Victor Gabriel’s “Hallelujah,” Seemab Gul’s “Mulaqat/Sandstorm” and Joseph Pierce’s “Scale” have won the top awards at the 2022 HollyShorts Film Festival, which presented its prizes on Saturday afternoon in Hollywood — thus qualifying for this year’s Academy Awards.
“Hallelujah” won the Grand Prix for the festival’s best short, “Mulaqat/Sandstorm” took the honors as the best live-action short and “Scale” won for animation. HollyShorts is an Oscar-qualifying festival for the short-film categories, and the winners of those three awards are automatically entered in the Oscar race.
The award to “Hallelujah” was presented via video by this year’s Oscar winners for Best Live Action Short, “The Long Goodbye” filmmakers Riz Ahmed and Aniel Karia. The Oscar winners for the 2018 live-action short “Skin,” Jamie Ray Newman and Guy Nattiv, presented the awards to “Mulaqat/Sandstorm” and best-director winner Carlos Segundo (“Sideral”), respectively.
Other winners included Ben Proudfoot, who won this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary Short for “The Queen of Basketball,” and who took the HollyShorts prize for his new doc, “Mink!”
The 2022 HollyShorts Film Festival took place from Aug. 11-20 in person at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood, and virtually on the streaming platform Bitfix.
Here is the full list of winners:
OSCAR-qualifying Grand Prix Best Short : “Hallelujah,” Victor Gabriel
OSCAR-qualifying Best Live Action: “Mulaqat/Sandstorm,” Seemab Gul
OSCAR-qualifying Best Animation: “Scale,” Joseph Pierce
Best Director: “Sideral,” Carlos Segundo
Best Action: “Kickstart My Heart,” Kelsey Bollig
Best Comedy: “All I Ever Wanted,” Erin Lau
Best Costume Design: “Sauerdogs,” Carmen Granell
Best Drama: “Like the Ones I Used to Know,” Annie St-Pierre
Best Documentary: “Mink!,” Ben Proudfoot
Best Editing: “The Machine,” Rowan McKay
Best Female Screenplay Presented by BeCine: “Last Ship East,” Eris Qian
Best Horror: “Moshari,” Nuhash Humayun
Best International: “The Voice Actress,” Anna J. Takayama
Latinx Award Presented by Viacom International Studios: “Huella,” Gabriela Ortega
Best LGBTQIA+: “North Star,” P.J. Palmer starring Colman Domingo
Best Midnight Madness: “Homesick,” Will Seefried
Best Music Video: “Consensual,” Jeff Hilliard and Joey Danger
Best Producer: “Hallelujah,” Duran Jones
SAG Indie Winner: “My Jerome,” Adjani Salmon
Hawk Films Screenplay Award: “Mina Finds Her Edge!,” Robin Rose Singer
Best Sci-Fi: “Waltz of the Angels,” Braden Barton
Script Compass Screenplay Award: “In the Garden Of Tulips,” Ava Lalezarzadeh
Kodak Best Shot on Film: “North Pole,” Marija Apcevska
Kodak Shot on Film Super 8MM: “Deerwoods Deathtrap,” James P. Gannon
Kodak Shot on Film Honorable Mention: “Not the 80s,” Marleen Valien
Social Impact Award: “Stranger at the Gate,” Joshua Seftel
Best Student Film: “The Visit,” Ebele Tate
Best Thriller: “Wild Bitch,” Rebekka Johnson and Kate Nash
Best TV: “A Question of Service,” Erin Brown Thomas
Best TV Screenplay: “Forsyth County,” James Sasser
Best VFX: “Black Dragon” (“Rồng đen”)
Best Web Series: “Kura,” Vince McMillan
Women in Film Award: “Apart, Together,” Olivia Hang Zhou
ZEISS Presents: Hollyshorts Film Festival Achievement in Filmmaking and Cinematography: “Censor of Dreams,” Khalib Mohtaseb
ZEISS Presents: HollyShorts Film Festival Achievement in Filmmaking and Cinematography: Nancy Schreiber
