The 33rd Hamptons International Film Festival has announced its awards for films in competition and audience favorites. “The President’s Cake,” directed by Hasan Hadi and set in 1990s Iraq, won the award for best narrative feature. “Through the eyes of a young girl torn between tradition and survival, Hasan Hadi’s expansive drama shows us what’s really at stake in a dictatorship led with violence and fear,” said the narrative competition jury members Jody Arlington, Matt Donnelly, and Brian Burns.
The film received a $2,500 cash prize and a film production package valued at $92,500 from TCS, Neon Diesel Finishing, Hamptons Locations, and On Location Education.
The best documentary feature award went to David Bim’s “To the West, in Zapata.” “David Bim’s black-and-white cinéma vérité-style masterpiece is a heartbreaking look at the struggle of everyday Cubans in the face of insurmountable odds, yet it is told with such compassion and love,” said the documentary competition jurors Monica Castillo, Agnes Chu, and Loren Hammonds.
The film was given a $2,500 cash prize and a production package valued at $50,000 from Neon Diesel Finishing, TCS, and Greenslate.
“Sammi, Who Can Detach His Body Parts,” directed by Rein Maychaelson, was named best narrative short film, and Hao Zhou’s “Correct Me If I’m Wrong” won the award for best documentary short. Each took home a $1,000 cash prize and qualified for consideration for an Academy Award in best live action short and best documentary short categories.
The narrative competition jury awarded special prizes for their performances to Hanna Heckt (“Sound of Falling”), Baneen Ahmad Nayyef (“The President’s Cake”), and Molly Belle Wright (“Omaha”). The jury prize for screenwriting went to Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay for “Hysteria,” and Shehrezad Maher won the directing prize for “The Curfew.”
The documentary jurors awarded the feature “André Is an Idiot” a prize for its director, Tony Benna, and in the short films category Glenn Kaino won for directing “Hoops, Hopes & Dreams.”
Festival audiences chose Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” as best narrative feature, while the “The Eyes of Ghana,” directed by Ben Proudfoot, took home the audience award for best documentary feature. “Lighting Bug” by Zane Pais, and Cece King’s “Island Willing” were named best narrative short and best documentary short, respectively.
In all, the festival presented 89 features and 57 shorts with 12 world premieres, two international premieres, eight North American premieres, 20 U.S. premieres, 21 East Coast premieres, and 27 New York premieres.
