Winners Of The 23nd Annual Urbanworld Film Festival

The 2019 Urbanworld Film Festival winners are:

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE (U.S. CINEMA) – Yellow Rose – Directed by Diane Paragas

THE JURY:
Doris Casap, SVP, Film Programming, HBO
Ellene V. Miles, SVP, Intersectional Marketing, Sony Motion Pictures
Tilane Jones, President, ARRAY

Rose, an undocumented Filipino girl, dreams of one day leaving her small Texas town to pursue her country music dreams. Her world is shattered when her mom suddenly gets picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rose, facing this new reality, is forced to flee the scene, leaving behind the only life she knows and embarks on a journey of self-discovery as she searches for a new home in the honkytonk world of Austin, Texas.

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE (WORLD CINEMA) – The Ghost and the House of Truth – Directed by Akin Omotoso
(Presented by Joe Morton (Juror))

THE JURY:
Adriana Ambriz, VP, Content, One Community
Chika Chukudebelu, VP, Development, Universal Content Productions, NBCUniversal
Frida Torresblanco, Producer
Joe Morton, Actor/Director
Nnamdi Asomugha, Actor/Producer

Bola Ogun is dedicated to her work as a counsellor, who facilitates reconciliation sessions between convicts and the victims of their crimes. When her own daughter goes missing, her belief in forgiveness as a way to heal is tested.

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT – Cap – Directed by Marshall Tyler
(Presented by HBO Collabs—$5,000)
Honorable Mention – Be A Fish – Directed by Aisha Ford

THE JURY:
Brenda Gilbert, Co-Founder & President, BRON Media Corp.
Dionne Harmon, VP, Development, Jesse Collins Entertainment
Talitha Watkins, Motion Picture Agent, Creative Artist Agency

CAP is a father-son love story set in Los Angeles and inspired by true events.

Manny Bennet has spent all summer saving up enough money for a cap worth a couple hundred dollars. After finally purchasing the cap, Manny is confronted by a bully who steals the expensive item. He convinces his father, Thomas, to confront the bully, where it becomes an altercation that turns out for the worst. Now the mother, Amelia, must deal with the aftermath.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion – Directed by Lisa Cortes and Farah X

THE JURY:
Jacqueline Glover, Senior Vice President, HBO Documentary Films
Rachel Watanabe-Batton, Producer & Founder, Contradiction and Struggle
Shola Lynch, Curator, Moving Image & Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion takes a look at the journeys of fashion architect Misa Hylton and designer April Walker, among others, who grabbed a foothold in hip hop fashion and never let go. The film focuses on the cultural impact these talented women and Dapper Dan and Kerby Jean-Raymond have made in the fashion world, from iconic looks styled in influential music videos to their global cultural impact.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT – Black Girl Church – Directed by Marissa Pina

THE JURY:
Jacqueline Glover, Senior Vice President, HBO Documentary Films
Rachel Watanabe-Batton, Producer & Founder, Contradiction and Struggle
Shola Lynch, Curator, Moving Image & Recorded Sound, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Black Girl Church started off as a love letter to black girls, one of our safe spaces and the creativity that comes out of a place that is all our own. It turned into an intimate portrayal of some of the realities of black beauty and the dynamics of the black beauty industry, sharing a glimpse of what it’s really like for a black woman to exist in the world.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO – Soif (Thirty) – Directed by Mimi Lee

THE JURY:
Kedar Massenburg, Co-Founder, Akonik Label Group
Naima Cochrane, Founder, This is cltr.
Richelle Cross, CEO, Class and Sass Promotions
Stephen G. Hill, CEO, Tricpelvis Productions, LLC

After facing the consequences of her dark past, a mysterious woman takes fate into her own hands by approaching a man at a bar.

BEST SCREENPLAY – Midnight In Kansas – Written by Malik Aziz
(Presented by BET Networks – $10,000 Prize)
https://www.urbanworld.org/screenplays

THE JURY:
Jeremy Pikser, VP, Writer’s Guild of America East
Paige Simpson, Manager, Scripted TV, Will Packer Media
Ty Bristol, Manager, Scripted Programming, BET Networks

When a young Muslim is accused of assaulting a campus police officer, his uncle, a successful Hollywood attorney, must return to his hometown and mend old wounds.

BEST YOUNG CREATOR –TREE #3  – Directed by Omer Ben-Shachar
(Presented by NBCUniversal – $2500)

THE JURY:
Diane Houslin, Producer
Matthew Thurm, Producer
Sharese Bullock-Bailey, Chief Strategy & Partnership Officer, Ghetto Film School
Tamir Muhammad, Producer & Founder, Populace

After he’s been cast (again!) as a background tree in his annual middle school play, an ambitious and imaginative Israeli immigrant boy leads a revolution on stage that his intolerant drama teacher will never forget.

BEST WEB ORIGINAL – Brothers From The Suburbs – Directed by Patrick Wimp
(Presented by Warner Media – $2500)

Honorable Mention: Soul City: Grace – Directed by Coodie & Chike

THE JURY:
Imran Siddiq, Executive, Warner Media’s OneFifty
Janine Sherman Barrois, Writer, Producer, Showrunner
Jeron Smith, Co-Founder & CEO, Unanimous Media
Kesila Childers, VP, Development, Powderkeg

Brothers From the Suburbs is a short-form digital comedy series that chronicles the highs and lows of three black teens coming of age in a suburban, white, private school community.
‘BFTS’ observes the largely unexplored, uncomfortable incidents common to suburban minorities—from placation and fetishization to everyday micro-aggressions and worse. ‘Brothers From the Suburbs’ is a story about friendship, social and cultural integration, and the universal quest for teenage identity…

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Best Feature – Yellow Rose –Directed by Diane Paragas

Cast: Eva Noblezada, Lea Salonga, Princess Punzalan, Dale Watson, Liam Booth, Libby Villari

Rose, an undocumented Filipino girl, dreams of one day leaving her small Texas town to pursue her country music dreams. Her world is shattered when her mom suddenly gets picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rose, facing this new reality, is forced to flee the scene, leaving behind the only life she knows and embarks on a journey of self-discovery as she searches for a new home in the honkytonk world of Austin, Texas.

Best Short – Wonder – Directed by Javier Molina

Cast: Aiveri Wells, Benji Seigel, Delissa Reynolds, Farrah Faucette, Gabriel Furman, Nico Bustamante

WONDER tracks the events that transpire when Sammy (Benji Siegel) encounters a heroic drag queen (Jamyl Dobson) and secretly starts dreaming of trick-or-treating as Wonder Woman for Halloween. Confused and fearful of these unfamiliar feelings, Sammy begins to question his gender in relation to the world around him, and how this secret will affect his relationship with his blue collar, single father, Frank (Gabriel Furman).

The 24rd Annual Urbanworld Film Festival will be in New York in September 2020. Follow @UWFilmFest on Twitter and @urbanworldfilmfest on Instagram and use #Urbanworld to join the conversation on social media.