Spotlight Award

Every film needs more fans. We want to shine a great big light on films that need to have big audiences and filmmakers from whom we can’t wait to see more. Our Spotlight Award celebrates what’s coming and what’s already here. These films may soon be headed to theatres or DVD or iTunes and Netflix. Whatever their path, you need to seek them out. Previous winners in this category include Jessica Oreck’s Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2010), Andrei Ujica’s The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2011), Tatiana Huezo Sánchez’ The Tiniest Place (2012), Wojciech Staron’s The Argentinian Lesson (2013), Cristian Soto and Catalina Vergara for The Last Station (2014), Johanna Hamilton for 1971 (2015) and Alexandre Nanău for Toto and His Sisters (2016).