2020-2021

SYNERGY FILM FESTIVAL 2021 WINNERS & OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

SPECIAL JURY AWARD

AWARD WINNER

Check Please-First Shift

Directed by

Elea Clair

Julie is a French immigrant who just moved to NY to pursue her American dream and starts working in a small chaotic restaurant. It's her first shift and nothing goes as expected. In addition to the customer’s weirdest requests, Julie also has to deal with a co-worker animosity. It sucks to be the newbie.

ANIMATION FILMS

FINALIST

On / Off

Directed by

Director Nicolas P. Villarreal

Endless distractions threaten to destroy creativity.

SEMI-FINALISTS

Boy Scientist

Directed by

Susan Lim, Samudra Kajal Saikia

A brilliant boy scientist meets the girl scientist of his dreams, poised and beautiful, surrounded by flasks and beakers. The best he can do is bottle her image in his flask, so he may serenade and waltz with her in his Quantum Physics Lab.

The Boy and The Mountain

Directed by

Santiago Aguilera, Gabriel Monreal

Hernán is a child who likes to daydreaming, but in his studies he is not doing well at all. His father constantly urges him to improve, advising him that he must reach very high to succeed in life. Hernán dispenses with his dream, gradually forgetting it to devote himself to his studies. Over time, and already become a successful entrepreneur, Hernán achieves the dream that his father instilled in him, reach high, until one day he will realize that he has not really achieved something he always longed for. Then he will make the crucial decision to fulfill his dream, but fate will play tricks on him. Hernán will have to face a new challenge that will change the meaning of his lif

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

Behind the glass

Directed by

Pedro de la Llave

Rabbits Under the Shed

Directed by

Director Mia Stegner

MUSIC VIDEOS

FINALIST

Take Note

Directed by

Asher Rosen

An overweight janitor encounters a dance rehearsal. When he decides to enter the studio,

he shocks everyone present by busting a move...

SEMI-FINALISTS

Flux

Directed by

DFTCNT

‘Flux’ is an experimental short film and music video by UK artist DFTCNT. 'Flux' delves into a human mind drowning in external chaos and inner crisis. Lost in a surreal, consumer driven world where clickbait tribalism and identity games dictate, the characters are left to vent a collective wave of simmering rage and collective turmoil. As the drum beat rises and mob war unfolds, an urgent new energy ascends as the final catharsis awaits

Boy Scientist

Directed by

Susan Lim, Samudra Kajal Saikia

LITTLE BIG - SCK MY DCK

Directed by

Alina Pasok, Iliya Prusikin

Eki Shola - Roots

Directed by

Luc Londe

This is an animated music video for Eki Shola's song Roots, recently released on her album Essential.

The animation uses a simulated strata-stencil technique, and is ultimately a 2D representation of a 3D representation of a 2D representation of 3D elements.

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

Calling for your love - J.O.T.

Directed by

Jan Werner

My Local

Directed by

Shiyi Li

Spider Rockets - Rip Your Heart out

Directed by

Roman Fernandez

BEST STUDENT FILMS

FINALIST

A jag in the duplex system

Directed by

Valerie Knill

Heartache, cocaine and dreams: The chronicle of a one-night-stand.

SEMI-FINALIST

Diagnostik

Directed by

James Jaffee

Based on the story of a Swiss psychiatrist & psychoanalyst, Hermann Rorschach, and his inkblot tests.

In America, You Are Asked Why Are Leaves Green?

Directed by

JinJin Xu

“In America, You Are Asked Why Are Leaves Green?” is a multi-media work comprised of a split-screen video and a live performance, embodying the paradoxical tensions central to my work as an immigrant artist: With tongues silenced by my homeland, what can I say in America? What am I expected to say? How am I listened to yet misheard? How can I authentically tell my stories to an inherently foreign audience, and must I be consumed by the American gaze? Interweaving footage filmed in factories in my mother's hometown in Jiangxi province with found footage from Silk Museums, clashing Chinese legends against its necessarily false English translation, I interrogate the Western viewer: how are you complicit in the orientalization of my homeland? But mostly, I ask myself, how is my lens inherently complicit and a part of this gaze?

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

Rabbits Under the Shed

Directed by

Mia Stegner

Not Clickbait!!!

Directed by

Ryan Edwards

Mammoth: Primal Thirst

Directed by

Matt Check

EXPERIMENTAL FILMS

FINALIST

LAST CALL

Directed by

Mathieu Baillargeon

Life in a ordinary café is disrupted by the intrusion of a weird and authoritative woman who starts manipulating the customers as if they were puppets. In spite of themselves, they become both spectators and actors in a somewhat macabre drama. In this café turned into a stage, the life of a man from his birth to his death is (being) told. The story of his fate, bound to choices that are not always choices. The story of a mysterious man, in turn surprising or frightening, maybe because deep down we are very much like him. But is it just a game? Where is the story leading us to? Are we the spectators or the actors of that life?This work continues Lynn Bianchi’s relationship with New York City and its inhabitants - her home and inspiration since 1968. New York Minute was developed and created during lockdown - the year of loneliness and isolation - yet Lynn never felt lonely because the city was right outside her window - still alive and forever hopeful. A love letter to New York, this work is an abstraction of one day in the city - from dawn till dusk - moments that last a minute, or maybe a lifetime.

SEMI-FINALIST

Death Offers Life - last moments of Vincent Van Gogh

Directed by

Saheer Abbas

The story is the fictional account of the last five minutes of the acclaimed painter Vincent Van Gogh who was a failure in his lifetime. Death who has come to take him makes an offer which Van Gogh rejects and accepts the hands of death gracefully.

New Year's Kiss

Directed by

DT Kofoed, Lee Ivy

A classic romance with a twist of the stomache.

or - Surrealism and the New Wave meet for an evening of the Grotesque, a Queer Comedy.

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

Put The Devil Back In Hell

Directed by

Francesca Jandasek

View from Space

Directed by

Edward Ramsay-Morin

The Most Charming Creatures

Directed by

Catherine Heard

WEB SERIES

FINALIST

Resistance

Directed by

Maxime Chefdeville

The incredible story of a group of French resistance fighters unwillingly participating in the D-Day landings.

SEMI-FINALISTS

Screenwriters

Directed by

Ivan Artemov

A Chelyabinsk business top-dog Eduard Ivanovich is drawn into an unhumorous dispute. Within a short time he is to come up with a series script, which should become of interest to a Moscow producer. Having lost the bet, he will lose part of his business. According to the rules of the hustle, he is provided with two said-to-be scriptwriters. Craftily, Eduard deceives them into a non-stop work in the café and being constantly monitored without even leaving the premise

The Honeyzoomers

Directed by

Charles Messina

The first series about the pandemic shot during the pandemic. Set in NYC, brother and sister, Ant and Deb Bizzaro, a bus driver and teacher, are forced to live together during lockdown. Shot completely on the actor’s cell phones in separate locations and edited seamlessly together, the show is a wholly originally filmmaking experience.

There are 39 Episodes of The Honeyzoomers just like the TV series The Honeymooners.

FRITURES /FRY-UP

Directed by

Jonathan RIO

Thirty years ago, Archibald created his famous friterie "Le Lys d’Or" and wants to pass it on. His niece Éléna dives headlong into the business. Determined to innovate to revive the friterie's fortunes, each day (each episode) she comes up with a far-fetched, chaotic idea to shake her uncle out of a rut. These two are definitely not made to work together. A clash of personalities, worlds, and generations... It's a recipe that never fails to sizzle!

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

Bizi Txarra / The Bad Life

Directed by

Oliver Mend, Rose of Dolls

Incompleteness

Directed by

David Ash

Gangsters

Directed by

Freddie Basnight

Year Zero - Episode 1

Directed by

Isaac Rodriguez

Clutter Luck

Directed by

Eric Hackler, Gian Carlo Durland

S#*! Talk

Directed by

Raquel Grela

BEST SHORT FILMS

FINALIST

The McHenry Trial – Don’t Judge a Kid by Their Hoodie

Directed by

Ken Sagoes

Actor: Bob Rumnock -Judge

A young and brilliant academic phenom who not only passes the bar exam at age 14 but finds himself defending his homeless father on a murder charge when few believe he is innocent. He faces a shrewd law firm, an old school segregationist judge, and an arrogant prosecutor who is preparing to celebrate his 50th consecutive case win.

SEMI-FINALIST

IRIS

Directed by

Clement Papillon

Actor: Gracie Piper

How far are we able to accept suffering? A sexual orientation different from the mores of society is interpreted as ungodly contrary to the foundation of society. Behind every man, every woman hides a regret at not being able to show this, to take responsibility for it.

Silent Movie

Directed by

Melo Viana

Children playing and having fun create a projector from a burnt-out lamp, a shoe box and a piece of mirror.

The “Cinema Mudo” project is the achievement of a short film and at the same time work together with a community living in a high-risk area. All children (actors and actresses) who work in the movie are residents in the community Vila Torres, an at-risk area in Curitiba. They were chosen after a theater classes for children held in that community as part as the film project.

The Indie Pendent

Directed by

Adriano Davi

In some rented offices, auditions are held for some independent films. Genres and approaches more or less "creative" are highlighted through the requests of directors who try to get the maximum, and perhaps more, from their work. In the meantime an attendant finds himself assisting in a more or less direct way to these controversial situations. Where will we end up with these new approaches?