BHFF
Archives

2018

Award Winners

The 18th Anniversary Edition of the Beverly Hills Film Festival has warmly welcomed an exceptional set of filmmakers and writers.

Remaining dedicated and focused on its artists’ creative vision, the Beverly Hills Film Festival® is more than honored to present the 18th Edition of its Awards with the close collaborative efforts of the Beverly Hills Film Festival Executive Directorial Team and the Beverly Hills Film Festival President of the Jury.

2018 Beverly Hills Film Festival Golden Palm Award

Christian Audigier the Vif

Director: Didier Beringuer

Country: United States

RT: 90min

Synopsis: This one-of-a-kind cinematic documentary presents the introspective life journey of fashion designer Christian Audigier, who created the 'Ed Hardy' brand based on the designs of famous American tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy. After being diagnosed with MDS, an aggressive form of blood cancer, Christian is forced to accept what lies ahead....

2018 Screenplay Awards

GOLDEN PALM AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY

Orson Welles Ashes

Debra Knox

1ST RUNNER UP

Tesla

Walter Stewart

2ND RUNNER UP

A Song Unsung

Elise Free

2018 Film Awards

Best Animated Film

The Wayward Kite

Country: China

RT: 8min

Director: Yuting Hsueh

A little kite breaks its tether, running away in its own odyssey of self-discovery....

Best Director

The Women Who Run Hollywood

Country: France

RT: 52min

Director: Julia Kuperberg and Clara Kuperberg

Before 1920 there were more women producers and directors in Hollywood than in the entire history of cinema. Going back over the fascinating careers of these women, from Alice Guy Blaché to Dorothy Arzner, including Lois Weber and Mary Pickford, one discovers with stupefaction a whole gallery of fabulous and passionate pioneers, who between 1910 and 1920 have been of crucial importance in the foundation of Hollywood and the film industry as we know it today. It is them who have directed the first films with a story line, invented color films and even the sound track. And however incredible this might sound today, these pioneers were even better paid than men. And what holds true of all of them? They were women and are forgotten....

Best Student Film

Father of Art

Country: United States

RT: 15min

Director: Freddy Macdonald

Dale Schröder (1951- 2029) was a Swiss artist known for creating AI human hybrids using social media platforms. At the insistence of an ambitious art curator, Dale agrees to introduce his work to the general public. Captured by a documentary ‘filmmaker’, the show’s opening night is a disastrous blend of confusion, fear, and revulsion....

Best Short Documentary

Cuban Heart

Country: United States

RT: 33min

Director: Jake Ajamian

In the year 2000, after almost forty years of exile in California, Armando Blanco was faced with the decision as to whether he should stay true to his moral duty, thus refusing to set foot again in communist Cuba, or to embrace the love he had for his dying brother. Armando found his way back to Cuba for one day to find himself once again amongst his own, immersed in hours full of joy and song. It was an unforgettable experience in the company of his loved ones who from that moment on, he would never see again....

Best Foreign Film

Bikini Blue

Country: Poland

RT: 84min

Director: Juliusz Machulski

BIKINI BLUE is a UK based Post War drama, where an English wife and a Polish husband look to build a new life in Britain, only for his past to come back to haunt them. Dora, a young English woman, starts her old, worn-out motorcycle to visit her Polish exile husband in the asylum after his failed suicide attempt. It won’t be just a peaceful and romantic evening – we are following Dora’s trip into the heart of her husband’s mystery....

Best Editing

Madhouse Mecca

Country: United States

RT: 72min

Director: Leonardo Warner

When an underwhelmed housewife meets a mischievous exotic dancer with a taste for trouble, an unlikely and dangerous friendship is formed that will change their lives....

Best Actress, Best Feature Film

Saviors

Country: United States

RT: 75min

Director: Christopher Greenslate

A young woman embeds herself in a white power group in order to find her adoptive African-American mother, but one night after the group returns from a rally they test her allegiance. Shot in a single, continuous take....

Best Actor

Proper Binge

Country: United States

RT: 106min

Director: Michael Burns, Dean Q. Mitchell

Based on the more somber aspects of life, ‘PROPER BINGE’ is a dark comedy exposing the life of an alcoholic striving for sobriety after a drunken mishap threatens his best friend’s life....

Best Cinematography, Best Documentary

Christian Audigier the Vif

Country: United States

RT: 90min

Director: Didier Beringuer

This one-of-a-kind cinematic documentary presents the introspective life journey of fashion designer Christian Audigier, who created the 'Ed Hardy' brand based on the designs of famous American tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy. After being diagnosed with MDS, an aggressive form of blood cancer, Christian is forced to accept what lies ahead....

Best Producer

The White House

Country: Germany

RT: 75min

Director: Fabia Mendoza

Rosa Parks’ house is set to be demolished, a man battling cancer is stuck between two abandoned houses, and the partial removal of a house in Detroit where dilapidated houses abound, somehow creates a scandal. In a time in which cartoon characters rule the world, values are shifted and lost. Ex-patriot artist Ryan Mendoza walks into a battlefield of racial tension, and political rot as he attempts to bring a home resembling the one he used to live in as a child in America, to where he now lives, in Berlin. The White House Documentary follows his interaction with the inhabitants of Detroit, from Gregg Johnson who donated a house for his art project on Stoepel Street, to Rosa Parks’ niece Rhea McCauley who allowed him to ship a house her aunt had lived in overseas. Ironically, from a country set on building a wall, the city in which the Rosa Parks’ house would be rebuilt was itself reborn of a wall being taken down. The White House Documentary is an offbeat homage to Detroit, a city unwilling to surrender....

2018 AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS

Best Short Film

Bloom

Country: United States

RT: 20min

Director: Paul Joseph

Bloom follows Annabelle, an inexperienced model, during her first professional shoot. Though young, she possess untapped potential that captures the interest of Jean, a well-known fashion photographer. Everything seems to be going smoothly until Jean’s assistant, Olivia, arrives at the studio. As Olivia questions Jean’s decision to shoot a model of Annabelle’s caliber, Annabelle’s confidence takes a hit. How far will she allow herself to be pushed in order to prove her worth?...

Best Short Film

Hiatus

Country: Switzerland

RT: 12min

Director: Kevin Haefelin

A philosophy teacher discusses religion in class. In the street he is confronted by his subject in an unexpected way....

Best Documentary

Unknown Distance

Country: United States

RT: 94min

Director: Gordon Clark

Without a crew, carrying only a video camera and a sudden and compelling commitment to understand and document their story, filmmaker, Gordon Clark, takes us on a journey with Marine Sniper, Sgt. Douglas Brown, across America, filming and bearing witness to the stories of this returning combat vet and his fellow soldiers. How do they fit back into a society that supported them when they enlisted, but became ambivalent when they returned to a country they killed to defend?...

Best Actress, Best Feature Film

Saviors

Country: United States

RT: 75min

Director: Christopher Greenslate

A young woman embeds herself in a white power group in order to find her adoptive African-American mother, but one night after the group returns from a rally they test her allegiance. Shot in a single, continuous take....

2018 SPECIAL JURY AWARDS

Best Short Film

My Indiana Muse

Country: United States

RT: 44min

Director: Jen Serena, Ric Serena

Through an unconventional sequence of events, artist Robert Townsend discovers his kodachrome muse and embarks on an ambitious and emotional project that will take more than a decade to complete. ...

Best Feature Film

Dominika

Country: Russia

RT: 80min

Director: Oleg Ageychev

An unusual baby, a girl named Dominika, was dumped off to a perspective architect Kostia. Every time Kostia gets angry – the baby grows up…...

Best Cinematography, Best Documentary

Christian Audigier the Vif

Country: United States

RT: 90min

Director: Didier Beringuer

This one-of-a-kind cinematic documentary presents the introspective life journey of fashion designer Christian Audigier, who created the 'Ed Hardy' brand based on the designs of famous American tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy. After being diagnosed with MDS, an aggressive form of blood cancer, Christian is forced to accept what lies ahead....

2018 Juries

Rudy Youngblood

Rudy Youngblood is a Native American of Comanche and Cree decent. ...

Paul Ruven

Emmy nominated, Paul Ruven, started with a student Oscar for the screenplay, Alaska, and an Academy Award for best foreign student film. ...

Katherine Kaufman

Katherine Kaufman, a Los Angeles native, is a seasoned film and television content distribution executive with over 20 years of experience in both international and domestic markets. ...

Pamela Wallace

Pamela Wallace is an American screenwriter and author. ...

Alfonso Arau

Alfonso Arau has had a long and fruitful career both in front and behind the camera. ...

Edward Ryan

Edward Ryan is the founder and CEO of TENAX Media, a new private equity backed entity that acquires international film and TV distribution rights. ...

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa got his first big break as an actor when he was casted in Bernardo Bertolucci‘s The Last Emperor. ...

Kirk Shaw

In September 2017, Kirk Shaw embraced a new film-making adventure by forming the publicly traded company, Wonderfilm, as a founding producer along with Dan Grodnik, Jeff Bowler and Bret Saxon. ...

Roberta Augusto

Roberta Augusto is Brazilian-born stalwart in the film industry, boasting an illustrious career spanning two decades. ...

Frederico Lapenda

Award-winning filmmaker Frederico Lapenda is a global executive who has worked in the entertainment industry for almost 30 years. Lapenda is a pioneer of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and is credited as one of those responsible for the globalization of sport. ...