AIFF2025: The Awards

 Notice that I didn't say, "The Winners."  Awards is a little better.  There are objective criteria, but if the technical quality is more or less equal, and the content is good, and the story - whether a narrative or a documentary is compelling and well told, then picking who gets an award and who doesn't gets subjective.  The topic is one you are interested in.  You 'like' the actors.  The story touches close to home.  

But awards play an important role for the film makers.  They can use them as evidence that people liked their film.  It gets the attention of other festivals and distributors.  

As  I went through the list, I've added a √ to the movies I thought were really good and I agree it was deserving.  But I didn't see all of the films, so no √ doesn't mean I didn't like them.  In fact, I think all the film makers - particularly those who completed features - have accomplished something noteworthy.  They've managed to pull together a story, a cast, a crew, funding, and pulled off, despite the odds, a full length movie.  That's like running a dozen marathons.  Even if there are flaws, it's still a huge achievement and my respect and gratitude goes out to all the filmmakers whose films we saw this last week.  

So with that preface, here's the email filmmakers got this morning from the directors of AIFF2025.

25th - ANCHORAGE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS 

 

JURY AWARDS

 

Burt at guitar

Narrative Feature - Burt - Joe Burke    

 

Documentary Feature - Remaining Native - Paige Bethmann √

 

Made In Alaska [Narrartive] Feature - The Ladder - Emilio Torres  

 

Made In Alaska Doc Feature - K'etniyi: The Land Is Speaking to Us - Rory Banyard

 

Wáats'asdíyei Joe 
and Nayak'aq Yaahl
Yates

Made in Alaska Narrative Short - My Message To You -  'Wáats'asdiyei Joe Yates √

 

Made In Alaska Doc Short - Carving Lines - Dimitri Surnim

 

International Feature - The World Outside - Katrine Eichberger, Nikolas Mühe √

 

Humanitarian Award - Hidden Roots - Brad Hilwig √

 

Narrative Short - The Singers - Sam Davis 

Josefin Kuschela

 

Documentary Short - Greenland: Living with the Inuit - Josefin Kuschela 

 

International Short - Pierre West - Henrik Larson, Jakob Arevarn 

 

Anchorage Wolverines Sports Documentary Award - Bonnie Thunders: That Beautiful Moment - Corey Bayes 

 

Anchorage Wolverines Sports Short Documentary Award: Shaped By Land - Emily Sullivan 

 

Music Documentary: Goddess Of Slide - Alfonoso Maiorana

 

Music Video: Begin Again - Ava Acres and Matt Farren  tied with Ideal Distance - Danny Chandia 

 

Pilot: Bad Survivor - Alex Dvorak , Katie North 

 

iPhone Super Short  -  Mom And Max - Jade Song 

 

Animation Short: A Little Story About Forever - Max Romey  √

 

Katrine Eichberger and
Nikolas Mühe

Director of Narrative Feature: Katrine Eichberger, Nikolas Mühe - The World
Outside √

 

Director of Documentary Feature: Ryan Flynn - You're No Indian √

 

Director of a Narrative Short:  Chelsea Christer -  Out For Delivery

 

Carrie Lederer

Director of Documentary Short: Carrie Lederer - Wild Horses at the Door √

 

Actor in a Feature film - Laurence Shou for Rosemead √ and Burt Berger for Burt

 

Actress in a Feature film - Katrine Eichberger for The World Outside  √  and Renne Gagner for  I've Seen All I Need To See 

 

I've Seen All I Need To See
Team

Independent Voice Narrative - I've Seen All I Need to See, Zeshaan Younus, tied with Lockjaw - Sabrina Greco 

 

Independent Voice Documentary - Blood and Guts, Katie Green and Caryle Rubin

 

Reel World Impact Award: Comparsa, Vickie Curtis, Doug Anderson, Lesli Pérez and Lupe Pérez  √

Greg Rubner

 

Comedy Short:  What The Heck is Going On. - Greg Rubner 

 

Thriller Short: Hide - Brenden Hubbard

Explorer's Club Alaska Chapter Recognition Awards 

 

Exploration Documentary - The Bride of Mont Blanc - Grace T.S.P. 

 

Exploration Documentary -  In Search of the Arctic Fox - Zach Hellmuth

 

Exploration Documentary - Ashes of the Mountain - Joseph Lindley

 

Exploration Ethics Documentary - Special Recognition Award - Among Thieves -  Dr. Gino Caspari and Trevor Wallace √

Explorer's Achievement Award: The Last Dive, Cody Sheehy and Terry Kennedy 

 

 

Native Voices Legends Awards:

 

Jerry Laktonen - Culture Bearer (For reviving Alutiiq Mask-making)

 

Velma Wallis: Storyteller (Author of Two Old Women)

AUDIENCE AWARDS

 

Ryan Flynn

Narrative Feature - Rosemead - Eric Lin √

 

Documentary Feature - You're No Indian - Ryan Flynn √  

 

International Feature - The Mariana Trench -  Elieen Byrne 

 

Emilio Torres

Made In Alaska Feature Narrative - The Ladder - Emilio Torres √

 

Made In Alaska Documentary Feature -  K'etniyi: The Land Is Speaking to Us - Rory Banyard 

 

Made in Alaska Narrative Short - Matt Megan and Mike dont give an F about Codependency - Justin Lawrence Hoyt, Matt Jardin

 

Made In Alaska Documentary Short - Sunrise Summer -  Ian Mayer, Erin K Stein

 

Narrative Short - The Singers - Sam Davis 

 

Documentary Short - Greenland: Living with the Inuit -  Josefin Kuschela 

 

International Narrative Short - Hearts of Stone - Tom Van Avermaet

 

Music Video - Soiree -  Hannah Claire McDaniel  

 

Animation - A Little Story About Forever -  Max Romey √

SCREENPLAYS 

 

Feature  Screenplay:

Pangea Ultima - by Estevan Padilla -TIED with Mythomania by Nick Jones 

 

Short Screenplay

Parking by  Andrew Klaus-Vineyard

 

Pilot  Script 

Betty Lee Is Missing by Alysson Morgan 

In the past, I've sometimes blogged the awards as they were announced.  But in the past there were much fewer awards.  There was:

Winner, Runner Up, and Honorable Mention

in four or five categories - Narrative and Documentary Features, Narrative and Documentary Shorts, Made in Alaska.  These categories held for Jury Awards (from the judges within the Festival organizers, or film makers they reached out to), and Audience Awards - based on the ballots the audience marked after each showing.  

Sometimes the jurors came up with a special award to recognize an outstanding film that had some unique qualities and/or that didn't quite fit into the festival's categories.  

As I said above, awards play an important role in the post production struggle to get your film seen by audiences and even make some money.  So I think having more awards is good, but there are limits.  A festival doesn't want to be known as giving awards to everyone, because then the awards mean nothing.  Just getting accepted into a festival is a major achievement.  

I hope to follow up with my thoughts on some of my favorite films of the festival.  

AIFF 2025: Winning Films Shown Today From AIFF Instagram Post

"1pm Best of Shorts, a special collection celebrating some of our standout short films, including audience favorites, Best Director, the Humanitarian Award, Audience Favorite Music Video, and our iPhone Super Short Award winner. This block also includes a second screening of Two Old Women, which played out of competition and absolutely delighted us all.

3pm Documentary Feature, Comparsa, the recipient of AIFF's Real World Impact Award. A powerful and moving film that embodies why documentaries matter and how stories can create change beyond the screen.

5pm Narrative Feature, Burt, our Outstanding Jury Award winner. A true celebration of the independent spirit, heartfelt, hilarious, and wonderfully oddball in all the right ways. The kind of film that reminds us why indie cinema exists in the first place."

There are a lot of other winners from last night but the list I wrote down is sketchy.  There are lots of awards.  I'll get back to you later.  Our house guests won Best Actress and Best Directors of a Narrative Feature for The World Outside.  

More later, headed to the museum to see the shorts and documentary programs.  We've seen Burt.  

 

AIFF2025: Saturday: Don't Miss Two Old Women And The Award Ceremony. Sunday: Best of the Fest [UPDATED]

[UPDATED:  Saturday morning December 13, 2025:  The Native Shorts program Saturday afternoon at the Bear Tooth is sold out.]

 Saturday is a reduced schedule. I've got Sunday here too.  We've got Gwich'en and Glitched.

Anchorage Museum morning feature, then a move to the Bear Tooth.

10:30 am  Bonnie Thunders:  That Beautiful Moment

Here's information on Bonnie Thunders (the person, not the movie) from DNN (Derby News Network)

Bonnie Thunders, whose real name is Nicole Williams, grew up far from fame. She started out in synchronized skating, not the kind of place where people shout your name from the stands. But in 2006, she joined the Gotham Girls Roller Derby league in New York City. From that point, everything changed.

Her teammates still say she brought a calm focus that felt rare. She wasn’t loud; she just worked harder, trained longer, and thought deeper about the game. Wikipedia notes that she moved from a local skater to captain of the Gotham All-Stars in only a few years.

Bonnie Thunders and That Beautiful Moment

People often talk about Bonnie Thunder’s beautiful moment — not a single jam, but a kind of electricity that ran through her skating. She had a way of waiting, almost still, then bursting through a gap no one else saw. One stride later, the blockers were behind her, and the scoreboard was moving again.  [emphasis added]

That’s what made her famous beyond the sport itself. ESPN once called her the LeBron James of roller derby. It wasn’t just speed. It was how she turned reading a pack of moving bodies into art.

The Story of Bonnie Thunders Roller Derby

When fans say Bonnie Thunders’ roller derby, they mean the era when Gotham Girls couldn’t be stopped. Her leadership brought the team five world titles under the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association between 2008 and 2016.

Every season looked the same from the outside: Bonnie skating and Gotham winning this was always on the minds of the spectators. Inside the team, it was endless planning, tape study, and drills that left everyone breathless.

In 2017, she surprised the derby world by moving to Portland to join the Rose City Rollers, another powerhouse. ESPNW called it the biggest transfer in the sport. Yet, in true Bonnie fashion, she said little and let her skates do the talking.

If you're like me, you don't follow roller derby closely, or at all.  This seems like a great way to get an insider view of the sport and one of its greatest stars.  But appears this is a 2020 movie which is much older than festival guidelines allow.  This is the second film like that.  Haven't gotten an answer to my questions on why.  

BEAR TOOTH

12:30pm  Spotlight Selection Shorts

• Stronghold
• Christmas IRL
• The Singers
• Flavor of the Month
• Forged
• MascLooking
• Saverio

3pm  Native Voices

• My Message to You
• Alutiiq Superhero
• Shaped by Land
• Braids
• Witness:  Indigenous Arctic Voices
• The Woman Who Married A Bear
• Two Old Women

The Woman Who Married a Bear is a well known native story. 

Two Old Women is a well known and loved book.  When I taught a class that had a lot of women guest speakers, I gave out copies of the book as thank yous

Director on set with Two Old Women actors,
from email from the film making team

.  From the film's web page:

"Two elderly Gwich’in women —Ch’idzigyaak and Sa’—find themselves abandoned by their tribe during a brutally harsh famine. 

Devastated and scared of what the future holds, Sa' must convince Ch'idzigyaak that their survival is worth a fight and 'if we are going to die,then we should die trying to live'. 

Based on the novel by Velma Wallis 'Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival'"

"Shaaghan Neekwaii: Two Old Women is the first screen adaptation of Velma Wallis’s 1993 novel, filmed in Fairbanks, Alaska, and told entirely in the Gwich’in language. Directed by Gwich’in filmmaker Princess Daazhraii Johnson and starring Margaret Henry John and Brenda Kay Newman, the film explores themes of survival and resilience. Wallis has supported Johnson since she was first inspired by the book in her youth. “We know this story from our bones,” Wallis says. The film was produced by Deenaadai Productions, in partnership with Girinkhii - a Gwich'in language revitalization and cultural preservation organization." 

I'm guessing very few people in the world have ever seen a Gwich'in language movie.  

Williwaw Social

609 F Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501

6:00pm  [Or maybe 8pm] AWARDS CEREMONY 

The printed program says 6pm.  The online schedule says 8pm.  (I'm guessing it's 8pm, but I'm checking and will confirm here when I learn more.)  [Got a text back from the head of the AIFF Board saying 6-9pm for the Awards Ceremony.]  

Looking Ahead to Sunday, while I have a bit of time, there's one more film and the Best of the Fest - showings of the award winning films at the Museum.  

10:30 am  Glitched  - Zoe Quist  Feature Narrative

From VIMooZ:

Alaskan filmmaker Zoe Quist’s sci-fi comedy Glitched will close the 25th Silver Anniversary edition of the Anchorage International Film Festival on Sunday, December 14, 2025.

Raised in the frozen wilds outside Fairbanks and still calling Alaska home, filmmaker Zoe Quist (Raw Cut, Mining for Ruby) brings her latest feature back to the state for its Alaska premiere following its U.S. Premiere at the La Femme International Film Festival, where Quist won Best Feature Director.

Starring Mischa Barton (The O.C.), Abigail O’Regan (Spellbound), Donal Brophy (Sleep No More), Jack McEvoy (Vikings), Elijah Rowen (Vikings), and John Connors (Crazy Love, Re-Creation by Jim Sheridan), Glitched follows a pair of ambitious twins who turn their grandmother’s crumbling castle into a virtual-reality playground, only to accidentally open a supernatural portal. Cue one debonair 18th-century ghost, a race against time, and a castle full of unlikely heroes trying not to get stuck in the afterlife. What happens when a VR game unleashes a real ghost?

Glitched is written by Steve Grabowsky (Los Angeles) and produced by Maria O’Neill, p.g.a. (The Black Guelph), Susan Wright, p.g.a., and Zoe Quist. 

"the frozen wilds" is a favorite cliche for Outsiders talking about Alaska.  

Museum - Best of The Fest

1pm - Best Short Films

3pm - Best Documentary Feature

4pm -  Best Narrative Feature

Best, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.  But there are a number of films in each category that I would be comfortable with.  Documentary features may be the hardest category to choose a best from.  But there were also several excellent features.  And there were sooooo many shorts to choose from.  

 

AIFF 2025: Wild Horses and The World Outside And Much More Friday

 In addition to spending much of the day watching movies, we also have two film makers staying with us and so we talk when we get home at night.  Blogging suffers.  

Below is the Friday schedule from the AIFF website. (The link only takes you to the main schedule page and you have to click on Friday to get the details.)

Yesterday (really it feels like it was only this morning) I put up a video of our house guests talking about their feature narrative The World Outside.  This is a World Premier  The first public screening of this film.  Right here in Anchorage.  I haven't seen the film, but I've heard a lot about it from our houseguests, so go to the link above and watch the video of them. 

Waiting in the food line this afternoon at the Bear Tooth, before the documentary The Last Dive (which was worth seeing just for the wonder of watching huge oceanic manta rays) I met Carrie Lederer whose film Wild Horses At The Door plays in the Doc Shorts 2 program at 10:30 am at the E Street Theater. 

 [NOTE:  This has been moved from the museum as has the 1pm screening at the museum.  So this is different from the written program, but it was updated on the online program.]

Also, note that the online schedule is by venue first, then by time.  So there is a 10:30 film down at the bottom at the Alaska Experience Theater.  

The schedule formatting seems to have done weird stuff when I copied it from the website.  It's going on 1:30am now, so I'm going to leave it.  If it's too hard to read go to the AIFF website and pick Friday from the bar on the top of the schedule. 

Venue:

UPDATE: E Street Theater

315 E Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501

10:30 AM: Shorts Block: Doc Shorts 2 – Event Tickets

• Follow the Flower — Destyn Patera
• Brewer — Erika Valenciana
• Corteza — Simon Acosta
• Liam & Friends — Chad
• Loki Pete — BJ Bullert
• Wild Horses at the Door — Carrie Lederer

1:00 PM: Shorts Block: Is It Love? – Event Tickets

• The Wedding — Matt Latham
• Te Seguiré a la Oscuridad — Nicholas Luciano 
• Empano Gleasium — Joe Bowden
• I’m Not Sure — Mylissa Fitzsimmons
• Reminisce — Leslie Morris 
• Tango in Room 1310 — Colin Alistair Campbell
• Double Date — Hannah Wolf
• A King’s Curtain — Grant M. Johnson

Venue:

Anchorage Museum

625 C Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501

3:30 PM: Feature

• I’ve Seen All I Need To See — Zeshaan Younus – Event Tickets

6:00 PM: Feature

• The Long Run — Mylissa Fitzsimmons – Event Tickets

8:30 PM: Feature

• Lockjaw — Sabrina Greco – Event Tickets

Venue:

Alaskan Experience

333 W. 4th Avenue (NW corner of 4th & C St. – enter on C), Anchorage, Alaska 99501

10:30 AM: Feature

• Ashes of The Mountain — Joseph Lindley – Event Tickets

1:00 PM: Shorts Block: Arctic Shorts – Event Tickets

• Greenland – Living with the Inuit — Josefin Kuschela
• In Search of the Arctic Fox — Zach Hellmuth
• Let My People Go Skiing — Ellen Bradley

3:30 PM: Shorts Block: Alaska Doc Shorts – Event Tickets

• Iditarod: The Loneliest Road — Mason Quinn Schwarz
• The Story of a Slough — Dawson Brannan 
• Silver Rush — Kelsey Kroon 
• Hidden Roots — Brad Hillwig 
• Swift Current Swimmer — John W. Bushell

6:00 PM: Feature

• Comparsa — Vickie Curtis, Doug Anderson – Event Tickets

8:30 PM: Feature

• The World Outside — Katrine Eichberger, Nikolas Mühe – Event Tickets