THE NEW YORK SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2022 AWARD WINNERS
Pedro de Lima Marques’ Tales of Tomorrow Awarded Top Prize For Best Sci-Fi Feature
Qais Pasha’s Exegesis: Lovecraft Named Best Documentary
The 2022 New York Science Fiction Film Festival has announced the award winners for its second edition, which featured a lineup of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films and screenplay entries. Held virtually on Friday, May 13th and Sunday, May 15th, and in person on Saturday, May 14th at the Producers Club Theaters in Midtown Manhattan, the festival honored the city’s diverse filmmaking community and recognized 15 official selections for exceptional storytelling. More information on this year’s festival is available at https://www.newyorksci-fifest.com.
Congratulations to the award winners of The 2022 New York Science Fiction Film Festival:
BEST SCI-FI FEATURE
Tales of Tomorrow (2020)
Director: Pedro de Lima Marques
Run Time/Country: 85 min, Brazil
Synopsis: In 2165, the kidnapping of a young girl puts the last stronghold of human civilization at war! The problem is that, in order to save humanity, it will be necessary to rely on the help of an adolescent who lives in 1999.
BEST SCI-FI FEATURE IN A DRAMATIC SETTING
12 Months of KAI (2021) — EAST COAST PREMIERE
Director: Mutsumi Kameyama
Run Time/Country: 83 min, Japan
Synopsis: What would you do if an “impossible thing” was born between humanoids and humans? Kyoka, who works as a web director in Tokyo, gets a personal care humanoid (PCH) Kai. Kai learns various things about the owner. Kyoka gradually invites Kai to “more emotions as a thing.”
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exegesis: Lovecraft (2021) — EAST COAST PREMIERE
Director: Qais Pasha
Run Time/Country: 120 min, Canada
Synopsis: A cathartic journey that Qais Pasha, a Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker embarks on as he traces the life of cult author H.P. Lovecraft, from woodland cemeteries in Rhode Island, to the docks of New York and on to the cobbled stone streets of Quebec City.
BEST SCI-FI SHORT
One-Hit Wonder (2021)
Director: Amanda Dow
Run Time/Country: 11 min, USA
Synopsis: A cab driver takes a former pop star on a one-way Twilight Zone-like ride.
BEST SUPERNATURAL SHORT
Moore’s Void (2020)
Director: Brad Bangsboll
Run Time/Country: 16 min, Canada
Synopsis: A grieving mother attempts to speak with her deceased son.
BEST DIVERSITY IN SCI-FI SHORT
Looking Glass (2020)
Director: Ginew Benton
Run Time/Country: 20 min, USA
Synopsis: After his father was murdered Benjamin Looking Glass II, a young Native American man builds a time machine using modern science and ancient knowledge in an attempt to bring his father back but ultimately discovers his true purpose in creation.
BEST FANTASY SHORT
Fulgidusen (2020)
Director: Alexander Feichter
Run Time/Country: 23 min, Germany
Synopsis: Felix has first met his paper friends: He has discovered them on the pages of some of the old books on the bookshelf. Uncle Armin calls them the Fulgiduses. As Felix is browsing through the books again, he discovers something new: Tentacled beings called Skures.
BEST ANIMATION
Kaiju Decode (2021)
Director: S/N
Run Time/Country: 9 min, Japan
Synopsis: The catastrophe “Skyfall” was brought by the collapsed orbital space colony crashed into the Earth. Inside the crater at the crash site now inhabit Kaiju born by a gene mutation. Ray, an avatar, comes to the area to collect the scattered “seeds”, not knowing what really is going on there, He soon meets Mil, a mysterious girl. Is she a human, or a Kaiju. A secret government film from the 1960s reveals a scientist desperate to work a mysterious AI to uncover the secrets of a fictional reality invading our own.
BEST VIRTUAL REALITY
Kaiju Decode: First Contact (2021)
Creator: Tsuburaya Productions, Toei Animation
Country: Japan
Synopsis: This virtual reality animation work is about a girl, Mil, who encounters, plays and interacts with a Kaiju. This VR film can be watched from three different viewpoints: the audience’s perspective (default), the Kaiju’s perspective, and Mil’s perspective.
BEST WEB SERIES
Atlas – Chapter One (2021)
Director: Ayman Chaudhry
Run Time/Country: 10 min, UK
Synopsis: Technology has replaced currency. Wealth has replaced humanity. When a rebel cell interrogates a corrupt politician, they uncover a secret more terrifying than anything they could have imagined
BEST TRAILER
In Search of Hawaiian Bigfoot (2021)
Director: MarQ Morrison
Run Time/Country: 1 min, USA
Synopsis: This award-winning experimental, hybrid, cinematic, vlog film follows “marQ,” an award-winning micro-documentary filmmaker turned Cine-Vlogger as he searches for the Maui Skunk Ape a.k.a. Hawaiian Bigfoot in the jungles of Maui.
BEST SUPERNATURAL SCREENPLAY
The Bad Ones
Writer: Dempsey James Tillman, Ted Dewberry
BEST SCI-FI SCREENPLAY
The Cheating Vaccine
Writer: Duncan B. Putney
BEST WORLD-BUILDING SCREENPLAY
Escape to Hollow Earth
Writer: Colin K. Stewart
BEST SHORT SCREENPLAY
Transistor
Writer: Brendan P Lee
