Category: Festival News

FILA 2020’s online Screening Room closed after Monday, June 29 and we are amazed to share that our 2020 Official Selections racked up 5,616 views by 3,999 unique viewers!  We could not be more proud of the nine feature films, thirty-five short films, two music videos, and ten screenplays that made this year’s festival a great one.

We want to thank every filmmaker, screenwriter, performer, producer, cinematographer, production designer, and every other contributor who helped make wonderful films.  We look forward to seeing what everyone does next!

Our sister-festival is the Sherman Oaks FIlm Festival (@shermanoaksff) that is held in November.  Fingers crossed we get to see everyone in person then.  And if not, hopefully at FILA 2021!

Did you see one of the Official Selections and want to learn more about the film and filmmaker?  Watch the FILA 2020 Q&A for that film!

Grand Jury Prize Winners

Best Feature Film – Collision
Best Short Film – Drama – The Bus to Birra Birra
Best Short Film – Comedy – Sofa Queen
Best Short Film – Horror – Stew
Best Short Film – Experimental/Arthouse – Kiko’s Saints
Best Documentary Feature Film – Comfort Farms
Best Documentary Short Film – Jessyca
Best Music Video – Nice Shoes
Best Director, Feature Film – Mehdi Avaz, Collision
Best Director, Short Film – TJ Power, The Bus to Birra Birra
Best Actress in a Lead Role – Camille Calvin, Desire Lines
Best Actor in a Lead Role – Doug Burch, DOUG
Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Cecilie Stenspil, Collision
Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Nigel Lysaght, Desire Lines
Best Performance by an Ensemble – Life’s A Bitch And Then One Kills You
Best Screenplay – Patrick Connolly & Nigel Lysaght, Desire Lines
Best Cinematography, Feature Film – Jonathan Latona, DOUG
Best Art Direction/Production Design – Gaëlle Usandivaras, Kiko’s Saints
Best Screenplay (Unproduced) – The Loser’s Club by Jonathan Turner Smith

Audience Award Winners

Audience Award, Feature Film – DOUG;   Lupe
Audience Award, Short Film – The Squirrels in the Attic
Audience Award, Documentary Film – Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America

Filmmakers Award Winners

Outstanding Short Film – Drama – Kama’āina (Child of the Land)
Outstanding Short Film – Comedy – Grief Vigilantes
Outstanding Short Film – Horror – Far Gone
Outstanding Short Film – Experimental/Arthouse – His Mother
Outstanding Short Film – Sci FI – Kids Don’t Die
Outstanding Directors – Kimi Howl Lee, Kama’āina (Child of the Land); Paul Maziere, Joseph Turns 42 (Or the Inconsistency of Wonders); Samuël L. Jodry, Bengal (or before happiness strikes)
Outstanding Screenplay – TJ Power, The Bus to Birra Birra
Outstanding Acting, Cast – Grief Vigilantes, Sofa Queen
Outstanding Acting, Individual – Elizabeth Blackmore, The Bus to Birra Birra; Malia Kamalani Soon, Kama’āina (Child of the Land); Nikki James, Sofa Queen
Outstanding Cinematography – Caroline Le Hello, Kiko’s Saints

Programmer’s Award Winners

Exceptional Films: Fantasmas (Ghosts), First States, Micky

Prize Definitions/Explanations

Grand Jury Prizes – determined by the festival’s official selection committee.
Audience Awards – determined by highly scientific instruments placed throughout the theater to determine audience satisfaction.
Filmmakers Awards – given only to short films, these are determined by a panel of fifteen filmmakers whose films have been Official Selections previous years.
Programmer’s Prize – given to film(s) that festival programmer Jeff Howard cannot bear to see go without an award. These are generally films that were runners-up in a bunch of categories and their general greatness deserves an award.

Nearly all of FILA 2020’s Official Selections will be viewable for one week right here in our Screening Room.

If you’ve been following FILA 2020 you might know that we had planned to run Livestreams with Live Q&A’s for our screenings. After many tests, we learned that there was too high a possibility that there would be freezing and stuttering of the films. To present the films in the best possible manner, we are pre-recording Q&A’s and then presenting feature films and blocks of short films followed by their respective Q&A’s in the FILA 2020 Screening Room.

We know that most viewers will come to see the work of someone that they know, but Team FILA can guarantee that if you stick around and watch some of the films you never heard of you are going to see terrific, well-made movies.

We hope everyone enjoys the 2020 Festival that had to be online instead of at the theater. We hope to see you at the theater next year!

Watch some GREAT films with Q&A’s to follow. We are testing the Livestream system before FILA 2020 starts on June 8 by showing you some of the best shorts we’ve had over the years.

Go to https://vimeo.com/event/48888

All of our Livestreams will be at that URL.

Livestream Test Schedule

Monday, May 11 at 7 PM PDT: The King In The Ring
Wednesday, May 27 at 10 AM PDT: Transmission
Saturday, May 30 at 7 PM PDT: STUCK
Monday, June 1 at 6 PM PDT: Chirp, Buzz & Other Sensations
Monday, June 1 at 7 PM PDT: This Modern Man Is Beat

We are excited to present the schedule for FILA 2020!

Click here to see the complete schedule with posters, synopses, and cast info!

FILA 2020 Schedule

Monday, June 8, 6 PM
Program 1 – Comedy Spotlight
How To Save A Marriage
Grief Vigilantes
First States

Monday, June 8, 7:30 PM
Program 2 – Authentic Spotlight
The Hostess
Micky
Fantasmas (Ghosts)

Monday, June 8, 9 PM
Program 3 – Music Video Spotlight
Nice Shoes
Near Dark Radio

Tuesday, June 9, 6 PM
Program 4 – Documentary Spotlight
Comfort Farms

Tuesday, June 9, 7:30 PM
Program 5 – Cinematic Spotlight
Renchik
Passenger Man
The Bus to Birra Birra

Tuesday, June 9, 9 PM
Program 6 – Documentary Spotlight
JESSYCA

Wednesday, June 10, 6 PM
Program 7 – Intensity Spotlight
Far Gone
Stew
The Squirrels in the Attic

Wednesday, June 10, 7:30 PM
Program 8 – Boldness Spotlight
Bengal
Kiko’s Saints

Wednesday, June 10, 8:30 PM
Program 9 – Zen Spotlight
Desire Lines

Thursday, June 11, 6 PM
Program 10 – Truth Spotlight
Lupe

Thursday, June 11, 8:30 PM
Program 11- Hollywood Spotlight
DOUG

Monday, June 15, 6 PM
FILA Screenplay Awards

Monday, June 15, 7 PM
Program 12 – Honesty Spotlight
Supernova
LA Break up
Happenstance

Monday, June 15, 8:30 PM
Program 13 – Satire Spotlight
Nailed
Granny Knows Best
Artísta Obscura

Tuesday, June 16, 6 PM
Program 14 – Retro Spotlight
American SciFi

Tuesday, June 16, 8 PM
Program 15 – Breakthrough Spotlight
Three Roads

Wednesday, June 17, 6 PM
Program 16 – Originality Spotlight
Kids Don’t Die
Kama’āina (Child of the Land)

Wednesday, June 17, 7 PM
Program 17 – Eclectic Spotlight
Sidepiece
To the Moon and Back

Wednesday, June 17, 8 PM
Program 18 – Virtuoso Spotlight
Collision

Thursday, June 18, 6 PM
Program 19 – Inventive Spotlight
Village of the Gramned
The World Inside
Torch

Thursday, June 18, 7:30 PM
Program 20 – Innovative Spotlight
FLAT
Cold Hard Blood
Possibilities

Thursday, June 18, 8:30 PM
Program 21 – Uproarious Spotlight
Life’s A Bitch And Then One Kills You

Official Selections Not Streaming
Casanova
His Mother
Joseph turns 42 (Or the Inconsistency of Wonders)
Sofa Queen
Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America