2004

The Dragon*Con Independent Short Film Festival presents Two major awards, one for Best Short Film and the other for Best Animated Film.  The winners of the Best Short Film and Best Animated Film awards were selected from the first-place winners in the non-animation and the animation categories, respectively.

  • 2004 Film Festival Awards

    Best Short Film: Natural Selection
    Best Animated Film: Rockfish

    Screenings & awards for 2004:

    Classic Animation

    Al Roach: Private Insectigator (7 min)
    Directed by Obie Scott Wade. James Garner stars as a roach P.I. in a film noir send-up.

    Birdon (3 min)
    Directed by Jackie Huang. A caged bird tastes freedom.

    Don’t Feed the Book (2 min)
    Directed by Robin Ator. No food or drinks in this store, please.

    Duel (4 min)
    Directed by Colin Elliott. Two wizards battle each other in a hand-drawn short.

    1st Place Flyaway (11 min)
    Directed by Danny Oakley. A wooden toy plane longs to soar. From the makers of the BAFTA nominee and last year’s winner, Dear, Sweet Emma.

    Willis Sillim’s Tall Tale (7 min)
    Directed by Steffen Vala. Animation, showing that it’s tough to be tall.

    Object Aimation

    1st Place The Devil & Manny Schmeckstein (7 min)
    Directed by Jim Goodman. An old comedian dies onstage and goes to claymation hell.

    The Ends of the Alphabet (9 min)
    Directed by Eric Kurland. More film noir animation, this time with hand puppets.

    Laundry Day (10 min)
    Directed by Bryan Smith. A family of sock puppets fear the monster in their dryer.

    Rex & Red (2 min)
    Directed by Chad Meserve. Desktop toys wage epic battles.

    The Robot & The Tree (4 min)
    Directed by Daniel Robashkin. Object animation about a little robot that needs a battery.

    Sci-Fi Animation

    1st Place RockFish (9 min)
    Directed by Tim Miller. A man and his little critter buddy go fishing in the core of a hostile planet.

    Welcome To Eden (5 min)
    Directed by Erin Condy. Two deep-space scientists make a cataclysmic error.

    Comedy

    Argent Liquide (12 min)
    Directed by Shaun Andrews. How a cash deposit is processed.

    Big Time (29 min)
    Directed by Geofrey Hildrew. A giant (Matthew McGrory, from Big Fish) wants to do standup, but is tricked into joining a circus by Zamboni (Curtis Armstrong).

    1st Place Killing Kevin (16 min)
    Directed by Jeanne Kopeck. Things go wrong at a meeting of the Victims of Kevin Costner support group.

    The Perfect Proposal (4 min)
    Directed by Brandon McCormick. The perplexing perils of proposing.

    The Right Hand Man (18 min)
    Directed by Simon Williamson. A rookie poker hustler is forced to learn a lesson.

    Waiting For Maggio (10 min)
    Directed by Jens Conway. He’s late for a meeting with the Don, and the Don is not happy.

    Silly Works

    The Accusation (4 min)
    Directed by Tom Konkle. Shades on Monty Python! A very proper argument.

    The End (2 min)
    Directed by Tim Clayton and Rob Crowther. Don’t touch that globe! From the makers of Foley Street (Best Documentary in 2002).

    First Kiss (1 min)
    Directed by Varda Hardy. A young girl describes her very first kiss.

    1st Place The Hero (10 min)
    Directed by Michael Field. A desperate chase to stop a kidnapping.

    Pinkerton’s Hair Club for Scientists (2 min)
    Directed by Lewis D’Aubinv. A hair club infomercial for scientists.

    The Secret to Happiness (7 min)
    Directed by Tom Konkle. Congratulations after a wedding.

    The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (6 min)
    Directed by Steve Desmond. A school bully faces death.

    Contemporary

    The Arsonist (15 min)
    Directed by Myles Sorensen. A narcoleptic therapist avoids investigating the case of an arsonist.

    1st Place Mindgame (22 min)
    Directed by Jamie Neese. A sleazy con man tries to con his own partner in a psychic scam.

    The Rules (29 min)
    Directed by Laura Black. Two women decide to push the boundaries.

    Seventy-Seven Below (26 min)
    Directed by Aina Abiodun. A young man is asked to freeze his dying father.

    Thriller

    1st Place The Absence of Emily (25 min)
    Directed by D. Gillian Truster. His first wife mysteriously disappeared, and now his rich, second wife has gone missing.

    The Crimson Hour (21 min)
    Directed by Ryan Wick. A police detective hides information about the deaths of two women.

    Wrong Way Up (11 min)
    Directed by Gabriel Hardman. Tarantula smugglers try to cross the border from Mexico.

    Horror Comedy

    Photograbber (19 min)
    Directed by Pascal Tosi. A henpecked toymaker gets a very special camera.

    1st Place Roadside Attractions (16 min)
    Directed by C.J. Roy. A quiet man has his own theories of justice.

    Teenage Bikini Vampire (7 min)
    Directed by Devi Snively. A lonely vampire surfer chick gets lucky.

    Horror

    1st Place (tie) Conversations (17 min)
    Directed by Ben Rock. A mortician (Curtis Armstrong) has a solution that ends his loneliness.

    1st Place (tie) Timed Call (15 min)
    Directed by Matthew Macknamara. If you could make a phone call back in time, who would you call, and when?

    Framed (18 min)
    Directed by, Jeff Consiglio. The truth emerges, about her roommate’s suicide.

    Bloody Horror

    Little Ricky (23 min)
    Directed by Michael Condro. A boy finds a desperate solution for his life with a happy, ol’ country family of cannibals.

    1st Place Thanatos Road (25 min)
    Directed by Edward Kishel. A girl is missing in Arizona.

    There’s Something Out There (17 min)
    Directed by Brian Pulido. A man, his wife, and his gnome.

    Gothic Horror

    The Man on the Side of the Road (14 min)
    Directed by Bret Mix. A driver sees a guy by the side of the road.

    The Ogre’s Wife (10 min)
    Directed by Sean Regan. Reminiscent of silent classics, a young woman’s marriage sets in motion dark events.

    The Silvergleam Whistle (25 min)
    Directed by Mike Williamson. Starring Patty McCormack, it’s the return of the Train of the Damned!

    1st Place Repossessed (9 min)
    Directed by John Coven. A realtor (JoBeth Williams) shows a new listing to a client (Juliet Landau).

    Fantasy

    1st Place The Little Shtimmer (11 min)
    Directed by Lilly Posner. A quiet boy copes during WWII.

    Simone’s Labyrinth (15 min)
    Directed by Ivan Sainz-Pardo. A little girl’s reality overlaps her dreams.

    Three Keys (18 min)
    Directed by Kristine Familletti. A financially strapped couple find a key, which leads to another.

    Timeless (15 min)
    Directed by, Wynn Padula. A grad student helps his professor decode the music of existence.

    Walter (6 min)
    Directed by Tamara Maloney. A woman finds a surprise in a swimming pool.

    Magic Realism

    Autopsy Turvy (14 min)
    Directed by Gary Sales. Tech provides more than an autopsy.

    1st Place (tie) The Bar (17 min)
    Directed by Richard Stern. After failing as a standup comedian, this guy (Curtis Armstrong) goes into a bar…

    1st Place (tie) Life is a Circus (11 min)
    Directed by Max Hochrad. A man moves to London, in a quest to find a lost love.

    Science Fiction

    A Can of Paint (25 min)
    Directed by Robi Michael. A treasure hunter ignores a cryptic warning on a can found in deep space.

    E:D:E:N (14 min)
    Directed by Fabio Guaglione and Fabio Resinaro. Human explorers find a new planet and decide to exterminate the dominate species.

    Escape (6 min)
    Directed by Patrick Keith. A desperate escape in deep space.

    My Robot Baby (25 min)
    Directed by Greg Pak. A robot baby tests the determination of potential parents.

    1st Place Natural Selection (17 min)
     Directed by Scott Leberecht. In 2097, genetic engineering has been outlawed, and gene poachers go after eggs.

    Zero Prospect (47 min)
    Directed by Hunter Cressall. Down-on-their-luck prospectors have to deal with asteroid claim jumpers in deep, deep space.

    Sci-Fi Comedy

    Future Shock (9 min)
    Directed by R. Michael Chrisco. Leaving a time capsule can seriously backfire.

    1st Place The Mazinga Paradox (28 min)
    Directed by Joe Gressis. What if you could go back in time and grab your classic toys before you opened them?

    Singularity (16 min)
    Directed by Matthew Nix. He’s as self-centered as a black hole.

    Documentary

    1st Place Hula (6 min)
    Directed by Kurt Evans. A short history of the Hula Hoop.
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A few highlights:

  • Over 40 speakers (including actors Jason Carter, David Carradine, Glenn Shadix, Ernie Hudson, Marc Singer, Dee Wallace Stone, Bill Moseley, and Sid Haig, producer/director/president of Troma Films Lloyd Kaufman, FX & SFX make-up expert/director/actor Tom Savini, and many independent filmmakers)
  • 21 panels (with subjects that included FX on a low budget and a low low budget, financing, promotion, and distribution, SFX Make-up, HD filmmaking, rules, regulations, & resources and filmmaker must know
  • Screened eight feature films (including Ju-On 1 & 2—both still unavailable in the U.S.)
  • Screened 64 short films as part of the Short Film Festival competition.

Take a look here at director Devi Snively’s account of her time at Dragon*Con 2004.