Julio O Ramos’ Peru-US entry Behind The Mirrors (Detras Del Espejo) won the 2012 Palm Springs International ShortFest’s Best Of Festival Award on Sunday (24).

The winner receives a $2,000 cash prize and may become eligible to submit the film to for Oscar consideration.

The Panavision Grand Jury Award and a Panavision Camera Package valued at $60,000 went to Paulie (US) by Andrew Nackman, while the Future Filmmaker Award and a $2,000 cash prize went to Rajinder Sawhney for UK entry Khaana.

The audience award for live-action was presented to A Curious Conjunction Of Coincidences (Netherlands) by Joost Reijmers. Nick Palmer took the documentary award for Mr. Christmas (US) and Kealan O’Rourke won the animation prize for The Boy In The Bubble (Ireland).

“It’s been a great year for ShortFest, with record crowds, a spectacular line-up of provocative and engaging new films and a banner year for the ShortFest Forums, with acclaimed talents like Robert Elswit, Gus Van Sant and Oorlagh George participating,” ShortFest programming and executive director Darryl Macdonald said. “All in all, we’ve achieved everything we set out to accomplish with this year’s festival. I’m confident we’ve provided a fitting springboard for the astonishingly accomplished young filmmakers who participated.”

Kathleen McInnis, ShortFest film curator and director of industry programming, added: “The quality, complexity and emotional veracity of our short films this year serves to platform the extraordinary talent of our ShortFest filmmakers: talent poised to explode into cinema screens worldwide over the coming years.”

The festival ran from Jun 19-25. For full details of winners visit the official website.

Topics