BHFF
Archives

2025

Award Winners

The 25th 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 25th 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.

2025 Beverly Hills Film Festival Golden Palm Award

Hello Beautiful

Director: Ziad H Hamzeh

Country: United States

RT: 90min

Synopsis: A powerful and emotionally charged film that delves into the harrowing yet transformative journey of Willow, a successful model whose life is shattered by a devastating breast cancer diagnosis. Based on Christine Handy’s bestselling novel Walk Beside Me, the film explores themes of identity, resilience, and the enduring strength of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity....

2025 Screenplay Awards

GOLDEN PALM AWARD

The Inferno
Daniel Talbott

1st RUNNER UP

Lost in Control
Maria Massei-Rosato

2nd RUNNER UP

Blue on Blue
Andrew Koponen

2025 Film Awards

Best Director

Engelstan

Country: Belgium

RT: 27min

Director: Manu Coeman

Deborah is a rather tough piano teacher. She lives in Calais, France. Mansour is a Syrian refugee with a continual big smile on his lips. He wants to cross the Channel to England. By accident, Deborah welcomes Mansour into her home. An improbable meeting, which awakens a buried and tragic past....

Best Actor, Best Film Screenplay

Sheepdog

Country: United States

RT: 128min

Director: Steven Grayhm

A decorated combat Veteran is court ordered into treatment when an ex-convict shows up on his doorstep and reveals that he must put himself back together again....

Best Actress

Good Morning Mom

Country: Turkey

RT: 17min

Director: Oben Yilmaz

At a very huge farm in the middle of nowhere, two sisters engage in a secret struggle with each other in order to win their mother's love. The family is irreparably shaken on the day the sister gets stuck in the swamp due to an unfortunate accident....

Best Producer

Legend Has It

Country: UK

RT: 112min

Director: Niall Johnson

After his mother disappeared when he was a child, Daruosh, has always struggled to find his place in the world. But when this misfit teenager, stumbles upon a magical portal to the mythical Hidden Kingdom, the very same place his mother used to tell him stories about when he was a child, he soon discovers his true destiny: To become a prophesied warrior, who as legend has it, must destroy an ancient evil curse....

Best Cinematography

Miracles

Country: United States

RT: 25min

Director: Ivan Nevesenko

In a war-ravaged Ukrainian town on the brink of a nuclear strike, Mira, a troubled young woman, desperately seeks ways to preserve her hope and sanity as the looming threat of imminent death hovers....

Best Editing

The Blue Diamond

Country: United States

RT: 17min

Director: Sam Fox

After the death of her toxic mother, a cultish 80s après ski club is the setting of a grieving daughter trying to find closure, but as usual with 80s ski clubs, nothing is as it seems (aliens)....

Best Foreign Film

How Kids Roll

Country: Italy

RT: 112min

Director: Loris Lai

In the midst of war-torn Gaza during the scond Itifada (2000 – 2005), a Palestinian boy, an Israeli boy, and a former surfing champion form an unlikely friendship over their mutual love for the water....

Best Short Film

The Suit

Country: United States

RT: 20min

Director: Carol McCann

The short film, The Suit, inspired by a song of the same name written by the legendary songwriter Hugh Prestwood, follows a salt of the earth older woman and her granddaughter who go in search of the perfect suit for Grandpa, a man who has spent his life “scratchin’ the earth.” This seemingly simple task is ultimately revealed to have a more profound and moving purpose.”...

Simone Signature Selection

Jacob de Haan – A Voice Out of Time

Country: Israel

RT: 72min

Director: Zvi Landsman

The death of Jacob Israel de Haan is commemorated annually by both the ultra-Orthodox Jews of Neturei Karta in Jerusalem, and the LGBTQ community in Amsterdam. He is a pioneer for both. In the early twentieth century, he published the first LGBTQ novel in the Netherlands. He then returned to his Jewish roots, migrated to Palestine as a Zionist, but became the spokesperson for the Orthodox community, spearheading its fight against Zionism. He was still publishing queer poetry in Dutch. He was killed in Jerusalem in 1924, and his assassins were never caught. Today, never-before-heard audio recordings shed new light upon the mystery of the first Zionist political assassination....

Best Student Film

The Sitdown

Country: United States

RT: 14min

Director: Merivelle

After twenty years in prison, Vincent, a Made Man in the Italian mafia, reunites with his estranged son, Christopher, at his wife’s memorial. Tension simmers as they navigate lost time, unresolved resentment, and Vincent’s struggle to recognize a city that has moved on without him. As the night unfolds, Christopher learns his father’s absence was a choice, not abandonment. The past can’t be changed, but The Sitdown leaves a lasting mark....

2025 SPECIAL JURY AWARDS

Best Feature Film

The Grand Strand

Country: United States

RT: 113min

Director: Luke Lowder

Burdened with choosing his legal guardians, Levi spends the summer before he starts high school with his cousins at their family’s trailer in Myrtle Beach, SC....

Best Documentary

Like Tears in Rain

Country: United States

RT: 81min

Director: Sanna Fabery de Jonge

All his life, charismatic and mysterious actor Rutger Hauer kept the outside world at arm’s length. Through private, never-before-seen footage, his goddaughter Sanna Fabery de Jonge helms a fascinating new feature documentary that reveals his life behind the scenes....

Best Short Film

The Remaining Ones

Country: Norway

RT: 24min

Director: Filip Koren

Peder reflects on his childhood memories when he attends to his father’s funeral. His older half siblings expects him to honor their father, but Peder’s memories are telling him otherwise....

Best Short Documentary

After the Bomb

Country: United States

RT: 19min

Director: Heather Brumley

In an era where the violence of war often leaves victims forgotten, a woman whose life was devastated by a bomb in Northern Ireland joins with fellow victims and survivors to fight for restitution and acknowledgment from a negligent government. Amidst her fight, she finds new healing in a friendship based on shared need, where one walks and the other sees....

Best Animated Film

Jus d’Orange

Country: France

RT: 14min

Director: Alexandre Athané

Toni, an orange grower, sees his life flash by, swallowed up by an industrialized world that overwhelms him. As the modern world encroaches on his peaceful existence, he is left to grapple with his memories. Only a tender recollection from his past can save him and restore the connection he once had with nature and himself....

2025 AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS

Best Animated Film

The Illusionist Dilemma

Country: Italy

RT: 5min

Director: Carlo De Togni

At the legendary Robert-Houdin Theatre, escape artist Houdini meets cinema pioneer Méliès, plunging into a world where reality bends at will. Among talking heads, philosophizing elephants, and physics-defying fish, their lively exchange conceals a deep reflection on human creativity. As Houdini attempts to express his thoughts on progress, Méliès’ fantastic distractions blur the line between illusion and reality....

Best Short Documentary

Call Me Shamsz

Country: United States

RT: 11min

Director: Geoff Browne

At 15, Shamsz’s world was shattered by a shocking diagnosis. Now, a decade later, this documentary follows his journey from despair to hope, as he inspires Nigeria’s youth....

Best Documentary

I’m Only Blind

Country: United States

RT: 65min

Director: Kamelya Alexan

At 66 years old, Tim Paul is redefining what it means to live fully. Blind since childhood, Tim has completed 23 marathons, skis downhill, sails, swims, bikes, and even plays the flute and piano. He works full-time, serves his church, and refuses to let his disability limit his passions or pursuits....

Best Short Film

Dizzy

Country: United States

RT: 18min

Director: Zac La Roc

Dylan and Lizzy are best friends, growing up in a typical dystopian suburbia. Dylan is all gas, no brakes. Lizzy is more in touch with the risk verses benefit equation. Tonight, we join the unlikely duo as they drop acid, steal a car, and head out. The wild sequence of events that ensue remind us all that life’s a trip, might as well enjoy the ride....

Best Feature Film

All There Is

Country: United States

RT: 112min

Director: Kit Williamson

A troubled teenager’s world is upended when a tragedy involving her best friend is blamed on her filmmaker father’s controversial sci-fi movie. As she struggles to navigate the aftermath, she eventually comes to a deeper understanding of herself and the people around her. Once free from her own prejudices, she is able to better understand her friend’s trajectory which ultimately leads to an unexpected and surprising healing between cultures and generations....

2025 Juries

Jeff Rice

Jeff Rice is recognized as one of the top Independent Producers in Hollywood. He has worked on well over 130 films in his lucrative career as producer and executive producer. ...

Januel Mercado

Januel Mercado most recently collaborated with director Joel Crawford and producer Mark Swift on Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, making his debut in the role of co-director. ...

Michele Kanan

Michele Kanan was living in the suburbs, carpooling and running a successful medical practice when she decided to step out of her comfort zone to make a movie. ...

Sean Kanan

Emmy Award-winning producer, Emmy-nominated actor, and acclaimed author Sean Kanan has carved out an impressive career in the entertainment industry. ...

Arnold Schwartsman

London born Arnold Schwartsman is the Oscar winning Producer and Director of the feature documentary “Genocide” (1981), and a renowned designer and prolific author. ...

Roberta Augusto

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

Joel Crawford

Influenced as a young kid by the 1988 animated cyberpunk action film “Akira” by Katsuhiro Otomo, Crawford knew at early age that he loved animation. ...

Amanda Sthers

Amanda Sthers is a French artist living in Los Angeles. ...

Rob Minkoff

In 1982, Minkoff began his career as an intern at Walt Disney Productions, apprenticing under Eric Larson. ...

Tucker Tooley

Tucker Tooley, is CEO of Tucker Tooley Entertainment, a prominent film and television finance and production company established by Tooley and Greg Renker in 2016. ...

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. ...

BHFF
Archives

2025