Siddharth

“Siddharth,” directed by Richie Mehta won the $45,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature, and “Happiness” won the $45,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the 23rd annual Heartland Film Festival (Oct. 16-25, 2014).  In the Shorts category, “Record”wins $5,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short and “Showfolk” wins $5,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Short.  

The Heartland Film Festival has earned the special designation of being a qualifying festival for the Annual Academy Awards® within the Short Films category. This means that the winner of the Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short Film (“Record,” directed by David Lyons) will qualify for consideration in the Short Films category of the Annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.

Winners and nominees include:

$45,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature
WINNER: “Siddharth” directed by Richie Mehta (India, Canada)

Mehendra is a chain-wallah, eking out a living fixing zippers on the bustling streets of New Delhi. To ease his financial woes, he sends 12-year-old Siddharth to work in a distant factory. When the boy doesn’t come home for the Diwali holiday, Mehendra and his wife Suman slowly begin to suspect that he was kidnapped by child traffickers. With few resources and no connections, Mehendra desperately travels to Punjab and Mumbai with the hope that whoever took Siddharth might return him unharmed.

 A powerful family drama both heart-rending and suspenseful, the film is the spellbinding and gorgeously wrought tale of one father’s journey across India in search of his son.

Happiness

$45,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Feature
WINNER: “Happiness” directed by Thomas Balmès

In 1999 King Jigme Singye Wangchuck made his landmark proclamation approving the use of television and the internet in the nation of Bhutan promising to usher in a new modern era. But in his speech, he cautioned the youth of the country: “The TV and the internet in its news and programs, has contents that are both harmful and useful to you and your country. For this reason, we must be careful and selective in using this new resource.” Over a decade later, the remote mountainside village of Laya is still without electricity. Peyangki, a dreamy and solitary nine-year-old monk living in a remote mountainside village yearns for the world to come to him in the form of a flickering television screen. Between studying and prayer, he watches as electrical cables and roads encroach upon his world. Finally, when he is taken to the capital city by his uncle, he discovers a world of cars, toilets and mannequins as they search for the perfect television to bring back to the village.

$5,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short
WINNER: “Record” directed by David Lyons (Australia)

$5,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Short
WINNER: “Showfolk” directed by Ned McNeilage (USA)

$2,000 prizes for the Jimmy Stewart Memorial Crystal Heart Awards
“Grand Canal,” directed by Johnny Ma (China)
“Our Curse,” directed by Tomasz Śliwiński (Poland)

$2,500 Grand Prize Winner of the High School Film Competition
“Chris,” directed by Zachary Oschin (USA)