News

And the 2021 Kapowee goes to. . .

March 1, 2021

Congratulations to all of the Kapowee winners and nominees. Last week was a great time talking about film, art and general nerd stuff. Thanks again, and here’s to being able to do this in the theater AND virtually next year. So, that our filmmaking friends across the pond can participate.

Also want to give a shout out to Paul and Phillip over at Filmocracy for helping us get things in shape for our festival village page.

Best Abstract
2021
Even The Rats
Mike Hay - Writer/Director/Animator/Composer

A skull-like artifact is discovered by an alien civilization in another time, in the outer reaches of space. Is it a weapon or is it something else…?

Best Animation
2021
Faces of Depp
Greg Brookens - Writer/Actor/Animator

A murderous psychopathic actor can't break character, and only director Tim Burton and punk rocker Tim Armstrong can stop him.

Best Comedy
2021
Cosmo
Thomas Thomas - Writer/Director/Producer
Ryan Lis - Writer
Harrison Reynolds - Producer

Jane Montana (La Trice Harper), a rough and tough law-woman, is in a pickle. A gang of outlaws led by a ruthless leader named Buford (Jeremy John Wells) has kidnapped a helpless damsel. Worse, Jane has two bullets and...

Best Comedy
2021
The Fanatic
Kelly Hallmark - Director
J. Eamon Roche - Writer/Producer/Eamon

Ashley brings her new boyfriend over to the meet the family not knowing he's a crazy football fan.

Best Cinematography
2021
Playboy Eddy
Brett Puglisi - Writer/Director/Producer/Editor/Chris
Joe Puglisi - Producer
Noele Puglisi - Producer

When Edward, a determined father struggling with anger issues and a coke addiction, searches for his daughter at his druggie brother’s crazy party, he must keep her from making the same mistakes he made and reconnec...

Best Crime Drama
2021
Collar
Russ Emanuel - Director/Producer
Troy Gabaldon - Writer/Producer

What happens when a seemingly ordinary priest is confronted by a seemingly ordinary man? While reading the Bible on a particularly windy day, Father Harris is confronted by a tall stranger, one who makes him question ...

Best Director
2021
Mad World
Lauri Levenfeld - Writer/Director
Grace Wethor - Writer/Director/PanAm
Nicole Sassaman - Executive Producer

Follow a bewitching brave-hearted woman (Nicole Sassaman) through five different worlds full of color, drama, and touch of fantasy. Through a mysterious portal, Nicole is thrust into a journey where she meets a handfu...

Best Documentary
2021
One Last Job
Tony Armer - Director/Producer
J. Declan Flynn - Director/Producer
Julia Ward - Producer

Pittsburgh, early 1980s; a true story about Carl Begovich, a devoted husband and family man, a fourth-grade teacher, coach and recreation director whose life quickly turned upside down. After the steel mill economy cr...

Best Documentary Feature
2021
In Bright Axiom
Spencer McCall - Director
Farouz Gipson - Producer
Jeffrey Blair Hull - Writer

From the executive producer's of AMC's "Dispatches From Elsewhere" comes a new installment. Under a code of ABSOLUTE DISCRETION, guests are invited into the House of the Latitude, a place where truth and fiction are i...

Best Drama
2021
Afro
Jenn Shaw - Writer/Director/Producer
YJ Meira - Producer

After multiple encounters with her bully and a little academic inspiration, an African-American teen girl finally stands up for herself against classmates that question her cultural identity.

Best Drama
2021
The Same Story
Alice Airoldi - Writer/Director

As Madeline witnesses the trial of an old friend, she is confronted with all the events, mistakes and misunderstandings that brought them all there.

Best Ensemble
2021
Mad World
Lauri Levenfeld - Writer/Director
Grace Wethor - Writer/Director/PanAm
Nicole Sassaman - Executive Producer

Follow a bewitching brave-hearted woman (Nicole Sassaman) through five different worlds full of color, drama, and touch of fantasy. Through a mysterious portal, Nicole is thrust into a journey where she meets a handfu...

Best Ensemble
2021
Apocalypse Party
Adam Griswold - Writer/Director/Producer

It's the night a deadly asteroid is expected to collide with Earth and destroy all life instantly. In the midst of an end-of-the-world party, a man claiming to be a NASA scientist arrives and claims he can build an el...

Best Ensemble Feature
2021
Back in The NO
Daniel Fort - Director
Eli Tabariai - Writer/Producer
David Emilio Chan - Sound

Set in the early nineties in the city of Fresno, a dedicated young male nurse juggles the women in his life. But, he ultimately tries to find his true love while facing his own biggest battle.

Best Experimental
2021
The Overcoat
Justin 'Juice' Black - Director
Simone McIntyre - Producer
Jeremy Stockwell - Writer

Based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol written in 1842. A lowly office worker's new
overcoat transforms his bleak and invisible existence. Unfortunately, this new lease of life is
short lived.

Th...

Best Family Friendly
2021
The Whip
Brett Puglisi - Writer/Director/Producer

A broke young man tries to scrounge up enough money to buy a new whip and must race his older brother or lose all of his bread.

Best Feature
2021
Beauty, Brains and Personality
Emmett Loverde - Writer/Director/Director of Photography/Editor
Ed Sanders - Producer
Dawn Jacobs - Producer

At a monthly dinner party between three female friends, one announces to the others, “Together we make up the perfect woman -- you’re the brains, you’re the personality, and I’M the beauty!” The other two ar...

Best Horror
2021
Parka
Marcella Cortland - Writer/Director/Producer
Alrik Bursell - Writer/Director/Producer
Dave Bundtzen - Producer

On an enchanted night out, a glamorous woman struggles with her controversial fashion choice. Will the assurances from her BFF shield her from the dark consequences of her decision?

Best Mockumentary
2021
We Are The Prototypes
Ayesha Adamo - Writer/Director/Producer/Music/Editor
Vin Scialla - Writer/Producer/Music
Jacques Lang - Cinematographer

Ah-Yes, Hans von Kleinenberg, and Hans Gambino are The Prototypes: the trailblazing founders of I.F.E. (Intelligent Feline Electronica). But they weren’t always on top of the world, bringing cat music to the masses....

Best Music-Video
2021
Miss Lava – The Great Divide
José Dinis - Director
Paulo Gomes - Asst. Director

The song “The Great Divide" is an euphemism for death; an apocalyptic vision for mankind. We keep destroying our planet and forgetting that when it ends, it ends for everyone.
 
This is a concept video ...

Best Music-Video
2021
F#@$ing with a robot
Yann Giroud - Director
Dinner and Whiskey Next Week - Producer

Life is a countdown, till death. Will Bob see the end of it?

Best Podcast
2021
The Ol’ Timey Spectral Hour
Ashley Karp - Writer/Director/Producer
Fesliyan Studios - Sound
Uniq - Music

The Ol' Timey Spectral Hour is a multi-episodic horror podcast unveiling paranormal hauntings, sinister ghosts, and problematic phantoms based off of true terror tales and lore.

Scout and Alice Mason drive down...

Best Poster
2021
Terra Beach
Mike Gallant - Writer/Director
Peter Ebanks - Producer

A college freshman on summer break in 2069 returns to his home space colony and kindles a romance with a Hispanic girl only to discover they have garnered the town’s attention.

Best PSA
2021
Prayer for Humanity
Ed Munter - Writer/Director/Producer

The latest test for mankind has come in the form of coronavirus. How long this test will last will depend on how quickly we can embrace the lessons it brings.

May we stand together as one, facing the unknown, c...

Best Rom-Com
2021
Polly Pocket
Maria Corso - Director/Producer
Veronica Maccari - Writer/Producer
Nicole Campbell - Executive Producer

A quirky dramedy about Pauline, a nervous, quirky twenty-something-year-old, and Gabby, her cool and sassy best friend. Pauline attempts to get to confess something important, but Gabby sidetracks the conversation to ...

Best Rom-Com
2021
Tick Tock
Charlie Brown - Director/Producer
Alton Clemente - Writer/Producer/Tony

A watch. A girlfriend. A fiance. A wife. Tony finds himself searching for something that's beyond his grasp. With help from his therapist and friends, he may just finally buy the watch. And everything that goes with i...

Best Sci-fi
2021
The Prospector
Wade Chitwood - Writer/Director/Producer/Visual Effects

This journey takes the prospector to a place where he has to look directly at his soul and decide what he is willing to sacrifice to achieve his ambitions.

Best Supernatural
2021
The Mirror
Joel Kohn - Writer/Director/Producer
Mike Horvath - Producer
Tom Davies - Producer

When a young girl discovers a mysterious antique mirror in the basement of her ailing grandmother’s house, she accidentally opens a window between time that allows her to cross over into war-torn Nazi-occupied Polan...

Best Thriller
2021
Toxic
Mike Manning - Writer/Director
Tom Anderson - Writer
Wesley Barker - Producer

When Darren agrees to give Irene a ride to a birthday party, we journey into the depths of his fragile ego as it becomes clear that the evening will fall short of his deluded expectations. Starring and co-produced by ...

Best Trailer
2021
Zodiac
Jack M.F. Skyyler - Writer/Director
Alex Zinzopoulos - Writer/Director
Kaye L. Morris - Writer

After Hades murders two teens, his third victim, Juno, escapes, teleporting through solid steel into an open field where her body is found unconscious. Immediately after, a high-school student, Kali, awakes with a psy...

Best Song/Score
2021
An Interesting Story About an Uninteresting Guy Soundtrack
Donny Walker
Best Screenplay Thriller
2021
Review
Jonathan Zarantonello
In a video message, a girl invites other women to have sex with her boyfriend, but only if they leave her a review after.
Best Screenplay Drama
2021
Allured
C.J. Stussi
Two Greek Gods make a bet over whether technology or love is the stronger connecting force. They create and manipulate a love triangle between Philip - the owner of a bakery, Louise - a truck driver, and Zinya - an attorney, to win the bet.
Best Screenplay Comedy
2021
Illegal Aliens
Clint Buckner & Chad Matheney
This is the tale of the great UFO crash in Rusted Pines Trailer Park...
City of Angels Award
2021
The Fountain Pen
Tony Mouleart - Writer/Director/Producer/Scott

A struggling cartoonist finds a magical pen. When he draws with the pen the pictures come to life.

Spirit Award
2021
Glimmer
Joshua Overbay - Writer/Director/Producer
Andie Morgenlander - Writer/Director/Producer
Brian Hollars - Director of Photography

An unexpected encounter with one of Santa's elves catalyzes a change in perspective for a young girl whose mother has just died. The film acts as a reminder that a chance meeting, no matter how brief, can realign us w...

2020 Lemons to Lemonade
2021
Copin’ w/ COVID
Matt Larson - Writer/Director
Ricardo Navas - Writer
Best VR
2021
20 Word Poem
Chuck Cummings
A VR experience where you create a 20 word poem, to help free a captive spirit from a word-forsaken realm. For Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality VR headsets. (Download zipped folder, which contains .exe file; for PC.)