IndieWorks: Best of Fest Year 5 Recap

INDIEWORKS: BEST OF FEST

Last Tuesday was a special night at IndieWorks! We celebrated the conclusion of our 5th year! Between watching the 10 fantastic films, mingling with the talented filmmakers, and engaging with the wonderful audience, we had a ton of fun! In total, we had nearly 80 people in attendance and it was clear the crowd enjoyed the lineup and the evening as a whole. We hope new connections were made!

THANK YOU. 

To all of the incredible people involved in this community who submit their work, attend our monthly series, follow our content, and spread the word of anything IndieWorks... we truly thank you. It's been another great year of innovative, local films and filmmakers.

Five years ago, Christina decided she wanted to create a monthly film series for local independent filmmakers to showcase and discuss their work with an audience and connect with their (our) peers in a friendly, supportive, engaging and still encouragingly competitive environment. Sure enough, we made it happen and it has grown into something so wonderful, more so than we could have imagined over the past five years. It's been a real passion project from our team, and we hope it has stayed true to the ideals of helping independent filmmakers find an audience and build a network & community of likeminded, productive & talented individuals. Thank you all for being part of it! We're honored to screen & support your work! 

The full lineup & nominations can be found in our previous post.  

THE AWARDS GO TO...

View fullsize

AUDIENCE CHOICE: "Sibs" (Samantha Slater & Cynthia Silver) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign and script coverage from the CongestedCat team of one future short screenplay.

View fullsize

BEST EDITING: "Runaway" (Harrison Heller) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign and script coverage from the CongestedCat team of one future short screenplay.

View fullsize

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE: "Chocolates" (Patricia Selznick & Ford) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign and script coverage from the CongestedCat team of one future short screenplay.

View fullsize

BEST WRITER/DIRECTOR: "Cake" (Anne Hu) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign and script coverage from the CongestedCat team of one future short screenplay.

View fullsize

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (DJ Carroll) & GOLDEN WHISKERS (BEST OF FEST): "Madness" (TJ Choi) - Wins $250 towards a Seed&Spark campaign, a 1TB G-drive, 50% Off any a la carte Post-Production Service 4milecircus offers, script coverage from the CongestedCat team of two future short screenplays, and a day of social media promotion from the CongestedCat team.

View fullsize

Our team with all the talented filmmakers of the night!

Photos by Chris Carroll. Video coverage by Kimberly Drew Whiten. Big thanks for their time & talent throughout night! See all the fun we had below! 

THAT'S A WRAP!

Check out the recaps from ALL 10 SCREENINGS of Year 5 of IndieWorks. 

As we take next month as an opportunity to go out and make things, we hope you will too. Our 6th Year of IndieWorks kicks off in June on the 5th, with our Pride-themed screening -- so keep in touch & stay up to date through our social media accounts. We want to see YOU at the next screening!

Be sure to submit your films on our IndieWork page, and watch episodes of our Insider Series with the monthly Winners from all 5 years to get more insight into their screened films & upcoming work. 

---

IndieWorks: Halloween Special Recap

Happy Halloween! Last Tuesday was the October edition of IndieWorks, and our annual Halloween Special! As big horror film fans and makers ourselves, Halloween is always a treat for us. We screened 6 spooky shorts and had 45 people in house. A nice sized crowd considering the rainy evening! The films ranged in style, gore, sub-genre and tone. It was a really fun and eclectic lineup than conveyed the different ways horror can be interpreted and portrayed. Some interesting conversations were had!

We'd just like to say thank you to everyone who came out to support the filmmakers and spend the evening with us & them. We do hope you enjoyed all the films and the opportunity to network with other filmmakers and film enthusiasts. We know some connections were made! AND we hope you'll join us again for our November screening on the 14th!

See photos from the evening:

The Films of the night:

The Run-In (Directed by Pete Talamo, Written & Produced by Heidi Kikel)
On her way home from a late night party, Hannah experiences an unnerving encounter with a stranger who leaves her mentally paralyzed.

Mare (Directed by Nicole Solomon, Written & Produced by Nicole Solomon & Sean Mannion)
Sean, an anxious and isolated man, goes about his mundane daily routine with a pleasant twist: an unexpected trip to sunny Brighton Beach. His desire to enjoy the gentle breeze, lapping waves, and sunny skies is put to the test as the beach itself seems to turn against him, culminating in an unexpected and deadly confrontation with a mysterious, demonic creature.

I Baked Him a Cake (Directed by Vanessa Ionta Wright, Written & Produced by Samantha Kolesnik)
Lenora can't wait for Dad to come home to celebrate his birthday. The cake is ready, the balloons are out, and the gifts are piled. Only, where is Dad? 

Through the Wide Gate (Written & Directed by Patrick Clement, Produced by Catherine Kosiba)
A sensitive young woman stalks a romantic rival in this 1970's-revival psychological drama.

Holiday Fear (Written & Directed by Nicholas Santos, Produced by Matthew John Lawrence, Nicholas Santos, Kyle I. Kelley)
In the final act of a slasher film, Bruce attempts to reclaim his manliness and impress the final girl by finishing off the killer.

Smile (Directed by Bill Kirstein, Written & Produced by Bill Kirstein & Ginny Leise)
A man tells a woman on the street to Smile. He lives to regret it.

Watch our Q&A Recap (shot & edited by Kimberly Drew Whiten). *Please know there are some film spoilers - feel free to look for an opportunity to catch the films at a festival or computer screen near you & then come back to watch!

The awards go to...

At the end of the evening, we announced our winning filmmakers for both Audience Choice Award & Silver Whiskers Award. The Audience Choice Award is voted upon by all those in attendance, and the Silver Whiskers Award is judged by the CongestedCat Team based on a system rating 8 categories of Story, Dialogue/Writing, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, and Production Value, along with a nuanced discussion focused on inclusion and originality. The Silver Whiskers winner goes on to screen again at our end of year Best of Fest screening next April. 

The Silver Whiskers winner also receives $50 towards a crowdfunding campaign on SeedandSpark.com should they use the platform and a free Social Media audit ($200 value) from 4MileCircus. 

For the October 2017 lineup, our winning films were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "The Run-In"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "Smile"

Join us next month for our November edition on the 14th!