FRIDAY and SATURDAY NIGHT RESULTS

Congratulations to all of the teams that were able to complete a movie this year.  It’s not easy making a movie, and it’s pretty darn difficult doing it in a weekend.  We hope you had fun and are happy with the film you got to share.  Thank you to all of the filmmakers that participated, and all of the folks that support the filmmakers!

Below are the finalists, Friday Night awards including Original Song, Costume/Makeup, and Best NIGHTMARE and all of the Saturday Night Awards including the Best of the Fest.  Spoiler Tagged if you’d rather be surprised on the 3pm Livestream Broadcast.

Trailers for 2021 Entries:

Awards:
BEST OF THE FEST.
PRO.
AMATEUR.
HEAD OF THE CLASS
Cinematography.
Editing.
Acting.
Writing.
Sound/Music.
Audience Choice.

Also for 2021:
Best Film 5 Minutes and Under
Best Use of Theme.
maybe a surprise or two…

Prizes:
REDGIANT Complete by MAXON
FINAL DRAFT software (X2}
FILMCONVERT Nitrate Plugin
FILMPAC HD Annual Subscription
CINECOLOR Ultimate LUT and Film Grain Bundle (X3)
WAREHOUSE CINEMAS Tickets
Weekend Rental of Grip/Electric by ARCHAI MEDIA
2 Passes to TREE TREKKERS
Broadway Access Pro sponsored by PHENOMENOLOGY
NEAT VIDEO software
24×36 2021 Poster SIGNED BY TEAMS (x3)
Main Award Winners will receive BAG OF COFFEE BY DUBLIN ROASTERS

2021 JURY

PHIL ALLOCCO is a feature film and commercial writer/director. His work has garnered over 40 awards and nominations in categories as Best Director, Best Narrative Feature, Best Short Film, Best Screenplay, Gran Jury Award, Special Jury Award, and Audience Choice. He’s won a Clio Award, Effie Award and several Telly Awards for his commercial work. He was one of the short-listed directors picked by Steven Spielberg from a world-wide search of over 12,000 directors for his US TV series On the Lot for FOX TV, produced by Spielberg and Mark Burnett. His feature film 'The Truth About Lies,' was released theatrically in 2017 and won 14 awards at festivals.
SKIZZ CYZYK is a filmmaker, writer, musician, artist, and film festival careerist. He has held positions at MicroCineFest, Maryland Film Festival, Slamdance, and Atlanta Film Festival, as well as serving on juries and advisory boards at many other festivals. His documentary features include Sound Mechanic, Icepick To The Moon, Hit & Stay, and Freaks In Love. His short films include The French Toast Man, Alfred Jarry & 'Pataphysics, Little Castles, Managers Corner and music videos (Beach House, Young Fresh Fellows). He writes for music and film magazines, and performs music with The Stents, Go Pills, The Jennifers, Garage Sale, Half Japanese and Mink Stole & Her Wonderful Band. CAOIMHE CARTY is a Northern California-based Video Editor from Ireland, which explains the confusing name. Originally intending to be a Zoologist she moved to the US and fell into the world of film, where she was able to combine her skills as an artist and classically trained musician.
She has worked on a wide range of projects, including Green Day’s feature film Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk, broadcast shows for Animal Planet and Science Channel, TV commercials, Short Docs, and more.
When not working she enjoys sketching, boxing, and writing the plot outline for her detective show which she hopes to some day pass off to someone who can actually write.

SAMUEL TRESSLER IV is a filmmaker based in New York and Maryland. While working professionally in production camera work and post-production editing both at home and abroad, his focus lies on writing & directing narrative, concept-driven motion picture pieces both short and long. A former participant of 72, Samuel joined the board in 2014 and became the first former team to collaborate with the fest in making a feature film, Leda, the 3D passion project that is premiering in festivals this year.

Dr. Kelly Trigger is a professor of English at Frederick Community College with experience in film and media studies and a doctorate in American Studies that focuses on digital culture. An avid supporter of the 72 Fest and its mission, this year marks her 10th year serving on the jury.
Jason Streff is a primary care doctor whose practice is located in Fenton, Michigan where he lives with his wife Marissa and their son Alexander. But before he was Dr. Streff he lived in Frederick, MD and was a founding member of the 72 Film Fest. It’s been quite a while since he's made a film himself as most of his time is spent on the prevention and reversal of cardiometabolic diseases, or with his family, but he has remained an enthusiast and student of movies and the people who make them. He’s honored to be asked back to participate in 72 Film Fest. Find out more about him on his website, www.StreffHealth.com.

CELIA DE LA VEGA is honored to join the 72 Film Fest. As an established judge with film festivals including DC Shorts and the CINE Gold Eagle Awards, among others, as well as a veteran of short-form productions that include multiple 48Hrs entries, Celia is also a life-long actor, writer and director; day jobs notwithstanding. Most recently, Celia has expanded her creative efforts beyond acting in features, shorts, TV, voice over, radio and theatre as well as writing, directing, and acting in her own narratives to include action DP and fight/stunt choreography (award nominated and winning) enabled by her background in dance and choreography studies. Celia is proud to be affiliated with SAG-AFTRA, Actor’s Equity Association (AEA), Women in Film and Video (WIFV) DC, and the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD), and looks forward to enjoying the creations of the artists participating in 72 Film Fest. ADAM LEMNAH is a transplant to Los Angeles who grew up in Frederick, I'm a film and television editor with work on shows including Once Upon a Time, Drunk History, Amazing Stories and Lovecraft Country. Recently I was the recipient of the Best Editing award at the 2021 LA Indie Film Festival for my work on the feature film AMERICAN CHERRY, a coming-of-age thriller. When I'm not working, I am spending time with my wife and son and our two dogs, Betsy and Mando, drawing comics and catching up on movies I never seem to have time to see. @adamlemnah (IG) @AdamLemnah (FB)
RONA MENSAH is an accomplished Professional Broadcaster, Emcee, and Actor. She is best known for having worked as a Radio and TV personality in Washington, DC Metro region. In addition, she serves on the Board of Trustees and is a Company Member of Maryland Ensemble Theatre where she’s just as comfortable contributing onstage as she is behind the scenes. She’s thrilled to return to 72 Fest

Jeff Keilholtz is an Emmy® Award-nominated producer and Vice President of Licensing and an executive team member of Broadway Licensing. In addition to oversight of licensing and acquisitions, Jeff developed and executive produced Broadway Access, powered by Broadway on Demand, which includes more than 250 episodes of masterclasses and performer training, featuring over 100 Broadway icons. Jeff is also Artistic Director & CEO of Phenomenology, Inc., an innovative non-profit production model in the performing arts. Patty Meyers is a freelance film producer in the Washington, DC metro area. She is retired from 20+ years in the US Army in which she worked as a Military Intelligence Analyst. She has produced six films and worked on many others in various crew positions. The Forgiving, a film on which she served as a producer and 1AD, won Best Feature Film at the 2021 Maryland International Film Festival and can be seen on Amazon Prime. She is currently working on a feature-length comedy filming in Northern VA. Patty also teaches and judges competitive high school speech and debate.
Matt Edens: In more than two decades writing for television, Matt has scripted everything from Saturday morning cartoons to true crime documentary series such as A&E’s City Confidential, Snapped on Oxygen and Murder Comes to Town for Investigation Discovery. Currently, he is the head writer for Fatal Attraction on TV One.

Laura Hopkins fell in love with filmmaking at age 10, when she received her first camcorder and spent her free time asking friends and family to star in her many horror films. While earning her Undergraduate Degree in Film Production & Communication Studies at Keene State College, Laura was enamored with the power of cinematography and was asked to be Director of Photography for her program's senior thesis film. Upon graduation, Laura worked at Ken Burns' Florentine Films Post Production Studio. Laura has subsequently worked at The New York Film Academy and created and taught a filmmaking curriculum at The Gateway Schools of NYC. Laura couldn't be more thrilled to be part of the panel of judges for the 2021 72 Festival and eagerly awaits seeing some incredible work.

Producer Notes:

This was a tough year.  Maybe even tougher than the Covid year to produce.  Being a hybrid meant way more work, way more cost, and ultimately less folks in the theater but it was super important for us to get back to the theater after being online in Year 15. Dreams was originally going to be year 14 and was going to wrap up the Mikael/Doug/Clark storyline locking all of the previous years into this weird loop.  Instead Dreams was vetoed for Year 14 when we heard “Professions” and we took the same story and plugged it in there.   Our goal was to retire the “host” story and just move into doing more broad sketch based comedy.  Then Covid happened.  After Wildcard we didn’t really have any theme in mind.  Oftentimes if there is no locked in theme we will start with the half dozen ideas we have vetoed through the years.  Dreams made a lot of sense.   Samuel Tressler designed the posters, and off we went!

The films helped create a wonderfully strange quality throughout the night, sometimes nightmarish, but mostly ethereal.  While criteria oftentimes can be interpreted somewhat open ended, having an overarching theme inside team’s heads throughout the year and into the filmmaking weekend tends to create interesting results.

Due to the extra work of the hybrid (and still planning the Fest completely remotely), shooting the Mikael/Doug stuff was increasingly difficult through the year and eventually was canned.  Doug retired during the year, so we scrambled a bit and got Rona to help Mikael host last minute.  It was a very soft ending to a wonderful era….