Nassau Film Festival 2017 announces winners

The Nassau Film Festival 2017 screened 42 films this year from countries in each of the six continents. The highlights this year were:

Michael Wong (China) The Story of 90 Coins, Branko Tomovic (Serbia) Red; The Inuring, Wendy Keeling (USA), The Unconventional Gourmet, Fabrice Bracq (France), A Whole World for a Little World, Joao Inacio (Brazil) Shala, Mohammed Mohammadian (Iran), The Endless River, Danny Malin (Canada), I Promised, Mamadou Dia (Senegal), Samedi Cinema, Jenae Hall (Australia), The Moon Is Essentially Gray, Hannah Roman (USA).

Lewis Goldstein, the festival's organizer, says the first year focused largely on local films, while last year saw an increase in international submissions. This year's festival will have a truly international flavor, with films from Australia, South Africa, Bangledesh, Senegal, the Czech Republic, Iran, China, the U.K., and Brazil.

"It was an explosion this year of submissions because the film festival has gotten more traction," Goldstein said. "It's become more well known and it's starting to become a festival for short films that filmmakers have heard about and want to submit their films to and gain recognition."

"The whole theory is that festivals not only educate but they bring people together and give them something to talk about," he says.

The winners from this year's festival are: Animation: Hannah Roman, The Moon Is Essentially Gray; Documentary: Nami-Mercer and Tom Pyle, Passage to Hope and Kirk Ponton, A Wonderfully Difficult Journey; NFF Student Fiction Winner: Tereza Hirsch, The Guilt List; NFF Fiction Winners: Jeremy McCracken, Fastball and Fabrice Bracq, A Whole World for a Little World. NFF Finalist High Honors: Mike Messier, Thanksgiving; Joao Inacio, Shala; Kevin Boston, Keep the Chocolates; Yasmin Mistry, America Heard.