Very Short Movies Founder and President Serge Polakoff and actress Linda Gray presented ten awards at the Second Annual Very Short Movies festival closing award presentation at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

The awards were in the competitive categories of drama, comedy, animation, documentary, experimental and music video. The “New Frontier” Award was also selected for the top innovative work of the festival and two Audience Choice Awards were tallied and announced at the closing night.

The Grand Jury Award and “Best of the Fest” went to VEND by Australian filmmaker James Findlay.

The international cadre of filmmakers from the United States and 11 countries included 40 of the represented filmmakers who attended in person. Many of them participated in “Open Access,” a mentoring program that included introductions to agents and film companies as diverse as CAA, Endeavor, Innovative Artists, Cartoon Network, The Collective, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Lions Gate Films, Paramount Vantage and Nickelodeon, among others.

“We are pleased with the growth of VSM in just the second year,” stated Mr. Polakoff. We increased our attendance to over 2,000 for just three days of competitive and special series. We are also proud that we were the very first film festival to present Oscar® winning and nominated shorts for our opening night program, while the glow was still apparent.”

VSM sponsors include Continental Airlines, Hollywood & Highland, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, American Cinematheque, Firestone Brewery, SAE Institute of Technology, TV5 Monde and LA Weekly.

For information and photos on the films and filmmakers, including special photos, go to www.veryshortmovies.com.

VERY SHORT MOVIES FESTIVAL


WINNERS

DRAMA
Lucky (UK), Avie Luthra
Avatar (Spain), Lluis Quillez
COMEDY
The Happiest Day Of His Life (USA), Ursula Burton
ANIMATION
Africa Parting (USA), Robyn Yannoukos
DOCUMENTARY
The Tribe (USA), Tiffany Shlain
MUSIC VIDEO
Victoria (USA), Marc Carlini
EXPERIMENTAL & GRAND JURY PRIZE “Best Of Fest”
Vend (Australia), James Findlay

Audience Award in Non-Fiction
Joey (USA), Nancy Stein
Audience Award in Fiction
A.W.O.L. (USA), Jack Swanstrom

New Frontier Award
Ephemera (USA), James Higgins


HONORABLE MENTIONS

COMEDY
George (Ireland), Rory Bresnihan & John Butler
ANIMATION
The Meatrix II (USA), Louis Fox
DOCUMENTARY
Tales Of Times Square (USA), Paul Stone
MUSIC VIDEO
PPL B TXT'N 2MUCH (USA), Brandon Li
EXPERIMENTAL
Elevator to the Scaffold (France), Antoine Carlier