Short Films ‘The Masterpice’ & ‘Ripe!’ honored at 2024 SCAD Savannah Film Festival
The Masterpiece and Ripe! have been honored at the 2024 SCAD Savannah Film Festival!
The SCAD Savannah Film Festival is an annual event that celebrates cinema and features Hollywood stars, industry insiders, and fans. The festival also offers students the opportunity to interact with creative leaders and gain insight into the entertainment industry. The 2024 festival took place from October 26–November 2.
The Masterpiece, directed by Alex Lora, received Best Narrative Short, while Ripe!, directed by Tusk (Olivia Mitchell and Kerry Furrh) and executive produced by soccer star Kelley O'Hara, has won Best LGBTQIA+ Short.
In The Masterpiece, Leo and Diana, a wealthy couple, meet Salif and Yousef, two scrap dealers, at a recycle center. Offering them more junk, Diana invites them to their mansion, but the immigrants actually might be the ones with something she wants.
Written by Alfonso Amador and Lluís Quílez, The Masterpiece also won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and Best Narrative Short at the Raindance Fillm Festival among other accolades.
Written and directed by Tusk, Ripe! was produced by Cookie Walukas, Tusk, Gerard Rodríguez, Laura Fernández-Hormigo, and Frank Lucas. Executive produced by Kelley O’Hara, Kameryn Stanhouse and Luke Anderson, the cast includes Raina Landolfi and Rita Roca.
When Sophie, a reticent American teen adrift in rural Spain for the summer, meets Gloria, a bold and unapologetic Catalan soccer player, there is an immediate magnetic pull. Between pool days and soccer games, the pair’s tension rises then spills over — in a fiery pickup game, Sophie accidentally breaks Gloria’s arm. It’s mortifying. Sophie disappears.
Right as this tangle of feelings seems behind them, Sophie bumps into Gloria in the middle of a local market. Gloria, sticking out her arm which now dons a purple cast, offers Sophie an unusual bargain: “cook me dinner and I will forgive you.”
As the two awkwardly reconnect over Sophie’s cooking, their magnetic pull intensifies. A tumultuous romance blossoms between more soccer games and beach days. Sophie’s reserved demeanor is the perfect foil for Gloria’s impulsive spirit, and the two are soon engaged in a prideful will-they-won’t-they — until Gloria points out that maybe it’s not pride; it’s shame.
The film also won Best Narrative Short at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival and Best Queer Short at the 2024 Provincetown Film Festival.