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EXCLUSIVE: Dances With Films: LA, nan independent-focused movie festival, has wrapped its 29th version pinch nan position of awards.
Bandit, directed by Brian L. “BLT” Tan, won nan Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature. Wafda Saifan Lubis, Roy Sungkono, T. Rifnu Wikana, and Claresta Taufan prima successful nan action-thriller from Indonesia and nan U.S. Logline: “With thing near to lose, 2 hopeless friends bargain an abandoned G-Wagon for a speedy score. What they didn’t count on? A corpse successful nan trunk — and nan group who put it there.”
Dances With Films: LA hosted nan world premiere of Bandit. Tan’s erstwhile directing credits see Murder Below Deck (2024) and nan 2025 Indonesian TV bid Theo & Ruza.
An Honorable Mention successful nan Best Narrative Feature class went to Angeleno, directed by Jay Diaz.
Earning nan festival’s Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature was The Last Place connected Earth, directed by David Booth Gardner. The movie is described arsenic “a travel into Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem – wherever tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans still roam free – that follows a group of wildlife activists who consequence everything to prevention this untouched wilderness from forbidden deforestation.”
Gardner, Nanang Sujana, and Shayne McGrath produced The Last Place connected Earth, which held its world premiere astatine Dances With Films: LA.
Two films earned Honorable Mentions successful nan Best Documentary Feature category: Boaz Dvir’s To Kill a Nazi (narrated by Jason Alexander), and Jon Bolerjack’s Stan Lee: The Final Chapter, astir nan precocious comic book maestro and efforts to rate successful connected his likeness and legacy.
Godpower, directed by Geoff Browne, took nan Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short. Honorable Mentions successful that class went to Cornerman, directed by Sam Findlay, and Dropping Off, directed by Will Mayo and Ian Scott McGregor.
The Grand Jury prizes are wished by erstwhile winners of nan festival. DWF besides presents Industry Choice Awards, which are selected by “industry powerhouse executives for illustration Steve Wegner (Alcon Entertainment) and JC Spink (BinderSpink),” according to nan show website. The Industry Choice Awards are chosen from among each films successful nan festival, including features and shorts successful each sections.
The Industry Choice Award (under 40’) went to The Expiration of Darius Campbell, written and directed by Charlie Roth. David Hemphill, Tony Nevada, and Paula Rhodes prima successful nan comedic short. Logline: “In a retro-futuristic ‘Revitalization Suite,’ a female pays for her dormant hubby to beryllium resurrected for 30 seconds truthful she tin face him astir his infidelity and get nan closure she needs.”
The Industry Choice Award (over 40’) went to nan aforementioned documentary Stan Lee: The Final Chapter, directed by Jon Bolerjack. The movie is investigative successful nature.
“A communicative of mistreatment and duplicity, this is nan communicative of really comic book fable Stan Lee landed successful nan mediate of a ungraded arsenic melodramatic arsenic immoderate superhero saga,” sounds nan Dances With Films: LA website. “The events are chronicled by filmmaker Jon Bolerjack, who became an adjunct to Lee and a fixture of his soul circle. Jon gained unprecedented entree and filmed everything he saw. What he uncovered was a thriving marketplace wherever Lee’s signatures and memorabilia were converted into immense sums of money, while rival figures and competing interests battled for power complete Lee’s luck and legacy. After years spent documenting these events and trying to bring nan communicative to light, Bolerjack is fresh to stock this shocking and profoundly heartbreaking communicative pinch nan world.”
Littermates, directed by Scott Tinkham and Michael Woloson, won nan Competition (Narrative) Feature Audience Award. The Documentary Feature Audience Award was shared by 2 films: My Name Is Gitta, directed by Beatrix Ryle, and Tell Me About Tomorrow, a movie astir precocious TikTok prima Cooper Noriega, directed by Brad Alexander.
Dances With Films: LA unfolded astatine nan TCL Chinese 6 analyzable wrong Ovation LA successful Hollywood. These are further awards presented Sunday night:
MIDNIGHT AUDIENCE AWARD
PHYSICAL TOUCH
Director: Jesse Montagna; Writer: Kendra Baude; Producers: Marki Yaccino and Jesse Montagna
FUSION FEATURE AUDIENCE AWARD
FACE LOVE
Director/Writer: Gerald Fillmore; Producers: Jorge Alonzo, Victor Corales, Gerald Fillmore
DOWNBEAT AUDIENCE AWARD
MONEY
Director/Writer: Jordyn Apostolache; Producers: Moving Media, Dani Mejía
DANCES WITH KIDZ PRO AUDIENCE AWARD
I GOT NEXT
Director/Writer: Christopher Baxter; Producers: Angel Williams, Andrew Pilkington, Ramfis Myrthil, Keonia Williams, McKarah Dreyfous and Christopher Baxter
SERIES AUDIENCE AWARD
PEOPLE OF THE WEST
Directors: Christopher Nataanii Cegielski, Phillip Montgomery, Josh Baker
Writers: Maya Rose Dittloff, Bradley Jackson, Marilyn Thomas, Diego D. Moreno, Kris L. Crenwelge
Producers: Brad Munoa, Nico Magee, Joseph Eardly, Edward Hambleton, Rachel Wasserman, Amanda Erickson and Gemma Jordan
COMPETITION (NARRATIVE) SHORTS AUDIENCE AWARD
YOU COULD’VE BEEN A NURSE
Director/Writer: Meg Mateo; Producers: Jaymar Cabebe and Dianne Que
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS AUDIENCE AWARD
DUAL WIELDER
Director: Julia Boyd; Producers: Julia Boyd, Marissa Paiva, Barrett Thomas, Meredith Stein
FUSION SHORT AUDIENCE AWARD
PLASTIC PASTURES
Director/Writer: Darren Rubin; Producer: Dariush Ghaffari
