The 2020 Lower East Side Film Festival is coming to a close online and the jury has selected this year’s winners. Top honors went to Rachel Beth Anderson and Timothy Grucza’s “Unschooled,” a feature documentary that follows three inner-city high school students as they embark on a radical educational program in North Philadelphia dedicated to empowering students to direct their own education.
LESFF writes:
Samantha Bee, Indya Moore and their fellow jurors also awarded Christopher Low’s “Black Ghost Sun”, a short film about a first generation Chinese-American learning to become a father while his son navigates the spaces between ethnicity and identity, with the “Best of Fest” shorts award, and Julia Kennelly’s “Marcy Learns Something New” starring Rachel Dratch about a widow exploring the dominatrix community, took home “Best Live Action Short.”
“When we decided to go digital this year, it was because we wanted to make sure these amazing films, that our programmers had worked so hard to curate over the past year, still had a platform to be seen. Our first year being virtual was a huge success in our eyes,” said Lower East Side Film Festival Director, Roxy Hunt. “It was so cool to see people streaming films all over the world and by conducting filmmaker Q&As over Zoom we were actually able to connect with more filmmakers in one year than ever before. We can’t wait to get back to our theaters, pool parties, favorite LES venues, and more, but are so thankful to our supporters for making this virtual fest it’s own exciting, unique and memorable experience.”
All films are available to watch online through June 29th. To stream and find more information on all of the 2020 LESFF competition winners, visit lesfilmfestival.com.
Here is the full list of juried winners:
Best Of Fest Winner
Directed by Christopher Low
Best Live Action Short
Marcy Learns Something New
Directed by Julia Kennelly
Best Animated Short
Symbiosis
Directed by Nadja Andrasev
Best Documentary Short
Sundays at The Triple Nickel
Directed By Jessica Colquhoun
Best Music Video
Horse
Directed by Vedran Rupic
The Neighborhood Award
Cinema Rules Everything Around Me
Directed by Rachel Wolther
Stream winning shorts HERE.
