23rd St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase Announces Award Winners, Bring Dat Mono Back and Captcha Win Best of Fest Essy Awards

The 2023 Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase announced the winners of the nearly two dozen Showcase jury awards — including two $500 prizes to the overall Best Documentary and Narrative Showcase film. Fourteen films were also selected to move on to the 32nd Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival in November.

The Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, an annual presentation of the nonprofit Cinema St. Louis (CSL), serves as the area’s primary venue for films made by local artists. The Showcase screened works that were shot in the St. Louis region or were written, directed, or produced by St. Louis-area residents or by filmmakers with strong local ties who are now working elsewhere. The Showcase’s 14 film programs ranged from narrative and documentary features to multi-film compilations of fiction, experimental, and documentary shorts.

Below are the winners.

Narrative jury awards

1. Best Costumes – The Candy Crucible
2. Best Makeup/Hairstyling – Eliza
3. Best Use of Music – Somewhere in Old Missouri – Mother Meat, Bas Drogo, & Kevin Koehler
4. Best Sound – Kyle Pham, Up for Air
5. Best Production Design/Art Direction – Somewhere is Old Missouri
6. Best Special/Visual Effects – Austin Zwibelman, Processing…
7. Best Editing – Chase Norman & Hattie Smith, Up for Air
8. Best Cinematography – Chris Lawing, Penitentia
9. Best Screenplay – Andy Compton, Captcha
10. Best Actor – Zachary Scott Clark, “Honorable”
11. Best Actress – Kazia Steele, “Eliza”
12. Best Ensemble – Honorable
13. Best Direction – Kevin Coleman-Cohen, “Pretty Boy”
14. Best Animated Film – Gorilla Tactics, Michael Long
15. Best Comedy – Captcha, Andy Compton
16. Best Drama – Pretty Boy, Kevin Coleman-Cohen
17. Best Horror/Thriller – The Queue, Michael Rich
18. Best Narrative Film under 20 minutes – Fortune Cookie, Fu Yang
19. Best Narrative Feature over 20 minutes – Somewhere is Old Missouri, Tom Boyer

Documentary & Experimental jury awards

1. Best Animated Documentary or Experimental Film – Fortune Cookie, Fu Yang
2. Best Use of Music – Bring Dat Mono Back, Edward Thornton
3. Best Sound – Loup Garou, Erin Greenwell
4. Best Editing – Todd Soliday, Uncle Bully’s Surf Skool
5. Best Cinematography – Papa Blankson, Shark Brained
6. Best Direction – Raising Spirits | The Big Muddy Dance Company, Chadwell & Ria Ruthsatz
7. Best Documentary under 20 minutes – The Highland Incident, Zia Nizami
8. Best Documentary Feature over 20 minutes – clusterluck, Cami Thomas
9. Best Experimental Film – These Flowers Were for You, Taylor Yocom

Films invited to SLIFF

1. The Box, directed by Doveed Linder
2. The Candy Crucible, directed by Micah Deeken
3. Captcha, directed by Andy Compton
4. clusterluck, directed by Cami Thomas
5. Eliza, directed by Delisa Richardson and Dan Steadman
6. Fortune Cookie, directed by Fu Yang
7. Gorilla Tactics, directed by Michael Long
8. The Highland Incident, directed by Zia Nizami
9. Honorable, directed by Zachary Scott Clark and Mariah Richardson
10. Nova, directed by Gabe Sheets
11. Pretty Boy, directed by Kevin Coleman-Cohen
12. The Queue, directed by Michael Rich
13. These Flowers Were for You, directed by Taylor Yocom
14. Up for Air, directed by Chase Norman

Chellapa-Vedavalli Foundation Best of Fest Essy Awards $500 cash prize

Documentary: Bring Dat Mono Back, Edward Thornton

Narrative: Captcha, directed by Andy Compto