LOS ANGELES, CA, 2025-06-08— Visionary Storytelling Takes Center Stage as New Media Film Festival Announces Award Winners Los Angeles CA, 6-6-2025. New Media Film Festival® proudly unveils the winners of its prestigious awards, celebrating groundbreaking achievements in film, digital media, and immersive storytelling. This year’s selections showcase extraordinary innovation and creative excellence from around the world.
“A true celebration of storytelling innovation, the 16th New Media Film Festival has set the gold standard for creative excellence, proving once again that the future of film is boundless.” – Chuck Haifley, CEO Big Vision (NASA, SF 49ers)
The New Media Film Festival® continues to lead the charge in revolutionizing storytelling and technology, curating an exceptional lineup of 80 innovative films and tech-driven narratives from 14 countries. This year’s program showcased groundbreaking works that push creative and technical boundaries, celebrating visionaries who merge artistry with cutting-edge advancements. As a global platform elevating fresh voices and pioneering content, the festival reinforces its commitment to shaping the future of media. Congratulations to this year’s winners, whose brilliance and dedication redefine what’s possible in the ever-evolving landscape of new media!
GRAND PRIZE
Godcasting
Director Florent Agostini from France- Premiere U.S.
Florent was granted a first-film fund from the Corsican regional authorities, this enabled him to direct his first futuristic film, Godcastin, produced by One Shot Film.
A revolutionary AI-driven cinematic experience integrating social media with interactive storytelling. To integrate new participants into the program it created, an artificial intelligence is developing a new cinematic concept based on an interactive short film and social media.
BEST ANIMATION
Meevil the Weevil: Breakfast of Champions
Director Kyle Arneson from USA – Premiere L.A.
A little bug with big dreams of being a stuntman. “Breakfast of Champions” mixes stop motion animation with live action footage where we follow Meevil’s thrilling ride across a 1970s breakfast table on rocket roller skates.
BEST AI
Nezhaverse – Birth of a Legend
Director Taige Shi from Asia
Dragon King sends its evil powers all over the world.
BEST AR
Penguin Court
Director True Interactive from USA – Premiere World
A digital archive and reconstruction of the Scaife Mansion, a historic building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This project focuses on digitizing and making accessible extensive records and materials from the city archives, including materials related to the Scaife Mansion itself.
BEST ART / Photo
The Rose Garden
Director Christopher Ruane from USA – Premiere World
An art and augmented reality interactive experience. Space and Earth.
BEST CHILDREN
Mint Condition
Director So Man Tsoi from Hong Kong – Premiere L.A.
Lok Chen, a primary school student, was sent by her father to a school that champion perfection. Anything that is less is intolerable. With a grading scheme of either a full 100 or 0, those who fail to perform to perfection will be modified for improvements. Soon, Lok Chen discovers that the system itself is flawed with dystopic intent. Will she survive the system now becomes the question.
BEST DIGITAL COMIC
HALLOWEEN GIRL Book One: Promises to Keep
Writer Emmy Winner Richard T. Wilson from USA
Angsty, teen ghost, Charlotte (aka ‘Halloween Girl’) and supernatural gal pal, Poe battle diabolic, secret society, The Hollow for the soul of Crystal Springs – and their own salvation.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Seizure
Director Matt Durrant from Australia – Premiere L.A.
The film follows a real-time case involving one of the world’s most trafficked commodities, pangolin scales. “Seizure” is a gripping tale of courage, sacrifice and the fierce determination to preserve life in all its forms.
BEST FAITH and FAMILY
Ever So Faintly I See
Director D. Jason Knowles from USA – Premiere World
In finding a harmony of spirit through creativity in fishing and painting, an artist reminisces about an old friend and realizes that solitude is is not loneliness.
BEST FEATURE
Revival
Director Wendy Fleetwood from USA – Premiere L.A.
Despite Nick’s reluctance to commit to a long-term lease, Emma is desperate to pay her rent, so she agrees to let him move in. Emma slowly starts to fall for Nick, only to find out that he has a shocking and mysterious past.
BEST GAME
Sky of Tides
Director Judith Cheung from Canada
Explore numen9, where the oceans float in the sky. In this rich narrative adventure, Rin D’Lorah sets off to find her missing father with a runaway rebel and a robot with humor settings on max.
BEST METAVERSE
VirtualWorlds Museum
Director Julian Reyes from USA – Premiere World
Researcher In Kenzo &AI archivist SEHU teleport to virtual realms, speak to world builders, and catalog virtual world platforms for posterity.
BEST MR
Beyond the System
Director Fergus Mulligan from Ireland – Premiere L.A.
A worker in a future dystopian world begins to question his place in the production line and takes steps to break free from it.
BEST MOBILE
Cobbled Strings
Directors Milena Stoykova and Paulina Gegova from Bulgaria – Premiere USA
The poetry video explains love for the town of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, with poems and shots. Plovdiv was founded in 4000 BC and it’s one of the oldest cities in the world and the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. Today the slogan of the town is “Ancient and eternal”. Shot on iPhone 13 Pro Max.
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
McKenna Michels Monster
Director Nicholas Nephi Peterson from USA – Premiere L.A. Cast and Crew
A female warrior battles her inner demons, embodied in a dark witch, to save the world and free her friends from mental illness.
BEST NEW MEDIA
If War Comes To You
Director Mathias de Melo Lundegaard from Denmark – Premiere World
An interactive film launched in 10 different language and country versions, set in a fictional war scenario, created to shed light on how the laws of war can reduce suffering in wars and conflicts.
BEST NFT
CharityNFT by Newton Lee – Premiere World for a global community
Through this initiative, festival entrants can see their posters transformed into unique NFTs, enabling them to compete in audience awards while simultaneously contributing to charitable causes.
BEST PILOT
Wizdom
Director Layne Marie Williams from USA – Premiere World
In a world where daylight is scarce, humans live with bionic implants in a colony called Wizdom. Eos, a professional thief, is saved by a strange character, Carbon, who has a higher purpose for Eos and their younger sibling Vayle.
BEST PODCAST
Covering Their Tracks
Director Matthew Slutsky from USA
Premiere USA
The extraordinary story of a young man’s escape from a moving train bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust, and his fight to hold the French national rail company, the SNCF, accountable for their actions as they later bid for lucrative high-speed rail contracts in the United States.
BEST SCRIPT
The Scorpion Dance
Writer Jon Haller from USA – Premiere World
When a witness coach meets with her new client, the CEO of an entertainment company, she must decide how much she’s willing to help the man who ruined her previous career.
Top 3 Scripts – Ace’s Wild III, A Boy Called Freddie & Last Stand at Butte City
BEST SHORT
May Contain: Danger
Director Jennifer Greenstreet from USA, World Premiere
This short exposes the life-or-death need to normalize food allergies and the difficult choice between staying alive and fitting in. This captivating story reveals how people escape the hijacking of their lives, offering a blueprint for everyone to embrace, understand, and live life fully amidst this growing public health crisis.
BEST SR
Interwoven
Director, Dawn Carpenter from USA U.S. Premiere
In the wake of the textile industry’s decline, a community in North Carolina fights to reclaim its economic future through innovative worker-owned cooperatives and sustainable practices, transforming the remnants of their industrial past into a beacon of hope and resilience for future generations.
BEST STEAM
AI in the Street: Drone Observatory
Directors, Phan and Jeni Lee from Australia L.A. Premiere
Logan is one of the world’s largest drone delivery trial sites. What do locals feel about the presence of commercial and autonomous drone delivery systems in their neighborhood?
BEST STUDENT
Solitude
Writer, Ryan Moore from USA Los Angeles Premiere
The journey of a young man solo traveling through Iceland to understand what it means to be alone.
BEST TRAILER
Atlas Shrugged: A Book Trailer for Ayn Rand’s Masterpiece
Director V Hill from USA
From the perspective of Dagny Taggart, female railroad executive and the main protagonist of the novel, we see a world crumbling around her as she embarks on a mission to find the man behind the destruction… and stop him.
BEST TV
The Crest
Director Aditya Patwardhans from USA
All too real nightmares of a terrifying mythical creature prompts a teen from the wealthy and powerful Mercer Island to investigate the people closest to her only to unveil layers of deep and dark secrets within and around the island.
BEST VR-360
Back To The Past
Directors Dario Melo Maciel from Brazil, Premiere World
Rui Barbosa is a historic person in Brazil that lived in the later 19th to the 20th century. Famous for being an abolitionist, jurist and politican from the late Empire and the new Republic. He is waiting for his wife to get dressed. They have a party to go soon. While he waits, help him fix a historic scanned car and find out more about his house (that would become a museum later on). This experience uses only hands as controllers to give the viewers an incredible immersive experience using Meta Quest 3. Put your seat belt and come back to the past!
WEB SERIES
Sky of Tides: Alta Ep1
Directors Jason Loftus & Masha Loftus from Canada – Premiere World
In the fractured world of numen9, the oceans float above the sky, and two powerful factions are on the brink of war.
Hosted by Susan Johnston:
Susan is a pioneering media futurist and the Founder/Director of the New Media Film Festival®, an award-winning festival at the forefront of creativity, technology, and artistic vision. Based in Los Angeles, she has been recognized for her contributions to the film industry, including being knighted in 2017 for her work in arts and humanity. Johnston is also a columnist for Rolling Stone and Authority Magazine, and she has played a key role in bridging the gap between storytelling and emerging technologies. With a career spanning over two decades, she continues to champion innovative narratives across multiple platforms, shaping the future of media and entertainment.
About the New Media Film Festival® Founded with a visionary spirit, the New Media Film Festival® stands at the forefront of storytelling and technology, pioneering a platform where innovation meets artistry. Dedicated to showcasing groundbreaking content across emerging mediums, the festival celebrates creators pushing boundaries in narrative and tech-driven storytelling. With a commitment to inclusivity and forward-thinking excellence, the festival curates and elevates work from around the globe, driving conversations that shape the future of entertainment. Recognized as a catalyst for creative evolution, the New Media Film Festival® continues to inspire, educate, and revolutionize the way stories are told.