THE JUDGEMENT Bulgarian Oscar Entry Wins Best Film at 2015 Heartland Film Festival

The 2015 Heartland Film Festival which ran October 16 to 25, 2015, announced its full slate of winners. “The Judgment” (pictured above) Bulgarian entry in the foreign-language film category of the 2016 Academy Awards® wins $45,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature. “Romeo is Bleeding” wins $45,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Feature, “The Way of Tea” wins $5,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short and “The 100 Years Show” 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, “The Way of Tea,” directed by Marc Fouchard, will qualify for consideration in the Live Action Short Subject category of the Annual Academy Awards®.

The 2015 Heartland Film Festival winners include:

$45,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature
“The Judgment,” directed by Stephan Komandarev (Bulgaria)

$45,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Feature
“Romeo is Bleeding,” directed by Jason Zeldes (USA)

$5,000 Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short
Underwritten by Heartland Film Endowment’s Sparks Vision Award
“The Way of Tea,” directed by Marc Fouchard (France)

$5,000 Grand Prize for Best Documentary Short
Underwritten by Heartland Film Endowment’s Sparks Vision Award
“The 100 Years Show,” directed by Alison Klayman (USA)

$5,000 Best Premiere for Narrative Feature
“Borderless,” directed by Amir Hossein Asgari (Iran)

$5,000 Best Premiere for Documentary Feature
“Big Voice,” directed by Varda Bar-Kar (USA)

$5,000 Indiana Spotlight Winner
“Citizen Teklit,” directed by Tim Taylor (USA)

$3,000 Summer White Lynch Memorial Award Winner – High School Film Competition Grand Prize
Underwritten by Gary D. & Marlene Cohen
“This Home Is Not Empty,” directed by Carol Nguyen (Canada)

$2,000 prizes for the Jimmy Stewart Memorial Crystal Heart Awards
“The Heart Thief,” directed by Ella Rubeli (Australia)
“Leidi,” directed by Simon Mesa Soto (Columbia, UK)

Audience Choice Award Winner, Narrative Feature
“Marie’s Story,” directed by Jean-Pierre Améris (France)