Queens, NY, September 4, 2025 – Festival of Cinema NYC announced this year’s filmmaker award winners at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center as it concluded the 9th edition of the Forest Hills-based film festival. Scout and Doug Purdy’s Pilgrim won Best Narrative Feature Film. Marc Wishengrad’s Free Fernando took Best Documentary, with Josh Mond’s It Doesn’t Matter winning Audience Choice for Best Feature Film.
Top individual awards went to; Jackie Mahoney (Half a Century) for Best Director, Oleg Blinov (Mama) for Breakthrough Male Performance; and Jasmine Hurt (Maneater) for Breakthrough Female Performance.
Festival of Cinema NYC Founder and Executive Director Jayson Simba, said, “As we near the end of our first decade of bringing films to Forest Hills/Queens, we have established a well-earned reputation for celebrating truly independent films and filmmakers from Europe, the West Coast, and New York City as well. Having many of those filmmakers attend the festival and meet our film fans in person has become a huge draw for the community. This year was no different, and our award-winners hailed from Los Angeles, to Europe, to Manhattan.”
Winners in the short film categories included David B. Jacob’s Wild Animals (Best Short Film – Narrative); Richie Ellis’ Loose Change (Audience Award – Short Film); Esther Casas Roura’s Flocky (Best Experimental, Music Video, or Animation); and Scott Vandiver’s Knawbone Creek. (Best Web/TV Series).
Additional individual award winners included Omar Yñigo, who won Best Screenplay for Entre Dos (Between the Two). Max Garcia’s Deli took the award for Best Ensemble. Anh Vo was cited foer Best Cinematography for Come Out Wherever You Are, Alex Teplish won Best Editing for his film, The Soviet Roswell Incident, Eneas Mentzel and Arjan Bogaert took the Best Sound Editing award for their work on Mind of Thoughts. Quinn’s Milo “Mayhem” McGowan won Best Make Up and EFX, and Peter Gibbons won FOC NYC’s award for Best Unproduced Script for his work on “Queen”.
This year, in partnership with Festival of Cinema NYC, New York Women in Film and Television awarded the NYWIFT Award for Excellence in Directing to Ellen Ancui for the work on her film Saverio.
Highlights throughout this year’s edition of FOC NYC included numerous sold-out screenings at the Regal UA Midway. Queens local interest highlights included the 2-day presentation by Kids In the Spotlight, a not-for-profit based in Los Angeles, CA, which included a special Red Carpet event showcasing the films by kids in the program who are in foster care.
FOC NYC’s Special Presentations included a screening of Sundance success story Chris Kentis’ Open Water, followed by a “Conversation on Film” with Kentis, as well as a 10th Anniversary screening of John Stuart Wildman’s critically-acclaimed horror thriller The Ladies of the House with Wildman on hand for a Q&A.
Additional free programming at the Forest Hills Library included Anthony M. Laura, Artistic Director of Face to Face Films, leading a Writing the Personal Story presentation, as well as a seminar on the Cinematographer’s Creative Process with a high-powered panel that included Fred Murphy, ASC (Evil, Good Wife, Good Fight, Anamorph, Secret Window, October Sky, Hoosiers, Trip to Bountiful, The Dead), Frank DeMarco, ASC (All is Lost, Rabbit Hole, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Adjustment Bureau, The Dutchman, Enemy Within, 1992), Fred Elmes, ASC (The Night Of, The Dead Don’t Die, Paterson, Blue Velvet, Olive Kitteridge, A Late Quartet, Synecdoche, NY), and Dejan Georgevich, ASC (The Virtuoso, The Blacklist, Elementary, The Enemy Within, Gossip Girl, 3lbs. Mercy).
Festival of Cinema NYC is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
In lieu of the NEA withdrawing its funding support of the 2025 Festival of Cinema NYC, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation jointly committed $10,000 in grant funding in support to lessen the burden of financial uncertainties. “The Warhol Foundation recognizes the essential contributions that small arts organizations make to our cultural lifeblood by giving artists in every corner of the country a platform from which to be seen and heard,” said Joel Wachs, President of the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Sponsors of this year’s event include Forest Hills local law firm the Aminov Law Group P.C., Resorts World NYC, Forest Hills local eatery 5 Burro Café, the Mathis-Pfohl Foundation, Ponce Bank, Ridgewood Savings Bank, Yant Tattoo and Art Studio, Friends of Maple Grove, Regal Cinemas, the Queens Library, and Target Corp. Prize Sponsors include B&H, Moviemaker Magazine, Mongo Media Solutions, Silver Sound, Videomaker, InkTip, and Soundview Media Partners.
For more information about the festival, please visit http://www.festivalofcinemanyc.com/.
BEST FEATURE FILM – NARRATIVE
Pilgrim
Directors: Scout Purdy, Doug Purdy
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Free Fernando
Director: Marc Wishengrad
AUDIENCE CHOICE – FEATURE FILM
It Doesn’t Matter
Director: Josh Mond
BEST SHORT FILM – NARRATIVE
Wild Animals
Director: David B. Jacobs
AUDIENCE CHOICE – SHORT FILM
Loose Change
Director: Richie Ellis
BEST EXPERIMENTAL, MUSIC VIDEO, OR ANIMATION
Flocky
Director: Esther Casas Roura
BEST WEB/TV SERIES
Knawbone Creek
Director: Scott Vandiver
NYWIFT Award for Excellence in Directing
Ellen Ancui (Saverio)
BEST UNPRODUCED SCRIPT
“Queen”
Writer: Peter Gibbons
BEST DIRECTOR
Jackie Mahoney (Half a Century )
BREAKTHROUGH MALE PERFORMANCE
Oleg Blinov (Mama)
BREAKTHROUGH FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Jasmine Hurt (Maneater)
BEST ENSEMBLE
Deli
Director: Max Garcia
Cast: Max Garcia, Sinny Gisselle Feliz, Kelvin Melendez, Stephan Monfort
BEST SCREENPLAY
Entre Dos (Between the Two)
Writer: Omar Yñigo
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Come out Wherever You Are
Director of Photography: Anh Vo
BEST EDITING
The Soviet Roswell Incident
Editor: Alex Teplish
BEST SOUND EDITING
Mind of Thoughts
Sound Design: Eneas Mentzel, Arjan Bogaert
BEST MAKE UP AND EFX
Quinn
Make up: Milo “Mayhem” McGowan
Festival of Cinema, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. The festival was founded by local independent filmmakers with a passion to get movies made and to expand the reach of artists’ work. Recognizing the challenges filmmakers face in the film industry, the festival’s aim is to establish a presence, and spread awareness, of cinematic creativity.