NH Film Festival Announces Award Winners

The New Hampshire Film Festival wrapped up Sunday, Oct 15, with a closing ceremony at The Music Hall featuring presentation of several industry awards.

This 17th annual film festival, which took place Oct 12-15th, featured 117 films and documentaries, as well as multiple industry panels, parties and more spread throughout historic downtown Portsmouth.

“This year’s film festival was one for the ages,” said NHFF Executive Director Nicole Gregg. “It was great seeing the streets packed with pass holders making their way to screenings and taking in all that Portsmouth has to offer.”

In addition to recognizing all the work from NHFF volunteers during the four-day film festival, the closing ceremony also recognized filmmakers for their work.

As is NHFF tradition, the closing ceremony featured presentation of The Granny Awards — which is recognition of standout films in several categories. The Granny is an engraved hand-carved slab of granite — a nod to the beautiful state of New Hampshire.

Granny Awards

• Best Screenplay: Yuba City, written by Gursimran Sandhu
• Best Student Film: Rabbits, directed by Patrick Clement
• Best Short Drama: Houseplants, directed by Prashanth Kamalakanthan
• Best Short Comedy: You and Me and Her and Them, directed by Jon Branden
• Audience Choice Narrative: Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks, directed by Josh Crockett
• Audience Choice Documentary: Maineland, directed by Miao Wang
• Best Feature Documentary: Flames, directed by Zefrey Throwell & Josephine Decker
• Best Feature Narrative: Sollers Point, directed by Matthew Porterfield

The closing ceremony also featured presentation of several Jury Awards.

Jury Awards

• Shorts Jury Award – Animation: Negative Space, directed by Ru Kuwahata & Max Porter
• Shorts Jury Award – Documentary: The Rabbit Hunt, directed by Patrick Bresnan
• Shorts Jury Award – Live Action: Fry Day, directed by Laura Moss
• Grand Jury Award – Documentary: In the Waves, directed by Jacquelyn Mills
• Grand Jury Award – Narrative: Automatic at Sea, directed by Matthew Lessner

For an entire recap of the 2017 New Film Festival, visit the NHFF Blog at https://nhfilmfestival.com/category/film-festival-news