of a family of Coney Island Psychics is asked, by her boss, to represent the client her mother crossed, her career and any dream of separating from her community is put in jeopardy.
Madison Square Garden
Katarzyna Müller
In the middle of a divorce, a working actor needs his wife just one last time.
Precursor
Steve Brown
When a series of natural disasters and unnatural phenomena wreak havoc across the globe, a group of unlikely allies must come together to confront a mysterious faction determined to engineer the very end of the world.
The Fourth Psalm
John Martins III
Dire consequences ensue when two Catholic priests at a New Mexico parish clash during the 1980s Sanctuary Movement, endangering the lives of three innocent Central American refugees.
Wheels of Hope
Tim Vogel
When a snowstorm strands a traveling band in the small town of Silver Pine, a fiery lead singer and a wheelchair-using mechanic must navigate personal insecurities and the threat of a hostile takeover of the town's cherished mobility company, all while saving the annual Christmas festival and discovering the true meaning of independence and love.

