CineYouth: Best of the Fest

Discover the next generation of great filmmakers with CineYouth’s 2023 award winners! From animated gems to impactful documentaries, experimental genre-benders to heartfelt dramas, this eclectic and impressive group of films are all made by directors 22-years-old or younger! Featuring works by Caleb Jacobson, Ian Kim, Andee Williams, Aniya Carey, Antoinette Green, Iyanna Jordan, Aria Gazor, Bjorgvin Arnarson, Irène-Kimberley Valin-Awashish, Julian Barahona, Janay Kelley, and Daisy Friedman.

A couple is a bright spot in their community, running a publishing business for Black creatives and growing a family through foster adoption, in the inspiring portrait and Documentary Award-winner Believe in Wonder (U.S.).

The largely animated documentary (and Animation Award-winner) My Sisters in the Stars (U.S./South Korea) provides vital historical perspective through the story of Lee Yong-soo, one of 11 living survivors of human trafficking in Japanese-colonized Korea.

Chicago Award-winner Taste of 75th (U.S.) is a celebration of famous eats on Chicago’s South Side featuring Brown Sugar Bakery, Original Soul Vegetarian, and Mabe’s Deli.

After an unfair evaluation of a classmate’s film, two students decide to get even with the principal in the absurdist Comedy Award-winner Judgment (Iran).

Experimental Award-winner TOWERFALL (U.S.) is a work of horror-tinged docufiction that presents footage and audio from the 1968 Yanaguana Tower of Americas tragedy to tell an alternate history of San Antonio.

Courageous and hopeful, the documentary essay and International Award-winner Lullaby (Canada) explores coming of age and the power of the unconscious.

Faced with financial challenges, a single mother takes her young son to the moon using the magic of storytelling in Audience Award-winner A Trip to the Moon (U.S.).

The River (U.S.) is an impassioned, poetic expression of a community’s response to the loss of a young girl that addresses sexual violence, grief, and trauma.

In Drama Award-winner As You Are (US), an interabled couple’s first night together leads them to confront complex relationships with desire, bodily autonomy, and what it means to truly love another person.

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