From staff reports
The 2021 Oil Valley Film Festival announced its winners from among 22 films representing nine countries from the sixth annual event.
The festival, which ran Sept. 10 to 14 and screened mostly online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was composed of competitive sections for American and international narrative and documentary films, both feature-length and short.
The winners
• Best Picture, Short — narrative or documentary — “A Godless Country” (Jesse Richardson, director)
• Best Director, Feature — narrative or documentary — Paul Andrew Kimball (“The Colour of Spring”)
• Best Director, Short — narrative or documentary — Gavin Michael Booth (“Rent Do”)
• Outstanding Achievement in Lead Acting — Savanah Joeckel (“Shellfish”)
• Outstanding Achievement in Lead Acting — Taylor Olson (“Bone Cage”)
• Outstanding Achievement in Supporting Acting — Brent Dunner (“A Godless Country”)
• Outstanding Achievement in Supporting Acting — Sarah Booth (“Rent Do”)
• Outstanding Cinematography, Feature — narrative or documentary — Pablo Diez (“My True Fairytale”)
• Outstanding Cinematography, Short — narrative or documentary — Michal Babinec (“Flora”)
• Best Editing, Feature — narrative or documentary — Marlis Ernst, lead editor (“The Game Is Up: Disillusioned Trump Voters Tell Their Stories”)
• Outstanding Screenwriting, Feature Screenplay — Michael Greene (“The Bridge Builder”)
• Outstanding Screenwriting, Short Screenplay — Laura Wagner (“The Boy Who Never Existed”)
• Outstanding Screenwriting, Hourlong Pilot — Julianna Pitt (“The Wolfe-Pointe”)
The festival was presented via the Festivee platform and in partnership with Videomaker Magazine, InkTip, and Robot Blonde.
The Oil City Library, Oil City Civic Center, Bridge Builders Community Foundations, Arts Oil City and Oil City Main Street Program also were instrumental to the festival’s success.
