2014

Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
11 minutes
54 seconds
Director:
Max Allman

REIFF 2014

Ricky Smits is a gangly redneck who hopes that his invention, PortaPower, will make him a big shot. When he meets his bosss daughter, Abigail, a beauty pageant queen with dreams of a modeling career, the two begin an awkward courtship, connecting over their shared dreams of escaping their small, southern town. When Rickys boss discovers their relationship and fires Ricky, the two must decide what is more important their dreams or each other.

Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
15 minutes
Director:
Yang Wang

REIFF 2014

Laowang, a trash-picker in New York City Chinatown, hides a secret from his daughter for 11 years. He finally decides to reveal the secret after her heartfelt violin performance, that she was abandoned at birth and he found her on the street of Chinatown and raised her as his own.

Animation
Canada
Runtime:
4 minutes
11 seconds
Director:
Medina Dennie, Ocean Demuth, Zaiyah Dennie

REIFF 2014

Two turtles embark on a dangerous quest for friendship. Will an encounter with a sea monster, a Sasquatch, and magical fairies, lead them to a true friend? Created during a 48 hour animation challenge, Ocean Demuth, Medina Dennie, and Zaiyah Dennie (ages 7, 8 and 6) used cut out animation and their own voices to bring Ocean's imaginative story to life.

Best of the Fest, Special Jury Award for Acting
Narrative Feature
Bulgaria
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
29 minutes
Director:
Thom Southerland

REIFF 2014

Krasimira Stanimirova wins second place in a Bulgarian play writing contest. Her award is a trip to the United States, Kentucky to be exact, to see the world premiere of her communist-era, autobiographical play, 'Black Coat'. Expecting to meet with a warm welcome and southern hospitality, Krasi instead finds herself isolated and lonely in a hotel off an interstate.

Exploring America on foot, Krasi must confront the reality that her play might not be such a big deal in the States. Along the way she slowly finds comfort amongst strangers in this alien world, including a young mother and her son and a fellow tourist.

2015

Best of the Fest
Narrative Short
Ecuador
Runtime:
28 minutes
Director:
Javier Fesser

REIFF 2015

An amazing innovation reaches a tiny school lost in the heart of the Peruvian Andes and revolutionizes the lives of the whole community: the internet. It brings the world to their doorstep, but even more importantly, it offers the world the chance tofinally discover what's happening in the remote village of Ingatambo.

Best Narrative Feature
Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
44 minutes
Director:
Kyle Ham

REIFF 2015

Reparation is a powerful psychological thriller that swirls like a funnel cloud around Bob Stevens, a small-town vegetable farmer with a three-year hole in his memory. When a mysterious stranger, Jerome, shows up claiming to be his best friend in the Air Force Police, Bob's peaceful existence begins to unravel from the outside in. Bob's entire family are caught in the storm, but none more than his eight- year-old daughter, Charlotte, who discovers she might hold the key to conjuring Bob's forgotten past.

As Charlotte comes to learn, 'every time something happens that knocks us out of balance, we try doing something that will knock us back in...' That universal theme of balance is the soul of Reparation.

Best Narrative Short
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
13 minutes
Director:
Chris King

REIFF 2015

When a young military wife gets news that her Marine husband has been severely wounded in combat, she discovers that life ahead for them is going to be a difficult and yet amazing journey.

Best Documentary Feature
Documentary Feature
United Kingdom
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
18 minutes
Director:
Susan Steinberg

REIFF 2015

Mirrors to Windows: The Artist as Woman is a unique film following an international cast of three generations of women artists who are all forging their careers in the heat of the London art scene. From the studio to the gallery, candid conversations infused with humour and zeal give us a rare insight into the lives of ten artists working across a diverse a array of mediums, united by an enduring belief in themselves and their work.

Featuring artists aged 22-82, the film forms a compelling collective biography, telling a cross-generational coming of age story. Act 1 sees three young artists at the start of their careers. Act 2 finds artists balancing the conflicts of middle age, and in Act 3, four artists are experiencing new-found freedom as their work becomes more active than ever.

Best Documentary Short
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
50 minutes
Director:
Mercedes Kane

REIFF 2015

Ina Pinkney is a Chicago legend of the tastiest kind. Known around town as the Breakfast Queen, she has been feeding Chicagoans for the past 33 years. Faced with the late stages of polio, Ina has decided to close the doors of her beloved breakfast nook. An outstanding chef and businesswoman, Ina is so much more. She's a community leader, a pioneer, a television personality - but most importantly, she's the rare sort of person who's found a way to transform her passion into a joy that extends across an entire city, and beyond.

The documentary, Breakfast at Ina's gives audiences a glimpse into Ina's extraordinary life, all while chronicling the last days of the restaurant as Ina and her staff serve up its final meals.

Best Experimental
Experimental
Canada
Runtime:
7 minutes
Director:
George Ungar

REIFF 2015

Opening our eyes each new day, we stare for a few minutes into space, seeing the first sights, hearing the first sounds. It is neither night nor day but something in-between. Fragments of dreams refusing to expire, the grip of the day not yet uponus, memory and desire hovering around the edges.

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