2006 Winners

BEST FEATURE FILM

1st Place: Marcus by Johnathan Ruggiero, directed and written by Bob Hardison and Rick Robinson. A troubled young man returns home for Christmas in an attempt to reconcile with his sister. Her alleged boyfriend shows up and turns the holiday dinner into a dark, disturbing night of violence and terror. Click here for more information about this film.

2nd Place: Cross Eyed by Adam Jones. Tired of the chaos in his life, Ernie, a cross-eyed writer tries to force a good day to happen by kidnapping everyone who makes him miserable. Click here for more information on this film.

3rd Place: Bigfoot. by Bob Gray. The story of a clever, murderous monster living in the marshes and woods of Northeast Ohio. The creature is a victim of deforestation and urban sprawl and he is fighting back. Click here for more details.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

1st Place: Down in the Old Belt: Voices from Tobacco South by Jim Crawford. From Jamestown to they Buyout, we see the rise and fall of tobacco in Virginia in the words of those who lived the culture -- the farmers. Click here for more information.

2nd Place: American Chain Gang by Xackery Irving, profiling the experiences of the prisoners and officers of the recently revived male chain gang and the world's first female chain gang. Click here for more information.

BEST SCREENPLAY

1st Place: "Northern Latitude" by Steven Zawacki. Mary must overcome a scheming sister, bigoted father, Thomas' spineless friends and two Machiavellian villians, in this story of love, betrayal, faith, blackmail, passion, assassination ... and worse. Set in Scotland at the end of the 17th Century, an age of deadly intolerance and soaring ideas. Based on a true story and as current as today's headlines. Click here to sample the script (in .pdf format).

2nd Place: "Goodnight Pigdog" by Adam Jones,. Rusty strives to care for his mentally-handicapped brother Tucker, whose only concern in life is how to be the best pirate. But when the bank threatens to foreclose on the brother';s house, they have to find a solution. Rusty's answer is practically. Tucker's answer is piracy.

BEST SHORT FILM
tie

Forgotten Stars. by Richard Keel. A mocumentary about ventriloquist Jerry Boyd and his partner, Delbert Schwartz. This whimsical tale covers the ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies of one of America's best, and least remembered, ventriloquist teams. Click here for more information.

UTA by Kim Spurlock. An elderly German woman faces her troubled past in order to prevent a young boy from repeating her mistakes. This is a story about the complexities of reconciliation and people's ability to forgive.

BEST YOUNG FILMMAKER

1st Place: Serene by Joe Ensley. Into the separate worlds of a college couple, we examine their desire to find themselves within social expectations as they travel dark paths of addictive tunnels.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

1st Place: Strange and Sane by Anthony Samangy, featuring Viola.

Past Winners

Click below to see:

• 2005 winners

• 2004 winners