2025 AWARD WINNERS, Honor Film Festival's Very Best

The 2025 HONOR FILM FESTIVAL Screening Event is now live. Go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJFcOqH6bNI&list=PLPITrI8qO2_fBoJyIxcmggPR3Asf7RJGm

Best Home Décor
TO MY FATHER… - İzem Ayşegül Topal
A story of a woman trying to forgive her father who turned into a chair years ago.


Best Screenplay or Manuscript
TAKAO - James Sutherland
A Tokyo detective banished to a rural precinct embeds herself in a case involving several gruesome murders to hide the fact she’s avenging the death of her daughter.


Best Horror
THE BOMB - Onur Doğan
Nominated for Best Violence Award. In the Balkan region, where lawlessness prevailed during the war, a man receives a threatening death letter from the gang he used to be a member of. Thereupon, he plans to escape to America with his pregnant wife. On the last night, after being threatened by the gang, the man leaves the house to persuade the gang members but does not come back. Instead, an hour later, gang members enter the house. The gang leader starts a game in which he tells the woman that if she fulfills his wishes, she can see her husband again as a reward.


Best Comedy
UNAUTHORIZED: THE AUTHORIZED STORY OF PASTICHÈ - Peter Lundholm
When I was 14, I bought an unauthorized Guns N’ Roses documentary at FYE. I didn’t realize “unauthorized” meant they couldn’t use any actual GNR music in the documentary. I just thought it meant the stories would be salacious and the history shocking. I was crestfallen when I realized this three-hour documentary about Appetite for Destruction wouldn’t actually contain any actual songs from the album! I became curious though; who makes the vaguely familiar sounding but license-free music in the background of these unauthorized music history films? Thanks to the resources I’ve acquired from QITK, I tracked down and interviewed the most prolific license free stock music makers in the history of unauthorized music docs, and made a doc about them.


Best Drama
THE RED BALLOON FOR MEMORIES – Kasidis Juntapome
The story of an insurance salesman who lives with a red balloon that is like his lover. And intends to go to the beach on the anniversary of their relationship. Until that balloon floated away and disappeared into the sea. Images of various memories between him and his lover came in. Causing him to swim without thinking for his life. But in the end, that balloon ran out of air in the middle of the sea. And that made it evident that the air in that balloon was actually the last breath that his lover had ever inflated.
This movie is inspired by the true story of a young man who lost his lover in an accident. And lived his life fixated on the last breath that his wife left for him in this world.


Best Action
DOJO - Armin Alic
Shane Lucas, an ex-Yakuza member and 4th degree black belt in Judo, is hunted down at his local dojo in Los Angeles, 1985, by his long-time rival. Elias Da Rosa and his crew members are from the same crime family. Elias threatens Shane to return to the Yakuza or suffer the consequence.


Best Animation
SOW DON'T SING – THIS OLD WINNER - Alysha Nunez
Two soldiers bond over their experience with domestic abuse and vow to die together. PVT Luca Russo and SSG Cohen Bentley discuss why the new recruit has been failing BCT and they develop a heartfelt father-son relationship -- as well as a double-suicide pact. 


Best Romance
UNSPOKEN - Plinio Scambora
Unspoken Words dives into a topic that's about as common as coffee in the morning – the lack of communication in relationships. Set against an erotic backdrop, Unspoken Words spins the tale of AMANDA and ANDRÉ, a couple going on nearly a decade together, who've slipped into the autopilot of marriage. As they navigate this rut, Amanda starts having erotic visions of everyday things, imagining herself interacting with others and living out her fantasies. Fear of losing André keeps Amanda silent.


Best Political or Satire
QUIET IN THE KITCHEN: MOCKUMENTARY SERIES: MUSIC GREATS: GREATS OF MUSIC: HISTORY OF GREAT MUSIC: EXPLORING CONTROVERSIAL..... - Peter Lundholm
A treatise on “The Band” and challenging historical works. Does “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down” glorify slave owners? Today’s Quiet in the Kitchen episode thoroughly investigates The Band’s beautiful humanization of despicable historical figures and events. As it turns out, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” wasn’t the only time they explored this motif... Featuring commentary from record executive billionaire entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine and Rolling Stone Magazine Senior Editor David Fricke.


Best Science Fiction
HOLE PUNCHED EAR - Alan Yammin, Ben Tull
In a dystopian Chicago, a poet, bound by a strange countdown clock, struggles to finish a poem as her sister tries to free her. Dystopian Chicago. Sometime in the future. Zorina Harcrow is locked in a decrepit prison. She is a poet and scrawls her verse in a beat up notebook. As she writes, her poetry is spoken to us through voiceover and will be the only dialogue in the film. The poet is constrained by a digital clock embedded inside her arm that counts down from eleven minutes. Zorina’s sister Faye Harcrow tries to break into the prison. But is successful only on her second try. Zorina’s arm clock gets down to zero and she frantically finishes her poem. She is taken away by guards but drops her poem in the hallway outside the cell. Zorina is placed in a red execution chair, the arm clock had been counting down to her death. Zorina is executed just as Faye, after fighting off armed guards, reaches Zorina’s empty cell and finds the dropped poem. Faye is filled with revenge, grief, and rage as we hear the final lines of Zorina’s poem.


Best Musical
BAD SYNE - Ilysa Spencer
Two artists collaborate on music and life on an epic road trip.


Best Experimental
AGILITY (..OR SOMETHING LIKE IT) - Garrick Givens
Observe the paths of a blind dog, cantankerous local, and mystic ballerina cross on a routine summer day.


Best Virtual Reality
HELP US, OUR LADY – Marwa Ali
Zainab’s family is an anthropological/ethnographic study of an Egyptian family in 100 years, but the history is from the women’s point of view, and the film is the first story in the book, which tells about my grandmother’s mother dreaming of the good news that she is pregnant with my grandmother, Zainab. The film is an entry portal into the world of Zainab’s family.


Best Violence
CANNON FODDER – Alvis Wong
"Cannon Fodder," also known as "Homeward Journey, Temple & Criminal Case." A young person has a dispute with his father over his choice of professional direction. He runs away from home, impulsively he soon becomes a mercenary. After eight years of absence, he returns home to visit his sick grandmother. Upon his return to the village, he becomes embroiled in a tragic criminal case.


Best TV or Web Series
NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST - Adrián León Arocha
Documental series about music panorama in Spain and Canary islands. Through the life of some artists, showing the person and how they work and create their songs in intimate creative moments, backstages before a live concert, and so much more. Shot since 2017 until actuality, facing the evolution of the urban genre in Spain through the different point of view of the artist who are part of Spanish music scene.


Best Family Programming
LITTLE ANONYMOUS MOBILE PHONE USERS - Vittorio Caratozzolo, Istituto Comprensivo Trento 5

Best Music Video
ODYSSEY EXPRESS – Wei-Hsiang Hsieh
Lei, who was about to go to a new school, felt uncertain about the future. Through a series of coincidences, she boarded the Odyssey Express, a symbol of the unknown, and embarked on an adventure beyond imagination…


Best Photograph
FOTOGRAFÍA AGUSTÍN IRIGOYEN - Agustin Irigoyen
I am Agustín Irigoyen, a 20yo Argentinian, audiovisual media student. This photograph is part of my practices at university. It pretends to show isolation / fear / unattainability.


Best Film (Short, Feature)
DON’T RETURN - Danyel Ferreira Sueth, Diego Barbieri Scarparo
Beni (Danyel Sueth) goes to visit his older brother, Nicolas (Ivan Forneron) in the old family home where they were raised. In a small town, in the interior of the country, where people's lives are common to each other, many taboos and judgments can remain alive forever. It is in this context that “Don’t Return” surprises the viewer, unraveling this thought-provoking story in layers.


Best Documentary
CRUSH - Sean Matthew Denney
Jim "Crush" Duricy, a F-15c test Pilot at Eglin, died flying a mission for the AIM-9x missile testing speeds up to Mach 2.


Best Soundtrack or Music
THOM THANANA – Srivarshini Ramamoorthy (singer)


Best Editing or Editor
CANNON FODDER – Alvis Wong
"Cannon Fodder," also known as "Homeward Journey, Temple & Criminal Case." A young person has a dispute with his father over his choice of professional direction. He runs away from home, impulsively he soon becomes a mercenary. After eight years of absence he returns home to visit his sick grandmother. Upon his return to the village, he becomes embroiled in a tragic criminal case.


Best Character
SILVER STAR (Officer Chris Simone) (nominated for Best Screenplay) - Leonard Varasano
Nominated for Best Screenplay. Haunted by the death of a young child during his watch, a police officer contemplates vengeance against the suspect he holds responsible.


Best Dialogue
DONOVAN’S ORDERS - Nicky Kinkladze O'Callaghan, Ben Murphy
Nominated for Best Direction, Best Character (Martin), Best Actor (Colin Malone). A hitman must carry out a job for his boss while he is in the midst of a moral crisis.


Best Actor
DEAN CAIN – Driving Fast and Saving Lives Since 2001 - Aaron Schwartzbart, Neil Newman
Producer, Writer, and Actor Dean Cain [God Will Listen (2025), The Black Hole, Law & Order, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman]. The MotorGospel Ministries anti-street-racing campaign in: “Driving Fast and Saving Lives Since 2001”. Hosted by faith-film legend Isaac Hernandez, the documentary features five-time champion, ordained minister Aaron Schwartzbart as seen on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, Sky News, Spectrum One, Daily News, OC Register and LA Times. A feel-good documentary featuring ex-cons, at-risk youth, cops and fast cars, "Driving Fast and Saving Lives Since 2001" chronicles MotorGospel Ministries program that helps the LAPD with community issues such as gangs, drugs and illegal street racing.


Best Director or Direction
THE CASTLE OF BARON FINCH - Don Cunningham
Nominated for Best Character (Baron Finch), Best Horror, Best Film. English physician Dr. Cushing comes to Germany on the trail of the sadistic vampire that captured his wife. Can he save his spouse's soul, or will she be another victim to Baron Finch?


Best Production or Producer
THE JOURNEY HOME - Gary Charles Chilutti, Steven Sonntag
To save veteran and active duty lives from being lost to suicide, a community of vets and friends engage in grassroots activity to take direct action to intervene.