The Woods Hole Film Festival has come to a close. The oldest film festival on Cape Cod and the Islands, and known for spotlighting films about science, music, and New England, has announced the Jury Award and Audience Award winners of its 34th edition, held July 26–August 2, at venues in Woods Hole and Falmouth, Massachusetts. The festival featured 115 films—47 features and 67 shorts, representing 14 countries—including 7 World, 5 North American, and 2 US premieres.
Jury Awards Winners
- Feature Narrative – Drama: Mistura, directed by Ricardo de Montreuil. A love letter to Peru, this story of a woman’s journey from poverty to success celebrates the country’s culture, diversity, and cuisine.
- Feature Narrative – Comedy: The Fisherman, Zoey Martinson’s feature directing debut. A whimsical tale about a Ghanaian fisherman, a talking fish, and an unlikely quest to Accra—a winner at last year’s Venice Film Festival.
- Feature Documentary: Unearth, John Hunter Nolan, Auberin Strickland, and Dundein Strickland’s feature debut. that chronicles the resistance to North America’s largest copper mine in Alaska, exposing environmental dangers and showcasing grassroots activism.
- Short Comedy: Snowbird directed by Patrick Curran. A flat-Earth believer in the desert prepares to launch a homemade rocket to prove his theory, in a film that probes the peril of polarizing beliefs and how we communicate them. Inspired in part by the Sandy Hook shooting conspiracy theories in the director’s hometown of Newtown, CT.
- Short Dramatic: F*ck That Guy, directed by festival alum and New England native Hanna Gray Organschi. Set in 1992 Connecticut, the film follows a teen’s bid for validation from her intoxicating older best friend—played by Carys Douglas, daughter of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas.
- Short Documentary: Simple Machine, directed by Cambridge husband and wife Sara Hendren and Brian Funck. A poetic portrait of an architect-turned-amputee that explores the art of mechanics and the tools that shape our lives.
- Short Animation: Swipe, directed by Patrick Smith. Tired of dating apps, a woman constructs her perfect man—literally—from leftover parts.
- Sound Design Award (Dramatic or Comedy Short): The Woods Are Lovely, Dark, and Deep, directed by Mykel Salazar. Anjelica returns to a place of her youth under unwelcome circumstances, where sound plays a critical role in her emotional journey.
- IQ One World Award: Presented annually by the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers, an invitation-only membership organization, this award honors a film that exemplifies cinematic excellence and universal storytelling that fosters global understanding. This year’s winner is Comparsa, the feature debut by Wayland, MA natives Vickie Curtis (also a writer for Jury Award winner Unearth) and Doug Anderson and executive produced by Jayro Bustamante (Ixcanul, La Llorona). In the film two young Guatemalan sisters use art and performance to expose, denounce, and heal from violence targeting women and girls in their country.
UNEARTH: Winner of the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature
Audience Award Winners
Oscar-nominated director Kim Snyder’s latest feature documentary, The Librarians, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, won Audience Awards for both Best of the Fest and Best Documentary, frequently a harbinger of an Oscar nomination or even a win. The film follows several librarians from Texas, Florida, and other states affected by book bans, who unite to examine how book restriction policies are shaping library collections.
New England was well represented among Audience Award winners:
- Feature Narrative: Shattered Ice, the feature debut by Needham native Alex Ranarivelo. Inspired by a wave of athlete suicides in the director’s hometown, the film tells the story of a New England teenage hockey player who attempts to navigate life after his best friend—the school’s star player—dies by suicide.
- Short Comedy: My Kind of People, directed by Joe Picozzi. After a DNA test uncovers his father’s adoption, a proud paesano from Providence, Rhode Island grapples with the revelation that he’s not actually Italian American.
Other Audience Award winners include:
- Short Documentary: The Changebaker, directed by Courtney Dixon. A Latin bakery becomes the heart of immigrant activism following a wave of ICE raids in a Southern town.
- Short Dramatic: Saverio, directed by Ellen Ancui. When a young Korean woman desperate to get to an important networking opportunity finds a Mexican senior with the beginnings of dementia abandoned in her car, she must grapple with an unsupportive system and her own priorities.
- Short Animation: Swipe, directed by Patrick Smith. Tired of dating apps, a woman constructs her perfect man—literally—from leftover parts.
Special guests included part-time Martha’s Vineyards residents Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy, The Leftovers) and her husband, director Brad Silberling (Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Moonlight Mile). Brenneman presented Overcome, her filmed, one-woman performance about parenting and advocating for her daughter, recorded live at the Cotuit Center for the Arts on Cape Cod. Music writer Elijah Wald, whose book Dylan Goes Electric! inspired the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, joined a panel discussion on the intersection of music and film.
For more information about the virtual screenings and a complete list of awards, visit at www.woodsholefilmfestival.org, or follow on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
