CONTACT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wendy Milette
Director MY HERO International Film Festival
[email protected]
Sunday's CeremonyMY HERO
The 19th Annual MY HERO International Celebration of Winners Ceremony showcased filmmakers and heroes from around the world. The event, which was held online on Sunday, November 19, 2023, honored award winners in categories of narrative, documentary, poetic, and music video work. Winners included all levels and abilities, from student through to professional filmmakers. Film Festival Director, Wendy Milette, and Assistant Film Festival Director Rachel Priebe were the masters of ceremonies for the event.
MY HERORachel Priebe
The Ceremony opened with the Youth Activist Award which was presented to Jahkil Naeem Jackson a social entrepreneur and founder of Project I Am, a nonprofit organization he created when he was eight years old to build awareness of homelessness. Jahkil is also a 2-time best-selling author. See more HERE:
Said Wendy, “We are awarding the Youth Activist Award to Jahkil because we are so impressed with his activism as a young person. It’s people like this that really give us hope in the world today.”
Jahkil attended the ceremony, thanked MY HERO for the award, and shared with the participants how he was motivated to volunteer in order to give back to his community and explained how we too can get involved with helping the homeless by visiting his website: Project I AM.
MY HEROJahkil Jackson
Immersive Storytelling Award
Winner - The Descent by Tatiana Collet-Apraxine. The Descent is an animated Virtual Reality journey into the mythical Underworld that explores the themes of grief and loss. It offers a reflection on how grief touches our lives and is one of the most powerful, painful, universal experiences of being human.
Said Wendy, "We really admire you taking on something as deep as this subject and expressing it in a way that makes it accessible. It is really beautifully done and I encourage others to watch the whole film on our website."
Many first-place winners were also recognized including:
1st Place Trailer
Green SuperHeroes 2030 Trailer by Los Angeles Barea, This film follows a group of 10 young environmentalists changing the world for the better. and who use their powers to make the planet greener.
Said the filmmaker, “Thank you to MY HERO. We are very grateful. It’s our first award...and thank you also to Creative Visions for all of their support...and thank you to all the amazing environmentalists in this film who are working to make this planet a lot greener... My goal (with this film) was to inspire hopefully millions of kids and adults to be part of the solution regarding climate change and give them hope...It is amazing to be a part of the solution. I wanted to give hope in this controversial world that we live in. ...and I don’t think the voices of young people are being listened to enough...Thank you to all the winners - all of the films are important to watch."
1st Place Middle School
Winner - Pestis Muliebris - Stories of Female Resilience. In this film, directed by Vittorio Caratozzolo, Luca Nicolini & Class 2 A from Giacomo Bresadola Trento Middle School in Italy, students ask the question: "How many difficulties have women encountered in undertaking scientific studies and, in particular, in medicine?"
Said Elisa Marone, one of the students who worked on the project, "I am so happy that our passion in filmmaking has got us this far. It's such an amazing feeling knowing that Jeanne gave us an award."
Sing For Hope Music Video Award
Given in partnership with Sing for Hope and donor Eva Haller.
Winner - Music Video Goddesses by Morgan Maassen (and also winner of the Sports category). The song is "Young Girls" by Princess Nokia, a hip-hop artist from New York and the film depicts Vahine, Heimiti, and Kohai Fierro of Tahiti, three young women who are pushing women’s surfing while gracefully sharing their Tahitian lifestyle with the world.
Sing for Hope High School Honoree
Winner - Echoes of War by Kedaton Campbell – a song about all of those that we have lost in the 1st and 2nd World Wars.
Said Keda, “I feel so grateful, happy, and surprised about winning this award for the MY HERO International Film Festival. I consider myself more of an artist and musician than a filmmaker, so to win an award for a film accompanied by my song is new for me! It's an incredible honor to have my project recognized on such an amazing and meaningful platform.”
MY HEROKeda Campbell
Sing for Hope Student/Mento Video
Winner - NON VIOLENCE, a music video from Sierra Leone directed by Sinbob and produced by Mendy Kanu and Seedoff Sesay and stars T man, 2 step, Junks, T Young, Sinbob, Snazzy, Seedoff. The concept came from Principal Mendy Kanu who decided to use his school's resources to create a non-violent song to share within his community to motivate the local youth and politicians ‘to stay away from violence.’
The Mattie Stepanek Poetic Film Prize
Winner - One More Time directed by Queality. In this short documentary, former band members of the Mighty Ram Band of Eastside High recall their golden days of high-stepping and show-stopping during performances under their beloved band director, Richard Parker.
Elementary Poetic Winner – Australia by Gehrig Blackburn from Pacific Elementary School, CA. A poetic video of an original poem celebrating the uniqueness of Australia.
Overcoming Obstacles Award
Winner - Secondary Strobe directed by Maddie Barnes – The film follows Libby Gotta, a competitive swimmer and member of the Great British Deaf Swimming Club (GBDSC), as she pursues a world championship qualification while facing a lack of funding and recognition.
High School Winner – Freeman directed by Daisy Thwaites from New Rhodes High School. Daisy was motivated to make this film about Freeman, a homeless man, because although we pass homeless people every day, 'we don't know anything about them,' she explained.
Wellness
The Making of the Big Picture directed by Benjamine Reid. The Big Picture is a play written by teens for teens about The Big Picture-- what is really important in life, and the monumental challenges that teenagers face. This play (and video) encourages honest dialogue about life-threatening issues our teens face and are oftentimes not listened to or are about subjects too taboo to broach.
Best of Fest Narrative
Winner - It Takes a Lemon directed by Corey J Gilbert, which also won in the categories of Narrative and For a Young Audience. Written by Zuri Gilbert, Corey’s 12-year-old niece, this film is a fictional story about a grieving man who builds a lemonade stand in the park in honor of his daughter and strikes an unlikely friendship with a creative young girl in the process.
In attendance were Corey and brother Curtis, father of Zuri. Said Corey, “This is such a unique film festival in amazing ways, so what and honor for us to be a part of it and to be recognized as Best of Fest, especially among so much work which is purpose-driven and documentary based….I am really glad we were (able to attend the Awards’ Ceremony) last night as well as today because there is so much great work. And seeing that there is work from all over the world makes it even more special and just that much more of an honor that we have been recognized”
Said Curtis, “I am so grateful that we have discovered this film festival and were able to watch last night and today. It's a feel good film festival in a time when the world doesn’t feel so good. I feel so honored to be a part of it. It’s great to know that it exists, and we just hope that it keeps on going because the world needs it right now.”
MY HEROCorey and Curtis Gilbert
There were many other mentions of the incredible amount of quality films submitted to this year’s festival including Mark Cavanagh for his film Seeds of Hope, a tragic story about a young girl losing her life to a fentanyl overdose, and Actuality Abroad, an organization that submits excellent films every year and has won many 1st and 2nd prizes at the 19th MY HERO Film Festival.
There was a special tribute to Jeff Rudkin and the Lora L Batchelor Middle School for all of their submissions, 5 of which placed first in a variety of categories:
Eva Haller Women Transforming Media Student Award - My Hero - Maya Angelou by Sakura Forney
WOJ Youth Reporter Award Middle School Documentary - Fannie Lou Hamer - A Civil Rights Unsung Hero by Elia Grace Defore
Middle School Science 1st Place - Grace Hopper, (An Unsung Hero) by Audrey Eason
Middle School Humanitarian 1st Place - Echoes of Peace - The Gandhi Story by Daniel Joseph Taylor
Middle School Civil Rights Heroes 1st Place - Film Dorothy Cottens Adventure by Dylan Charles Winiger
To find the complete 2023 Category Winners list go to: myhero.com/2023-complete-category-winners-list
For Special Award winners and first-place category winners got to the Winners' Page
If you would like to learn more about some of the individual Filmmakers go to the Film Festival Finalists page.
Page created on 12/2/2023 11:47:10 AM
Last edited 12/5/2023 1:52:11 PM
