SCAD Savannah Film Festival Announces 2024 Competition Award Winners: ‘Los Frikis,’ ‘Champions of the Golden Valley,’ and More

As the lauded regional festival winds down, it celebrates a wide array of competition titles, including narrative and documentary features and a number of short films.

As its annual film festival winds down this weekend, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) announced the award winners for the 27th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The event, which has become a key stop on the busy regional festival circuit leading up to the Academy Awards, this year screened 162 films, including 123 narrative feature films, 31 documentary feature films, 69 short films, and 10 world premieres and six U.S. premieres.

Out of over 2,335 submissions, nineteen awards were announced from the 105 films chosen to compete in competition categories, which included Narrative Features, Documentary Features, Professional Shorts, Animated Shorts, Documentary Shorts, Student Shorts, Shorts Spotlight, Global Shorts Forum, and the SAVFF LGBTQIA+ Short Film Competition presented by Amazon MGM Studios.

Taking top honors in the competition feature section include a pair of remarkable films still looking for distribution (full disclosure: I was a member of the jury that picked these titles, we were gifted with some outstanding entries), including Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson’s narrative feature “Los Frikis” and Ben Sturgulewski’s doc “Champions of the Golden Valley.”

The awards winners are as follows:

Professional Competition

• Best Animated Short – “The Wedding Veil of the Proud Princess,” directed by Anna-Ester Volozh
• Honorable Mention: “Monsoon Blue,” directed by Jay Hiukit Wong and Ellis Kayin Chan
• Best Documentary Feature – “Champions of the Golden Valley,” directed by Ben Sturgulewski
• Best Narrative Short – “The Masterpiece,” directed by Àlex Lora
• Best Narrative Feature – “Los Frikis,” directed by Michael Schwartz & Tyler Nilson
• Best Director – “The Ride Ahead,” directed by Samuel Habib & Dan Habib
• Special Jury Recognition for Cinematography – “After Annecy,” directed by Rebecca Holstein
• Special Jury Recognition: Spotlight Performance: Amrit Kaur, “The Queen of My Dreams”

International film and social media platform Letterboxd is sponsoring this year’s Narrative Feature Prize at the 2024 SCAD Savannah Film Festival. As part of this sponsorship, Letterboxd will award the winner, “Los Frikis,” a substantial grant in the form of an extensive media campaign including targeted advertising and direct marketing to promote their film.

The 2024 festival’s professional jury members included Kate Erbland (Editorial Director at IndieWire), Brian Formo (head of studio Relations & video, Letterboxd), Zeberiah Newman (filmmaker), and Richard Suckle (producer).

SAVFF LGBTQIA+ Short Film Competition Presented by Amazon MGM Studios

Recognizing the need for more inclusive storytelling in the filmmaking industry, the 2024 SCAD Savannah Film Festival (SAVFF) and Amazon MGM Studios have created a dedicated SAVFF LGBTQIA+ Short Film Competition. Amazon MGM Studios will donate $10,000 for the jury-awarded Best Overall Film and $5,000 for an Audience Award. Films in the program are under 40 minutes in length and represent excellence in storytelling and execution in narrative or documentary formats, reflecting unique insight into LGBTQIA+ themes, issues, or ideas.

• Best LGBTQIA+ Short: “RIPE!,” directed by Tusk (Olivia Mitchell and Kerry Furrh)
• Audience Award Winner: “Re-Entry” directed by Ariel Mahler

The SAVFF LGBTQIA+ Short Film Competition Presented by Amazon MGM Studios jury members included David Canfield (staff writer at Vanity Fair), Anthony Allen Ramos (vice president of communications and talent at GLAAD), Adam Keen (Co-Head, Global Film PR, Amazon) Rachel Shatto (editor in chief at Equal Pride), and Seth Fradkoff (Senior Vice President, Publicity, Amazon MGM Studios).

Student Competition

• Best Narrative Student Short – “El Alma de la Sed,” directed by Colleen Ryan, Savannah College of Art and Design
• Honorable Mention: “Desync,” directed by Minerva Marie Navasca, Sheridan College
• Best Student Animated Short – “High Diver,” directed by Oscar Bittner, Filmakademie Baden Württemberg
• Special Jury Honorable Mention: “The Nectar Instead” for Excellence in Craftsmanship, directed by Yoo Lee, University of Southern California
• Best Student Documentary Short – “Failure to Fail,” directed by Haley Breese, Savannah College of Art and Design

The 2024 festival’s Student / Animation jury members included Henry Selick (Director), Daniel Casey (Netflix Animation), Madison Egan (Tribeca Film), Andy Cohen (Grade A Entertainment), Kyle Bell (Animator), and Mandy Tankerson (SVP, Head of Production, Sony Imageworks). The 2024 festival’s Doc Shorts jury members included Doug Blush (Mad Pix), Rivea Ruff (Entertainment editor), Liselle Feingold, Juliet Blake (Producer), and Myra Scheer (PR Consultant/Sirius XM Co-Host).

The Inaugural Katie Spikes Legacy Award Scholarship

Katie Spikes was a senior story editor for CBS “60 Minutes” and a beloved friend of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival for many years after her passing in 2023 the Katie Spikes Legacy Scholarship was created to honor excellence in filmmaking by a SCAD student.

• Award Winner – “Failure to Fail,” directed by Haley Breese, Savannah College of Art and Design

This inaugural winner will receive a $7,000 cash prize. The 2024 festival’s Katie Spikes Legacy jury members include Alison Owen (producer), Lynn Hirshfield, Myra Scheer, June Dowad, Andy Cohen (Grade A Entertainment), Juliet Blake, and Amy Gray.

Global Shorts Forum

• Best Latin Lens: “¡salsa!,” directed by Antonina Kerguelen Roman
• Best Visions de France: “Yuck!,” directed by Loïc Espuche
• Honorable Mention for Social Impact: “Monochrome,” directed by Cedric Prevost
• Best Global Short: “Little Queen,” directed by Julien Guetta

The 2024 festival’s Global Shorts jury members included Ben Thompson (Tribeca Festival shorts programmer), Chris Lane, Stevie Wong (journalist), Lynn Hirshfield (producer), and June Dowad.

Shorts Spotlight

• Best Comic Distortions: “Idiomatic,” directed by Phil Dunster
• Best After Dark Horror Short: “Wake,” directed by Sean Carter
• Best Femme Forward: “Vlog,” directed by Yvonne Strahovski
• Best Shorts Spotlight: “A Family Portrait, Queens,” directed by Billy Silva
• Best Professional Documentary Short: “Good Enough Ancestor,” Directed by Cynthia Wade
• Honorable Mention: “I’m Still Here: A Life on Dynamite Hill,” directed by Stephen Stinson and Sam Miller
• Jury Award Honorable Mention: “Les Bêtes” for Craftsmanship in Animation

The 2024 festival’s Short Spotlight jury members included Greg Sorvig (Heartland Film), Kaila York (director/producer), Katherine Tulich (journalist, HFPA/Australia), and Sibella Dowad (producer).