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2022 Winners List
LONELY SEAL 2022 WINNERS!
Film Winners
Grand Prize
Oklahoma Breakdown by Christopher Charles Fitzpatrick
Oklahoma Breakdown (USA 1:31:36) Mike Hosty is a comedic one-man band legend who can do things on stage that few entertainers in the world could pull off in a live setting.
Best Feature Film
Shadows and Lies, by Joseph Graves
Shadows and Lies (China 1:18:04) Set in Beijing, China, SHADOWS, AND LIES is a dark comedy concerning an aging vampire hunter, Sonny Ray Briggs, from Blanchard Springs, Arkansas, who seeks revenge on the vampires who murdered his wife. Chasing the “long tooths” from Arkansas to Beijing, Sonny Ray is assisted in his sanguinary quest for retaliation by Bobo Lin. This blue-haired, 20something Beijing girl has decided to devote her life to “killing evil” and Serenity, a mute man with a penchant for eating bugs.
Best Female Filmmaker
Margot Bruce – Harbor
Harbor (USA 19:20) This is a queer, modern Celtic/ Norse fairy tale and “ghost” story about living in the in-between.
Audience Award Winner
The Drive To Sing, by Bryce Denney and Kathryn Denney
The Drive To Sing (USA 1:16:15) When choir singing became dangerous, even deadly, in COVID-19, some musicians turned to “car choirs” in parking lots to keep their music alive. See how it began, spread, and gained international attention. Feel how it touched singers and audiences during this time of fear and isolation.
Best Documentary Feature Film (tie)
Frank Bey: All My Dues Are Paid by Thomas Daniel Dwyer and Lisa Palattella
FRANK BEY: ALL MY DUES ARE PAID (USA:1:28:00) IN 1977, SOUL-BLUES SINGER FRANK BEY QUIT SINGING AFTER A DEAL WENT WRONG WITH JAMES BROWN. FORTY YEARS LATER, FRANK WAS INVITED TO RECORD A CD IN NASHVILLE WITH BUDDY GUY’S RECORD PRODUCER, FULFILLING THE DREAM OF HIS LIFETIME.
Best Documentary Feature Film
80 Years Later, by Celine Parreñas Shimizu
80 YEARS LATER (USA 50:00) This film explores the racial inheritance of Japanese American family incarceration during World War II through multigenerational conversations with survivors and their descendants.
Best Documentary Short Film (tie)
Bacon ‘N’ Laces by Stephen Michael Simon
Bacon ‘N’ Laces (USA 19:20) A single dad of three boys manages a diner. But there’s more to John than meets the eye.
Best Documentary Short Film (tie)
Dear Lily, Love Patrick, by Jennifer Bartels
Dear Lily, Love Patrick (USA 16:34) Dear Lily, Love Patrick is a poignant look at the power of true connection, a young life ended by the tragedy at the onset of the AIDS epidemic, and a love that is still enduring.
Best Short Film
Get It On Jones, by Herman “Jr.” Johnson
Get It On, Jones (USA 19:44) A Small Town Private Investigator in the 1970s works to keep his home safe.
Best Short Film – Honorable Mention
The Candy Tin by Shane Butler
The Candy Tin (USA 14:30) An Irish immigrant picks up a gleaming “Ruth’s Home Run” candy tin in a general store in 1920s America. From the rocking 50s to the dour 2000s to The Future, the candy tin travels through modern America. The Future is The Past.
Best LGBTQ Short Film
Static Space by John Klein and Kate Black-Spence
Static Space (USA 28:43) A young woman struggling to figure out her place and identity inadvertently stumbles across a frequency on her ham radio. She makes contact with an astronaut currently orbiting Earth. The two women are presented with the opportunity to find meaningful connections, even while worlds apart.
International Awards
Best International Feature Film
Shadows and Lies, by Joseph Graves
Shadows and Lies (China 1:18:04) Set in Beijing, China, SHADOWS, AND LIES is a dark comedy concerning an aging vampire hunter, Sonny Ray Briggs, from Blanchard Springs, Arkansas, who seeks revenge on the vampires who murdered his wife. Chasing the “long tooths” from Arkansas to Beijing, Sonny Ray is assisted in his sanguinary quest for retaliation by Bobo Lin. This blue-haired, 20something Beijing girl has decided to devote her life to “killing evil” and Serenity, a mute man with a penchant for eating bugs.
Best International Short Film
Far From the Sun, by Javier Prato
Far From the Sun (Argentina 15:00) Amid an economic crisis in Argentina, Roberto, a small neighborhood grocer, goes to Los Angeles with his wife, his child who has Down syndrome, and his grandmother, who does not travel.
Best International Short Film – Honorable Mention
Shaking A Singapore Spear by Hannes Rall
Shaking A Singapore Spear (Germany 16:57) An animated documentary about the relevance of Shakespeare’s classical works for digital natives in Singapore: Live action and animation.
Film Accessible Winners
Best Film Accessible Feature Film
Sign The Show by Cat Brewer
Sign The Show (USA 1:35:38) Sign the Show: Deaf Culture, Access & Entertainment brings together entertainers, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HOH) community, and American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters to discuss accessibility at live performances in a humorous, heartfelt, and insightful way.
Best Film Accessible Short Film
I/O by Carl Hansen
I/O (USA 5:33) A man struggles with telling his girlfriend that he’s dating her through his robot.
Best Film Accessible Short Film – Honorable Mention
Carrots, by Karren Kennedy
CARROTS (USA 5:45) A LOCAL NEWSCASTER, BEFRIENDS A BLIND WOMAN AT THE PLASTIC SURGEON’S OFFICE.
Indigenous Film Winners
Best Indigenous Short Film (tie)
I am the Warrior, by Tara Audibert
I Am The Warrior (Canada 7:52) A Residential School Story. A mother and daughter Fox have a poor relationship. The daughter wants to the right the residential schools’ wrongs and is committed to making her mother this way. She becomes the Warrior in her thoughts to save the young version of her mother, only to find her mother is the true Warrior after surviving Residential School.
The Old Man Next Door, by Aidan Otene Dickens
The Old Man Next Door (New Zealand 15:00) Matiu, a war veteran who struggles with PTSD and agoraphobia, cannot leave the safety of his home since his wife’s passing. Shy student Yvonne from next door, his only visitor in self-imposed isolation, struggles with her mental health. Distraught when her boyfriend leaves her, she stops taking her medication and soon spirals out of control. Matiu is the only witness to her descent into madness, which threatens her life. He must find the strength to cross the threshold and save her or remain a prisoner of his fear.
Screenplay Winners
Best Overall Feature Screenplay & Best Dramatic Feature Screenplay
SERENADE OF THE VULTURE – JOSEPH DIONISIO
AFTER A PALM BEACH BILLIONAIRE KILLS A MAN IN A HIT-AND-RUN ACCIDENT, THE ONLY WITNESS — A HOMELESS ASIAN-AMERICAN WOMAN WITH A GENIUS IQ — EMERGES TO BLACKMAIL HIM.
Best Story Aching To Be Told
THE MULLIGAN CAPER – HENRY P. GRAVELLE
LEAVING A HARSH LIFE FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE RAILS, A YOUNG MAN LEARNS THE IMPORTANCE OF SURVIVAL, FRIENDSHIP, AND LOVE WITHIN AN EVER-CHANGING WORLD, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PAST CATCHES UP.
Best Comedy Feature Film Screenplay
MILKWEED MANOR – ALEXIA KOSMIDER, MARIANNE MESSINA
THE ARRIVAL OF SMOLDERING VIETNAM VET CHARLES BRINGS DISRUPTION INTO THE ORDERLY ROUTINE OF MILKWEED MANOR, ASSISTED LIVING. RECOVERING FROM RECENT KNEE SURGERY, CHARLES ATTRACTS THE RESIDENT HUSBAND-HUNTER, DOROTHY, WHO SETS HER WILES ON HIM, EVEN AS HE BECOMES INTRIGUED BY A FELLOW BIBLIOPHILE LIVING AT THE MANOR, EMILY. EMILY’S TENTATIVE STEPS TO CLAIM A LIFE AROUND SIMPLE PLEASURES ARE REPEATEDLY INTERRUPTED BY THE CAJOLING PRESENCE OF HER WELL-MEANING BUT DISCONNECTED DAUGHTER ELIZABETH WHO WISHES TO RELOCATE EMILY TO FLORIDA, FAR AWAY FROM THE MANOR, HER BELOVED GARDEN, AND ITS PRECIOUS MONARCH BUTTERFLIES. AS EMILY AVOIDS ELIZABETH AND THE TOPIC OF FLORIDA, SHE AND CHARLES STRIKE UP AN UNLIKELY ROMANCE. BUT LIKE THE MILKWEED EMILY PLANS TO PLANT IN THE MANOR’S GARDEN, THEY MUST FIRST WEED OUT A SERIES OF HILARIOUSLY RIOTOUS MISUNDERSTANDINGS FOR THEIR ROMANTIC COMMITMENT TO FLOURISH.
Best Short Screenplay (tie)
CHERRY SORBET – DANIEL LATCH
A GUY GOES INTO A CONVENIENCE STORE AND PRETENDS HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT TO BUY.
AISE 18 – MADELINE TSAI
A COLLEGE STUDENT GOES TO HER COLLEGE LIBRARY ONLY TO FIND A SECRET. SHE ENDS UP IN A MYSTERIOUS HALLWAY WHERE SHE WITNESSES THE LIBRARIAN MURDERED AND NEARLY MURDERED HERSELF. SHE MANAGES TO ESCAPE THE HALLWAY, ONLY TO FIND THAT THE LIBRARIAN IS ALIVE.
Script Accessible Awards
Best Script Accessible Feature Screenplay
THE IMPASSIONED BUCKLER – ROB BYRNES
WHEN HIS DAUGHTER IS ACCEPTED TO A PRESTIGIOUS HIGH SCHOOL, A SINGLE DAD SUFFERING FROM THE PSEUDOBULBAR EFFECT RESORTS TO ENTERING AN ELIMINATION BOXING TOURNAMENT TO PAY HER TUITION.
Best Script Accessible Short Screenplay
CALL ME NEVADA – ALEXANDER JULIAN III
AN OLD ALUM REMEMBERS A MOST UNUSUAL CLASSMATE…
Play/Musical Winner
Best Play/Musical
WILDA – HALLIE JANE STEPHENSON
IN THE HEART OF THE WILDERNESS, HENRI, A BELOVED WOODCARVER, AND HIS WIFE RAISE THEIR CHILDREN WILDA AND ROBIN IN AN ISOLATED TOWN CALLED WOODSMUFFEN. ONE NIGHT THEIR COTTAGE IS SET ABLAZE SUDDENLY, KILLING HENRI’S WIFE AND FATALLY WOUNDING HIS TWO YOUNG CHILDREN. USING HIS MAGICAL AXE, HE CARVES HIS CHILDREN OUT OF WOOD, BRINGING THEM BACK TO LIFE. THE TWO TEENS FIND IT DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE THEIR NEW LIVES, AS PEOPLE MADE OF WOOD ARE FROWNED UPON BY THOSE FOLLOWING THE CRUEL TOWN BLACKSMITH FOWLER. WILDA AND ROBIN MUST NAVIGATE THEIR NEW CHALLENGES, CONFRONT A SINISTER FORCE LIVING IN THE TOWN, AND FIND HOPE, LOVE, TRUTH, AND REDEMPTION.
Music Winners
Best Song – Click on the image below to hear the song.
Shiver, by Logan Hale
Best Music Video
A Maiden Not Made of Clay, by Shumile, Kohei Takeda
A Maiden Made Not of Clay (Japan 6:00) The setting of this story is early modern Ireland. Many battles broke out. The bard harper keeps playing the harp, recalling his memories. His mind is stuck in the past and can’t be happy until he notices the incredible truth.
Best Music Video Honorable Mention
Stand Up, by Daniel Osorio
“Stand Up!” (USA 4:00) In 1985, Juanita Meza Velasquez organized to paint a 16’ x 82’ Chicano mural on the wall of Payless ShoeSource at 2048 Story Rd, San José, CA 95122, near King and Story Roads. Juanita organized what muralist José Meza Velasquez would later title “Mural de La Raza” as a tool to end barrio warfare and empower graffiti artists and barrio youth. The “Mural de La Raza” depicted the history and culture of Precolumbian lore, the Mexican Revolution, the Chicano Movement, local figures, as well as the very youth who assisted in painting the mural.