HIFF Competition Award Winners for Feature and Short Films

The 30th anniversary edition of the Hamptons International Film Festival, presented by HamptonsFilm, announced its award winners for this year’s feature and short film competition on October 15. This year HIFF screened 69 feature films and 51 short films from 34 countries, with nine world premieres, three North American premieres and 12 U.S. premieres.

A24’s “Close,” directed by Lukas Dhont, which follows two 13-year-old best friends, whose seemingly unbreakable bond is suddenly, tragically torn apart, won Best Narrative Feature at this year’s festival. The winner of this year’s Cannes Grand Prix, the film is an emotionally transformative and unforgettable portrait of the intersection of friendship and love, identity and independence, and heartbreak and healing.

“Pray For Our Sinners,” directed by Sinéad O’Shea, won this year’s Best Documentary Feature. The film documents the townspeople in O’Shea’s hometown and the control exerted by the Catholic Church, showing their quiet victories, ongoing struggles and the eccentricities of life within a small Irish town. These astonishing yet uplifting stories use rare firsthand testimonies to describe the horrors of mother and baby homes, the prevalence of violence against children, and the co-dependent relationship between the Church, State and its people.

HIFF also announced the winners within the shorts program for this year’s festival, including “Snow In September,” directed by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, which won Best Narrative Short; and “When The LAPD Blows Up Your Neighborhood,” directed by Nathan Truesdell, which won Best Documentary Short. Additionally, the festival made a special mention for “The Sentence of Michael Thompson,” directed by Kyle Thrash and Haley Elizabeth Anderson.

“We are so grateful to this year’s class of filmmakers for allowing us to host so many critical and timely projects in our competitive sections,” said David Nugent, HamptonsFilm Artistic Director. “None of this would be possible without the help of our distinguished jury members who are all such wonderful representations of their different corners of the industry. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank our hardworking programming team for curating such an amazing lineup of films and programs for everyone to celebrate 30 years out East.”

“As the 30th anniversary edition of our festival comes to a close, we could not be more excited to award the winners of this year’s feature and short film competitions,” said Anne Chaisson, HamptonsFilm Executive Director. “It is such an honor to know that our festival continues to be recognized as a destination for some of the year’s most exciting and dynamic titles.”

The 30th annual Hamptons Film Festival closed on Sunday, October 16, at the conclusion of an extended 10-day event. For more information, visit hamptonsfilmfest.org.