11th Annual Top Shorts 2025 Nominations Announced

The nominations for the 11th Annual Top Shorts 2025 have been announced!

Worst Date, Best Date (dir. Cameron Thrower) leads with the most nominations this year. Congratulations to all the nominees!

Best of Fest

ELM - Kay Qiao

Worst Date, Best Date - Cameron Thrower

Sole Suspect - Maggie Castle

No Vacancy - Jay Sherer, Lukas Colombo

My Turn! - Isabelle Maria Tumboimbela, Daisha Lin Sherman

Voyeuress - Jan Fabris

Best Narrative Film

Everything That Rises - Jon Curtis, Dillon Norton

No Vacancy - Jay Sherer, Lukas Colombo

Candies - Iga Xiaoyi Zhou

Upstream - Yintao Gong

Real Heroes Don't Die - Roman Mitichyan, Michael Pashan

The Possible Life - Burke Doeren

Best Indie Film

Revenge Tour - Bryon Jones

August - Perit Jan Aydemir

Daisy - Alyssa Scott, Cassidy Krygger

Voyeuress - Jan Fabris

Mute - Andrea Borbolla

The Delicacy - Jacek Nastal

Best Drama

The Geierwally - Mario Dengler

Slough - Yuzhu Lan, Yutong Wang

Passage - Hank Devos

You Are Special - Ilya Noyabrev, Semen Khanin

The Can - Shadow C. LaValley, Danielle Purdy

Amentalio - Fernanda Vilela, Mokotsi Rukundo

Best Comedy

What Happened at Don's? - Eden Gamliel

Worst Date, Best Date - Cameron Thrower

Sole Suspect - Maggie Castle

Sorry - Alex Getlin, Adam Schaller

Café Wimbledon - Jinyong Kim

Super Ruble Adventure - Tommie Grabiec

Best Thriller

The Still of the Night - Luke Valdes-Rodriguez

Gidi Gidi Gi - Iye Teblu

Killer Love - Cameron McGuiness, Silvia Gutierrez

Snitch - Adrian McGaw

USE ME - Vijendra Bhambhani

Bottom-Feeder - Brandon D. Hill

Best Horror

Glamping - Rosemary Idisi, RaeAnne Carlson

Miss Me? - Kiran Kumar Mangali

I'm Just Gonna Chill - Elena Saurel

Jack Attack - Ben Warhit

Whispers on Red Lake - Adrian Campbell

FaceID - Evan Nievinski

Best Sci-Fi

An AI Story - To Be or Not to Be - Steve Halpern

Gidi Gidi Gi - Iye Teblu

Rehearsal - Allan Shen

The Silver Lining - Mikey Altoft, Bibi Lucille

Rent-A-Hero - Carson Luke Bender, Quinlon Elise Merrin

Superior Subject - J.D. Henning

Best Experimental Film

Mute - Andrea Borbolla

Rhomboid Major - Monica Goldberg

A Shadow of A Doubt - James Campbell

A Brief Introduction to Wrath - Michael Gearheart

Nobody - Alberto Martín-Aragón

Corporeal - Michael Andrew Gearheart

Best Inspirational Film

Dare to Dream - Max Ornstil, Pedro Garcia

ÑUÑUYACHIY - Jose Miguel Soriano, Ricardo Macian

The 90 Year Old Cyclist - Florent Piovesan

"Small Town Girl, Big Heart" Abby's Courage - Dena L Hildebrand

Red - Madison Elizabeth Lin

House of Hope - Jill Bugbee, Eric Bugbee

Best Web Series

Hollywoo - Tommy Jay Dwyer, Joseph Anthony Marcello

Cause Celebre - David E Williams, Patrick John Donnelly

Jera and Brandon Sketch Show - Dan Masso, Brandon Weaver, Jera Sky

Big Girl Love - RaJeana Price

Destination - Hermann Boya

SIN3056843 - Dustan J. Hlady

Best Documentary

Hope Rising in Kenya - Fabio Zahnd

Built Different - Constance Brenneman, Brad Hammer

The 90 Year Old Cyclist - Florent Piovesan

Valley Stream Engine 4 Celebrates 100 Years - Zach Feldman

Agong - Brian Chen

1000 Days In: The Romelia Farms Story - Jesse McMinn

Best Animation

To My Buddy - Myung-ju Kim

Baby on Board. The Dark Web Catbot - Dog & Rabbit, Will Anderson

My Turn! - Isabelle Maria Tumboimbela, Daisha Lin Sherman

Mirage - Hanson Ma, Jeffrey Su, Michael Wang

Stressy Squishy - Katherine Fan

Checkpoint - Deanna Kennedy

Best Music Video

Pulse of Restoration - Denys Derkach

Jeff Hilliard - My Face - Jeff Hilliard

The Man Cave - Kev Miles, Eytan Ribner

McKenna Michels - MONSTER - Nicholas Nephi Peterson

Symphonic Fantasy - Susan Mey Lee Lim, Samudra Kajal Saikia, Christina Teenz Tan

One - Brice Blanloeil, JSWISS

Best Student Film

SHELL - Loki Olin

Slough - Yuzhu Lan, Yutong Wang

Rent-A-Hero - Carson Luke Bender, Quinlon Elise Merrin

Dahlia - Geovanna Escobar

Piece for Piece - Ian Wang

I'm Not A Bad Person - Claire Elyse de Vries, Morgan Kisner

Best Director

What Happened at Don's? - Eden Gamliel

Sole Suspect - Maggie Castle

You Are Special - Ilya Noyabrev

Stay At Home, Mom - Mary Zappulla

Paper Flowers - Todd Lien

Killer Love - Silvia Gutierrez

Best First Time Director

The Shape of Trees - Jamie Wittezehler, Willie Wittezehler

Frequency Over Time - Cari Sudmeier

Rehearsal - Allan Shen

Thoughts Of Life - Kunnatam Wongpuapan

Hi, My Name is Justin - Justin Hoffman, Josh Fields

Superior Subject - J.D. Henning

Best Actor

Everything That Rises - Nick Latimer

Worst Date, Best Date - Patrick Hilgart

You Are Special - Oleksiy Zubkov

Passage - Jason Theriault

The Can - Shadow C. LaValley

The Possible Life - Michael Vlamis

Best Actress

Killer Love - Rona Johnson

Worst Date, Best Date - Kim Perrin

Candies - Olushola Grace Fagbamila

ZURY - Milcania Diaz-Rojas

Stay At Home, Mom - Candi Boyd

Amentalio - Fernanda Vilela

Best Duo

The Geierwally - Sabrina Engl & Franz Braun

Baron Munchausen (Karl) - Alexander Yatsko & Iryna Novak

Worst Date, Best Date - Kim Perrin & Patrick Hilgart

The Delicacy - Laura Leish & Pawel Siwiak

Jera and Brandon Sketch Show - Jera Sky & Brandon Weaver

The Possible Life - Lauren Call & Michael Vlamis

Best Cinematography

The Geierwally - Simon Andreas Baumgartner

The Night Zoo - Zhuolin Hong

Chapter 1 - Andrew Crankshaw, Boris Nezh

Alpha 27 - Nick Azzaro

Japanese Punishment - Hugo Will, Denys Kurta

Reset Now - Jonathan Strauch

Best Editing

Sole Suspect - Jennifer Losch

ELM - Jeff Mizushima

The 90 Year Old Cyclist - Florent Piovesan

Upstream - Yintao Gong

You Are Special - Oleksandr Shvets

Love Beyond Dreams - Simin Vaswani

Best Score

Stay At Home, Mom - William Flynn, Sarah Parkington

Baron Munchausen (Karl) - Volodymyr Bystryakov

ELM - Ali Helnwein

Hippocrites: A Broken Oath In Reproductive Health - David Bessler

A Red Rose For My Love - Jasper Ku

Reset Now - Torsten Häufler

Best Original Story

What Happened at Don's? - Marcello Rice

Worst Date, Best Date - Cameron Thrower, Heather Turman

Hippocrites: A Broken Oath In Reproductive Health - Ivan Blotta, Billy Custer, Diana Krulik-Bentzen, Jeffrey Bartsch, Arthur DAraujo

Upstream - Yintao Gong

The Wooden Bowl - Connie C Lamothe, Michael P Brennan

The Possible Life - Jacob Seidman

Best Screenplay

Paps' Trace - Cécile Vernant

Phantom Questions - Andreas Mortensen

Therapy - Bryan Whorton

Tempting Fate - Terry Luke Podnar

Flying Into Infinity - Vahtang Pridonashvili

If You Show Me Yours I'll Show You Mine - Riya Agarwal

Best Television Script

Madam Professor - Catherine Schandl

Love Between Windows - Orlando Ferreira Neto

The Magical Adventures of Detective Sam - Gail Pickett

The Age of the Empath - Steve Brown

Inhopspitable Takeover - Michael Hutchinson

Blood & Betrayal - Joseph Anthony Francis

Special Jury Award - Film

Land of Darkness - Chad Douglas Reininger

Passage - Hank Devos

Standoff - Marlyn Bandiero

Convention - Tim Borowiec

Dunes - Virginie Kahn

The Space Between - Rhianna Morris, Chris McQuire

Special Jury Award - Screenplay

Defining Moment - Sarantis Raftopoulos

The Day After - Justin Rodney Brown

Long Way Home - Terry Luke Podnar

Best of Times - Jim Norman

Birthright - Michael Hutchinson

Phosphorous - Phillip McSween

Submissions now open! Submit your film/screenplay: www.filmfreeway.com/ts