18th Annual New Hampshire Film Festival Award Ceremony
This year, the NHFF Awards were held in the Moffatt-Ladd House at 10 a.m on Sunday, the final day of the festival. Rather than starting in the evening, as has been typical in the past, this year the Awards were held much earlier which sparked a lively atmosphere as filmmakers, producers, directors, writers, actors, and family members alike filtered into the sunlit room.
Upon walking in, audience members perused a table laden with cinnamon donuts, croissants, apple cider, and coffee. The coffee’s popularity was punctuated by laughter as several joked that they were still at the after parties.
Nicole Gregg, the Festival’s Executive Director, kick started the ceremony by thanking the Festival’s sponsors, Portsmouth Chevrolet and The Provident Bank, among many others, who provide such strong support to the Festival year-round. After encouraging audience members not to forget the cinnamon donuts, Gregg introduced Ian McCarthy, Programming Director, to come forward and announce the Awards.
Dan Hannon, Co-founder and Industry Director of the Festival, came forward to present the glossily engraved granite awards, which awaited their presentation with much more patience than the audience. Without further ado, McCarthy dove right in with the Best Student Film.
The Awards were presented as follows:
Best Student Film: Tadpole, Written and Directed by Jovan James; Produced by Chester Algernal
Best Short Drama: Fran This Summer, Written and Directed by Mary Evangelista; Produced by Alex Wallace, Chester Algernal, and Elegance Bratton
Best Short Comedy: A Hand, Written and Directed by Prashanth Kamalakanthan; Produced by Artemis Shaw
The Jury Awards for Short Film:
Animation: The Likes And Dislikes of Marj Bagley, Written, Directed and Produced by Taylor Stanton, and Co-Produced by Jorge Arzac.
Live Action: Great Light, Written and Directed by Tony Oswald; Produced by Meghan Doherty and Brandon Colvin.
Short Documentary: David’s Voice, Directed by Graham Hill; Written and Produced by Graham Hill and Chad Carbone.
Best Feature Documentary: Phantom Cowboys, Directed by Daniel Patrick Carbone; Written by Daniel Patrick Carbone, Thomas Niles, and Ryan Scafuro; Produced by Ryan Scafuro and Annie Waldman.
Best Feature Narrative: Maine, Written and Directed by Matthew Brown; Produced by Summer Shelton, Michael B. Clark, and Alex Turtletaub.
Ian McCarthy then passed the microphone to Hannon, who proceeded to announce the 2018 Grand Jury Awards.
Grand Jury Awards:
Documentary: América, Directed and Produced by Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside.
Narrative: Chained for Life, Written and Directed by Aaron Schimberg; Produced by Vanessa McDonnell, Dan Schoenbrun, Daniel Patrick Carbone, Matthew Petock, and Zachary Shedd.
Following the presentations, Hannon congratulated and thanked all filmmakers for attending and continuing to support and participate in the festival. Before wrapping up, Gregg reminded everyone of the excitement still to come on the final day of the Festival, such as the Audience Choice Awards to be announced later this evening.