The Ann Arbor Film Festival is proud to announce this year’s award-winning filmmakers selected by jurors, Osbert Parker, Lynne Sachs, and Lisa Steele. Thank you, filmmakers and artists, for bringing remarkable and diverse works to our festival and thank you to everyone who watched and participated in our first virtual festival!

The Ann Arbor Film Festival provides direct support to filmmakers. Our 2020 awards competition presents $22,500 to filmmakers through cash and in-kind awards that include camera equipment and digital scanning services. Winning an award at the AAFF can qualify filmmakers for Oscar® nomination by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the short film category (qualifying awards are Best of Festival, Best Experimental Film, Best Animation, and Best Narrative).

Watch the award-winning films from the 58th AAFF! By popular demand, we've added a THIRD and FOURTH awards screening in order to show all the films that were recognized. See schedule details below. 

Award Screening 3 | Sunday, March 29, 7:45pm EDT Award Screening 4 | Monday, March 30, 4pm EDT

58th Ann Arbor Film Festival Awards:

• Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival:Goodbye Fantasy - Amber Bemak and Nadia Granados
• Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker: I Dream of Vietnam - Jiayu Yang
• Kodak Cinematic Vision Award: E-Ticket - Simon Liu
• Best Experimental Film: Video Blues - Emma Tusell 
• Best Documentary Film: Kere mattu Kere (The Lake and The Lake) - Sindhu Thirumalaisamy
• Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film: The Golden Legend - Chema García Ibarra and Ion de Sosa
• Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film: Freeze Frame - Soetkin Verstegen
• Cutters Studios Archival Film Award: The Deepest Hole - Matt McCormick
• Gil Omenn Art & Science Award: Home in the Woods - Brandon Wilson 
• Prix DeVarti for Funniest Film: SPENCER'S SLIGHTLY IMPERFECT PEEP SHOW A.K.A. MICRO-BURLESQUE - Gary Schwartz  AND I’m Not A Robot - Sean Buckelew
• The Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for an Emerging Experimental Video Artist: Scar - Leilei Xia  AND Someday - Páraic Mc Gloughlin
• The Eileen Maitland Award: Umbilical - Danski Tang
• PROCAM Best Regional Filmmaker Award: Blue - Laura Magnusson
• George Manupelli Founder’s Spirit Award: Queering di Teknolojik - Timothy Smith
• The No Violence Award: Green Ash (Ceniza Verde) - Pablo Mazzolo
• UMCU Audience Award: Tetlalli: The Place of Stones - Miguel Nájera
• Leon Speakers Award for Best Sound Design: Who’s Afraid of RGB? - Billy Roisz
• Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film: Vertigo A.I. - Chris Peters
• Tíos Award for Best International Film: The Eyes of Summer - Rajee Samarasinghe
• \aut\ FILM Award for Best LGBTQ Film: Why Can't I Be Me? Around You - Harrod Blank
• Overture/Wazoo Award for Best Music Video: Diamonds - Tobias Kubli and Tillo Spreng
• Juror Awards