IndieWorks: Best of Fest Year 4 Recap

INDIEWORKS: BEST OF FEST

Last Tuesday was a special night at IndieWorks! We celebrated the conclusion of our 4th year! Between the 10 fantastic films, the talented filmmakers and the wonderful audience, we had a lot of fun and made some new connections! We hope everyone that was part of it enjoyed the night as much as we did! In total, we had just over 80 people in attendance and it truly seemed like the crowd enjoyed the lineup and the evening as a whole.

THANK YOU. 

To all of the incredible people involved in this community who submit their work, attend our monthly series, follow our content and spread the word of anything IndieWorks... we truly thank you. It's been another great year of innovative, local films and filmmakers.

Four years ago, Christina decided she wanted to create a monthly film series for local independent filmmakers to showcase and discuss their work with an audience and connect with their (our) peers in a friendly, supportive, engaging and still encouragingly competitive environment. Sure enough, we made it happen and it has grown into something so wonderful, more so than we could have imagined over the past four years. It's been a real passion project from our team, and we hope it has stayed true to the ideals of helping independent filmmakers find an audience and build a network & community of likeminded, productive & talented individuals. Thank you all for being part of it! We're honored to screen & support your work! 

The lineup & nominations can be found in our previous post.  

Watch below a reel of the 10 films that screened.

THE AWARDS GO TO...

View fullsize

AUDIENCE CHOICE: "The Visit" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

View fullsize

BEST EDITING: "Juice" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

View fullsize

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: "The Suitor" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

View fullsize

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE: "The Cat's Cradle" (Tawny Sorensen & Nabil Vinas) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

View fullsize

BEST WRITER/DIRECTOR: "Twinsburg" (Joe Garrity) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

View fullsize

GOLDEN WHISKERS (BEST OF FEST): "The Blood in Our Veins" - Wins $200 towards a Seed&Spark campaign and a day of social media promotion from the CongestedCat team.

Photos of the night include Step & Repeat coverage by Carlos Molina. Also, video coverage by Kimberly Drew Whiten. Big thanks for their time & talent all night! See all the fun we had below! 

THAT'S A WRAP!

Check out the recaps from ALL 9 SCREENINGS of Year 4 of IndieWorks. 

As we take next month as an opportunity to go out and make things, we hope you will too. Our 5th Year of IndieWorks kicks off in June -- so keep in touch & stay up to date through our social media accounts. We want to see YOU at the next screening!

Be sure to submit your films on our IndieWork page, and watch episodes of our Insider Series with the monthly Winners from all 4 years to get more insight into their screened films & upcoming work. 

---

Wrap Party!

Yesterday, we celebrated the conclusion of production for About a Donkey and had a blast! Unfortunately, not all of the team members could make it. But this was just the first of many celebrations as a film family; we'll definitely have everyone all together at some point. And hopefully we'll celebrate at a screening near YOU in the future! For now, we're off to post-production! 

Review for short film, "Hello"

We got a sweet new review of "Hello" today! Click below to read.

Christina on Horror Happens Radio

Christina was a guest on Horror Happens Radio, discussing women in horror and her short film "Hello." 
Listen to the episode.

4th Annual IndieWorks Best of Fest!

Celebrating another amazing year of films & filmmakers!

IndieWorks screens short films every month produced by emerging filmmakers throughout New York. It provides a platform for those filmmakers to showcase their work in front of an audience and to network with individuals in the local film community. 

Our annual season runs June through March, culminating in our Best of Fest Finale every April. Next Tuesday, April 18th, all 9 Silver Whiskers Award winners of the year, along with 1 lucky Audience Choice winner, will screen and be eligible for monetary prizes through winning the Golden Whiskers Award, our version of Best Picture! We'll also be awarding Best Writer/Director, Ensemble Best Performance, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the audience will vote for the Ultimate Audience Choice winner! This year's Best of Fest will be held at The Local in Long Island City!

As always, there's no entry fee, so bring all your friends and film enthusiasts. We're even giving out a prize to an audience member through a free raffle, and every single person that attends will receive 3 months of free streaming access to the Seed&Spark Cinema - currently hosting over 100 features, shorts and series. 

---

Evening's Line-up (screening order subject to change): 

The Suitor (12:01) Directed by Alvaro Congosto, Written by Samuel Laskey

• November Winner
• Nominated for Best Cinematography & Best Editing

The Visit (11:09) Directed by Shane Andries, Written & Produced by Vishwas Vishwas

• January Winner
• Nominated for Best Editing

Happy Here in New York (13:03) Directed & Written by Rodrigo Baumgartner Ayres

• Online Audience Winner
• (Only Eligible for Audience Choice Award)

The Cat's Cradle (15:35) Directed by David Spaltro, Written & Produced by Tawny Sorensen

• June Winner
• Nominated Best Ensemble Performance

The Blood In Our Veins (18:21) Written & Directed by Mateo Marquez

• August Winner
• Nominated for Best Writer/Director, Best Ensemble Performance, & Best Cinematography

Arts & Crafts (13:50) Written & Directed by Nina Gielen

• October (Halloween) Winner
• Nominated Best Writer/Director

What's Eating Dad? (10:53) Written & Directed by Michael Goldburg

• July Winner
• Nominated for Best Writer/Director & Best Ensemble Performance

Blank My Life (7:30) Created & Written by Alex Spieth, Directed by Stephen Tonti

• September (Web Series) Winner
• Nominated for Best Ensemble Performance

Juice (9:46) Directed & Written by Rachel Kessler

• February Winner
• Nominated for Best Cinematography & Best Editing

Twinsburg (15:48)
Written & Directed by Joe Garrity

• March Winner
• Nominated for Best Writer/Director, Best Cinematography, & Best Editing

~~~

As stated, all 9 Silver Whiskers Award Winners are eligible for the Golden Whiskers Award. And all 10 screening films can win the Audience Choice Award. The other nominees are:

---

BEST WRITER/DIRECTOR

• Arts & Crafts (Nina Gielen)
• The Blood in Our Veins (Mateo Marquez)
• Twinsburg (Joe Garrity)
• What's Eating Dad? (Michael Goldburg)

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

• Blank My Life (Alex Spieth & David Spadora)
• The Blood in Our Veins (Stephen Chacon & Lara Alcantara)
• The Cat's Cradle (Tawny Sorensen & Nabil Vinas)
• What's Eating Dad? (Morgan Wright, Brennan Taylor, Barbara Miluski)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Juice (Natasha Major)
• The Blood in Our Veins (Mike Gialloreto)
• The Suitor (Jim Dandee)
• Twinsburg (Drew Dorsey)

BEST EDITING

• Juice (Scott R Dixon)
• The Suitor (Alvaro Congosto)
• The Visit (Garrett Kafchinski)
• Twinsburg (Joe Garrity & Kyle Parker)

---

Golden Whiskers Award Winner: 

• Winning filmmaker gets $200 towards a future crowdfunding campaign should they choose Seed&Spark as their platform. And the film has the option of automatic non-exclusive distribution in the Seed&Spark Cinema.
• CongestedCat Productions will offer free script coverage for the director's newest short, and devote a day of our social media shares to the winning project and its latest updates. 

Audience Choice Award & Category Winners: 

• Each winner gets $50 towards a crowdfunding campaign should they choose Seed&Spark as their platform. And all films will be considered for the Seed&Spark Cinema. 

NOW WHAT?

• RSVP for Best of Fest on Facebook
• Read about & see photos from the year in our monthly Recaps.
• Watch interviews with the winning filmmakers throughout the year(s) in our Insider Series.
• Submit your film for Year 5 through FilmFreeway.

---

See you on April 18th!

13-02 44th Ave, Long Island City, NY.

Discover Shorts. Find an Audience. Build the Community.