Sony Future Filmmaker Awards Winners Announced

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by Francesco AndreolaFebruary 24^th, 2023

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Sony, in partnership with Creo, has just announced the winners of the first-ever annual Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, an online filmmaking competition. Winning titles include submissions coming from Brazil, China, Colombia, Italy, Korea and the United Kingdom.

In the summer of 2022, Sony created the first edition of the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards to honor the talent and dedication of creators worldwide. The competition ran from July 26th through December 13th, 2022. The 3000+ attendees engaged in a creative head-to-head battle to see their names appear on a list of 30 shortlisted works.

These were then carefully re-examined by an exclusive jury chaired by director Justin Chadwick, supported by Nicole Brown from TriStar Pictures, partner of United Talent Agency Jeremy Barber and Academy-Award winning cinematographer Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC.

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards: winning filmmakers and titles

The remarkable jury was given the hard task of picking 6 names, one for each category of the competition: Filmmaker Fiction, Filmmaker Non-Fiction, Filmmaker Environment, Student Filmmaker Fiction, Student Filmmaker Non-Fiction and Future Format.

On the night of February 22nd, 2023, my colleague Nino Leitner was on the red carpet at the Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City, California, where the exclusive black-tie awards ceremony took place, and witnessed the 6 talented and lucky winners stepping on to the podium.

As an acknowledgment of their creative effort, they were rewarded with Sony filmmaking gear and cash prizes. Particularly, each of the 3 winners of the Filmmaker competition received a Sony FX9 Cinema Line camera, a lens and $5,000 in cash. The two winners of the Student Filmmaker category were granted a Sony FX6 body with a lens, while the winner of the Future Format prize walked away with Sony digital imaging equipment and $2,500.

But that’s not all! Indeed, on the 2 days following the ceremony, the 6 talented filmmakers, guided by Sony Pictures executives, attended an exclusive industry immersion experience to learn more about production, editing, VFX, business affairs, theatrical marketing, acquisitions and more.

You can find a list of winning filmmakers and titles below, along with a brief description of each work. But, before you go watch the films, we’d like to say “kudos” to Sony for offering such a wonderful opportunity to all storytellers around the globe. And finally, our compliments and best wishes for a fruitful career go out to all attendees.

FILMMAKER COMPETITION

• Fiction: Dan Thorburn (UK),Salt Water Town– With the threat of closure looming over a failing caravan park, the owner and his son clash over their future, with tragic consequences.
• Non-Fiction: Daniela Lucato (Italy), The Things You Don’t Know About Me, Mom – A survivor of the Pinochet regime in Chile imagines telling her mother all the things that she didn’t want to know.
• Environment: Pedro Furtado (Brazil), The Good Dolphins – Fishermen in Brazil fight to save a pod of dolphins who have helped them catch fish across generations.

STUDENT FILMMAKER COMPETITION

• Fiction: Mateo Salas (Colombia, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia), The Sun of the River – A family’s journey takes a troubling turn when they are stopped by a group of paramilitaries.
• Non-Fiction: Seonghoon Eric Park (Republic of Korea, Boston University, USA), In Cod We Trust – A film probing the endangered fishing trade in the New England town of Gloucester, home to one of the oldest and largest fishing communities in the United States.

FUTURE FORMAT (Shot on a smartphone)

• Pan Tianhong (China Mainland), Homework for Winter Vacation – A child making sweet dumplings in preparation for the Chinese New Year completes his task in a very creative manner.

For more information, please visit the competition’s website here.

What do you think about the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards and this year’s winners? Are you going to try your luck next year? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!