2022 Sarasota Film Festival Announces Competition Award Winners
The 24th Annual Sarasota Film Festival celebrated its Closing Day of screenings and festivities on Sunday, April 10th after an exciting 10-day festival featuring a diverse and unique slate of films, engaging panels and discussions, educational outreach, and more.
The 2022 festival concluded with Russell Brown’s LOREN & ROSE, starring Sarasota Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award winner Jacqueline Bisset, opposite Kelly Blatz. During the Closing Night ceremony, the festival also announced this year’s Jury and Audience Award winners.
OUT OF BREATH directed by Christian Carroll took home this year’s Narrative Feature Jury prize. The gripping and powerful story follows a man who is thrown into an unexpected confrontation that leads to finding himself at the center of a nationwide reckoning with racial injustice.
A Special Jury Recognition for Originality also went to TOPOLOGY OF SIRENS, from director Jonathan Davies. After discovering a set of cryptic microcassettes in her new home, a young woman is drawn into a meditative mystery of environmental sound and experimental music.
THE SMELL OF MONEY directed by Shawn Bannon was the Documentary Feature Jury Prize winner. THE SMELL OF MONEY questions the price that some pay for the world’s pork. The film chronicles a group of impassioned North Carolina residents as they take on one of the world’s most powerful meat processing companies in a fight for their rights to clean air and pure water.
The festival's Independent Visions Jury Prize went to LONG ISLAND GUS, directed by Calogero Carucci. The film follows Gus, a Long Island native who weaves through the black market in an attempt to find a kidney for his ailing friend, Vito. It follows his path of raising a large sum of money by delivering drugs in pizza boxes and selling fake Long Island Railroad tickets. The prize, sponsored by Brooklyn-based independent film distribution and production company Factory 25, includes release consultation from Factory 25’s Matt Grady.
The Jury awarded ALWAYS TOGETHER, directed by Steven Wesley Miller, best US Narrative Short; TODAY’S THE DAY, directed by Santi García, best International Short; and GENERATION 328, directed by Nika Nikanava, best Documentary Short Award Winner.
Audience Award Winners for this year’s festival were Balbinka Koreniowska’s PLAYING THROUGH for Feature Film and SIRENS OF THE SWAMP directed by Jonathan Davies, for Short Film. PLAYING THROUGH tells the story of Anne Gregory, a woman who later in her career finds the courage to be the first woman of color to enter the USGA Women’s Amateur; it explores her conflict when she collides with Babs Whatling, a privileged white woman from the South who is searching for her own identity. In SIRENS OF THE SWAMP, two sirens who are banished to the swamps by their mother Venus dream of making it big in a rock band.
“I am incredibly thrilled to celebrate and close the 24th edition of the Sarasota Film Festival by recognizing our diverse slate of films and incredibly talented filmmakers. While we continued to thrive during the pandemic, we are so honored and so grateful to be back in-person and to be hosting renowned filmmakers, Jury members, special honorees, and the audience that continue to make this festival so memorable,” said Sarasota Film Festival President and Co-Founder Mark Famiglio. “I want to take this time to congratulate all the films played at the festival and all the esteemed Jury members who took the time to recognize them. Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who made it possible to share them here in Sarasota.”
Representatives of the Jury also participated in a panel discussion on acquiring funding for film projects in today’s economic market as part of the Sarasota Film Festival’s Film Finance Forum. Moderated by Addie Morfoot, the panel featured jurors Christina Bazdekis and Roger Mancusi, alongside screenwriter Roberto Bentivegna (HOUSE OF GUCCI) and filmmakers Barry Avrich (OSCAR PETERSON: BLACK + WHITE) and Linda Miller (LOREN & ROSE). Mancusi, Avrich, and Miller, in addition to filmmaker Judah McFadden, were also given the opportunity to pitch their projects in development that are currently seeking funding to a room of local investors.
Congratulations to the 2022 winners of The Sarasota Film Festival Awards:
Audience Award
Feature Film
“Playing Through”
Director: Balbinka Koreniowska
Short Film
“Sirens Of The Swamp”
Director: Hali Gardella and Emery Matson
Jury Awards
Narrative Feature Competition Winner
“Out Of Breath”
Directors: Christian Carroll
Documentary Feature Competition Winner
“The Smell Of Money”
Directors: Shawn Bannon
Independent Visions Competition Winner
“Long Island Gus”
Directors: Calogero Carucci
US Narrative Short Competition Winner
“Always Together”
Director: Steven Wesley Miller
International Shorts Competition Winner
“Today’s The Day”
Director: Santi García
Documentary Short Competition Winner
“Generation 328”
Director: Nika Nikanava
2022 Sarasota Film Festival Jury
Narrative & Independent Visions
Joe McGovern, The Wrap
Christina Bazdekis, ICM Partners
Roger Mancusi, Filmmaker and New York Programs and Partnerships Manager of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Documentary
Addie Morfoot, Variety
Josh Braun, Submarine Entertainment
Honorable Charles E. Williams, Twelfth Judicial Circuit Court, Sarasota County
The 24th annual Sarasota Film Festival, which took place from April 1st to April 10th with virtual and in-person events, greatly appreciates the support of its personal and corporate sponsors, including the Famiglio Family Foundation, Sack Family Foundation, Wallack Family Fund, CMX CinéBistro, Stella Artois, Tito's Handmade Vodka, Netwurx, Sarasota Scene Magazine, Top 10 Sarasota, and WSLR+Fogartyville. The festival is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture as well as the Sarasota County Tourism Development Tax Revenues.