Alex Backes’ That’s Our Time took the Grand Jury Prize, and Callie Bloem and Christopher Ewing’s Bounce House won the Audience Choice at the inaugural American Cinematheque’s PROOF: Proof of Concept Film Festival.
Additional winners included Gabriela Ortega’s Huella winning the PROOF: Proof of Concept Film Festival’s Gold Award, Alex Cohen’s Crack Shot winning the Silver Award, and Tyler Riggs’ Blue Boy, and Julia Kennelly’s Marcy Learns Something New sharing the honors in a tie for the film festival’s Bronze Award.
Establishing itself as one of the first-ever film festivals dedicated solely to the presentation of proof-of-concept short films looking to be expanded into feature-length productions or series, the festival turned the spotlight on a slate of innovative films from up-and-coming filmmakers, as well as panel conversations on the art and business of filmmaking, the ultimate goal being to help filmmakers make inroads to the industry with access to mentorship workshops, professional development opportunities and more.
American Cinematheque Film Programmer and Proof Film Festival Founder, Imani Davis, said, “We are thrilled with the enthusiasm and audience reaction to the debut of PROOF. We hoped to create a platform for great work, as well as give our filmmakers a wonderful event to both learn from each other and build relationships that would lead to more work and productions, fostering a true creative community.”
The highly curated film festival placed the proof-of-concept shorts into programming themes which included titles like “Limitless”, “Discovery”, “Independence”, “Age of Change”, “An Examination of Learning”, “Bump in the Night”, “Daring”, “Chicago Filmmakers”, “Not As They Seem”, “Fish Out Of Water”, and a special out-of-competition program with Gunpowder and Sky/Alter and Dust: “Late Night Sci-Fi and Horror Shorts”.
Additional highlights included a screening and presentation of Jim Cummings’ feature film Thunder Road, as well as the award-winning short film version. Discussions after that special presentation and additional panels focused on the creative process and overcoming the challenges to utilize short films as proof-of-concepts for features and series, and then completing that goal.
The 2023 Proof Film Festival Filmmaker Awards Winners:
Grand Jury Award
That’s Our Time
Director: Alex Backes
Audience Choice Award
Bounce House
Directors: Callie Bloem, Christopher Ewing
Gold Award
Huella
Director: Gabriela Ortega
Silver Award
Crack Shot
Director: Alex Cohen
Bronze Award (TIE)
Blue Boy
Director: Tyler Riggs
Marcy Learns Something New
Director: Julia Kennelly