The Best of Crush 2023
Congratulations to our 2023 WWMC award winners! Our distinguished jury named the following recipients:
Best YOUTH Short
Winner
THE EXTERNAL-INTERNAL MONOLOGUE OF AN INTERDEPENDENT INSOMNIAC
d. Julian Felix Aaronson
Best Documentary Short
Nominees:
EAT FLOWERS (River Finlay)
ECO-HACK! (Josh Izenberg & Brett Marty)
I’M USUALLY PRETTY GOOD AT NAMING THINGS (Mac Premo)
LONG LINE OF LADIES (Shaandiin Tome & Rayka Zehtabchi)
REALLY GOOD FRIENDS (Adam Sekuler)
Winner
LONG LINE OF LADIES
d. Shaandiin Tome & Rayka Zehtabchi
Best NARRATIVE Short
Nominees:
CATALINA (Tyler Rabinowitz)
FUCK ME, RICHARD (Lucy McKendrick & Charlie Polinger)
HOLD UP (Alex Rollins Berg)
THE OLD YOUNG CROW (Liam LoPinto)
SCOTTY’S VAG (Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz)
Winner
FUCK ME, RICHARD
d. Lucy McKendrick & Charlie Polinger
Best ANIMATED Short
Nominees:
BUT CAN YOU GO BACKWARDS? (Lydia Ricci)
FUR (Zhen Li)
MY YEAR OF DICKS (Sarah Gunnarsdóttir)
NOTICE OF REJECTION (Steven Vander Meer)
THE OLD YOUNG CROW (Liam LoPinto)
Winner
FUR
d. Zhen Li
Best Performance
Nominees:
HOLD UP — Philip Ettinger
FUCK ME, RICHARD — Lucy McKendrick
HATING BECKETT — Julie Millett
HOLD UP — Renrick Palmer
HATING BECKETT — John Pirruccello
TAKE ME HOME — Anna Sargent
Winner
Renrick Palmer
HOLD UP
Best SHORT Screenplay
Nominees:
HATING BECKETT (John Yearly)
INTIMACY WORKSHOP (Eddie Prunoske)
PROOF OF CONCEPT (Ellie Sachs & Max Cohn)
[subtext] (Olivia Haller)
TROY (Jen Silverman)
Winner
TROY
Jen Silverman
Alex sichel memorial award
Nominees:
AMPERS&ND — Sade Abiodun
BETWEEN LINES — Sarah Beth Morgan
BUT CAN YOU GO BACKWARDS? — Lydia Ricci
MY YEAR OF DICKS — Sarah Gunnarsdóttir
SWIM CAPTAIN — Christa Haley
WINNER
MY YEAR OF DICKS
d. Sarah Gunnarsdóttir
BEAST OF THE CRUSH
Nominees:
ECO-HACK! — The Tortoise
ESCAPE ARTISTS: THE TALE OF MIKE, MIKE JR AND FREDDIE — Freddie
ESCAPE ARTISTS: THE TALE OF MIKE, MIKE JR AND FREDDIE — Mike Jr.
LET ME IN — Piko
SALAD DAYS — Fiona Shaw
Winner
Mike Jr.
ESCAPE ARTISTS: THE TALE OF MIKE, MIKE JR AND FREDDIE
Curator’s Choice
Winner
BABYSITTING
d. Patrick Noth
Audience Award
WInner (TiE!)
[SUBTEXT]
d. Erin Brown Thomas
Winner (Tie!)
BABYSITTING
d. Patrick Noth
The Audience Award is determined by a weighted ballot vote solely from our Iron Ass Jury - audience members who watched every single film at the 2023 Movie Crush -- thus making this the only true Audience Favorite award on the film festival circuit. These members are:
La Shell Boatner
Sheila Bonstead
Christopher Conrad
Shari Diwata
Patrick Fifelski
Caitlyn Gordon
Charlie Hafenbrack
Aidan Hartman
Linda Hoyt
Julie Kettner
Diana Knauf
Jessica Morlan
Shawn Nicholson
Denise Piker-Gordon
R Doug Sapp
Logan B. Smith
Kyree Anderson
Bob Bonstead
Douglas Carlsen
Dorothy Diede
Karl Eckhardt
Darcie Furlan
Dave Gordon
Paul Harrod
Wayne Hellstrom
Shauny Jaine
Steven Kliewe
Björn Levidow
Shane Morlan
Nikhil Patel
Barbara Jeanne Sapp
Lynn B. Sealey
Patrick Tousignant
Read more about our award medallions here!