2023 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival Announces Winners

Los Angeles, CA. 51 films from around the world screened at the 2023 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival, April 14-16, 2023 at the Collins Road Theatres, 1462 Twixt Town Road, Marion, Iowa. Awards were handed out at the Saturday night Eddy Awards Ceremony, presented by Farmers State Bank, as well as following the Student Cinema Sunday screenings.

Eric Dean Freese, Festival Director is pleased by the quantity and quality. “Receiving 99 entries is super, but when we started looking through the films, we were excited by the high production values, the depth of the stories, and the diversity of subject and content. The majority are really well done, and the judges had their work cut out for them.”

Festival Director’s Awards for Significant Contributions to CRIFF and Iowa Filmmaking were presented to founder Scott Chrisman, with the festival since its inception in 2001; and Prescribed Films’ Mike Saunders and Jason Bolinger, having screened 23 films at CRIFF since 2005.

Eddy Award Winners

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Student Freestyle
Gold – Heaven’s Ranch music video by Morgan Minear and Nate Kaiser, Loras College
Silver – The Edge, a group project by the Loras College Global Filmmaking Class of January 2020

Student Narrative Short Form Film
Gold – Alice by Matthew Williams, Loras College
Silver – (Un)alarmed by Logan Westin, Des Moines Central Campus

Student Documentary
Gold – A Spring for Ali by Katherine Eid, Maharishi International University
Silver – Kenosha: The Shooting of Jacob Blake by Jon Quinn, Loras College

Student Narrative Long-Form Film
Gold – The Way it Was by Jake Heelein and Nate Kaiser, Loras College
Silver – Exodus by Nathan Matthew Blizzard, Omaha

ProAm Freestyle
Gold – Black Excellence by Tone Da Boss by Josh Booth and Tone Da Boss, T1 Entertainment, Cedar Rapids
Silver – Strange Ballet by Carol Ann Montag, Cedar Rapids

ProAm Freestyle
Gold – Letters by Eva Buenza, Sioux City
Silver – Dream Girl by Tristan Bennett, Cedar Falls

ProAm Documentary
Gold – Livestock on the Land by Nick Ohde, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Ames
Silver – Standing Strong: Elizabeth Catlett by Kevin Kelley and Marie Wilkes, New Mile Media Productions, Iowa City

Professional Freestyle
Gold – The Voice in Isabell Fleiss’ Office by Jim Havercamp, written by Virgil Renfroe, Cedar Rapids

Professional Narrative Short Form
Gold – The King’s Eye by Tony Joseph Cross
Silver – Shout by Mason Greer

Professional Documentary
Gold – Greener Pastures by Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian
Silver – The Collins Story: Connecting the Moon to the Earth by Annette Juergens Busbee, Wired Production Group and the Arthur A. Collins Legacy Association, Cedar Rapids

Professional Narrative Feature
Gold – Reveille by Film Farm Iowa – Michael Akkerman, Jorg Rochlitzer, Bernd WIttneben, Wellsburg
Silver – Between the Lines by Shelby Hagerdon and Michael White, Bitter Hipster Films, Sioux City

Collins Road Theatres $1000 Scholarship
PhD: Private High School Detective by Myles Strait, Oskaloosa

Iowa Connection Eddy Award
The King’s Eye by Tony Joseph Cross

Audience Choice Eddy Award
The Bridge by Courtney Ball, Cedar Rapids

Student Audience Choice Eddy Award
Zach Dies at Nine by Will Nachazel, University of Northern Iowa

The Eddy Awards is named after Thomas Alva Edison. He was a pioneer in motion picture technology. The term eddy is also defined as “a current moving contrary to the direction of the main current,” which is a suitable description for independent filmmakers, who often go against the current trends in mainstream cinema.

The Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival’s mission is to encourage independent filmmakers with Iowa ties to continue improving their craft, to provide a place to specifically showcase their films, present a unique cultural event to the community, and to offer networking opportunities for the purpose of building connections between Iowa-connected filmmakers everywhere.

For more information, visit www.crifm.org. Information is also be on the festival’s Facebook page and other social media platforms. Email CRIFF at info@crifm.org.

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