American Cinematique\u2019s third annual Proof Film Festival wrapped Nov. 9 at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles, honoring a new class of emerging filmmakers and their proof-of-concept short films. TheWrap served as a media sponsor for the 2025 festival, which crowned \u201cThirstygirl\u201d and \u201cMy Kind of People\u201d with top honors.<\/p>\n
The festival\u2019s biggest prize, the Grand Jury Award, went to \u201cThirstygirl,\u201d directed by Alexandra Qin, earning the filmmaker two 4-Day Plus badges to the American Film Market and a $2,500 grant from the Proof Development Fund.<\/p>\n
The Audience Award went to \u201cMy Kind of People\u201d from Joe Picozzi, accompanied by a $1,000 grant. \u201cThe Taking of Courtroom One Two Three,\u201d from writer-director Bomani J. Story, earned the runner-up slot and a Jury Special Mention.<\/p>\n
In the competitive shorts categories, An Nguyen\u2019s \u201cWe Used to Take the Long Way Home\u201d received the Gold Award and a $1,000 grant. \u201cInner Demons,\u201d directed by Jasmine J. Johnson, won the Silver Award and $750. The Bronze Award and a $500 grant went to \u201cLove192\u201d from Haydon Meyer. All three projects were funded through the Proof Development Fund.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n This year also marked a new partnership between Proof and Kodak, which presented its inaugural Kodak Excellence in Analog Film Award. The prize \u2014 $5,000 worth of film stock and processing \u2014 went to \u201cMake Me a Pizza.\u201d The film was among several projects earning Jury Special Mentions, along with \u201cMiriam,\u201d \u201cSuch Good Friends\u201d and \u201cCacique del Monte.\u201d<\/p>\n Proof Film Festival 2025 (American Cinematique)<\/p>\n In the festival\u2019s industry-focused Pitch Deck Show and Tell, \u201cThe Re-Education of Jane Brown\u201d from MK McGhee won a $500 grant, while \u201cWhen I Taste Blood,\u201d from Caydon LiRocchi, was named runner-up.<\/p>\n Judges for this year\u2019s festival were Miranda Sarah Einy, Rachel Goldfinger, Sarah Marie Flores, Remy Solomon, Brett Robinson, Liz Sargent, Riley Chapman, Sara Koch, Kesila Childers, Aisling Scott Lynch, Reiko Napier Moreno and Yuky Shen. Filmmakers Reagan Yorke and Jillian Smith hosted.<\/p>\n Proof also unveiled a new partnership with Souvenir Studios: the Souvenir Studios Development Award, which will give the company the opportunity to select one or more projects from the 2025 slate to develop and finance as feature films. \u201cOur ethos has always been to support and elevate young creatives,\u201d Souvenir CEO Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez-Velasco said in a statement. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t be happier to partner with Proof.\u201d<\/p>\n Festival founder and American Cinematheque programmer Imani Davis said this year\u2019s honorees embody Proof\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n \u201cProof is all about connection between filmmakers, collaborators and the opportunities that grow from these early visions,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to all of the partners that make this possible. This year\u2019s winners exemplify the daring, distinctive storytelling we\u2019re proud to champion.\u201d<\/p>\n The post American Cinematique\u2019s Proof Film Festival Gives Top Honors to \u2018Thirsty Girl,\u2019 \u2018My Kind of People\u2019<\/a> appeared first on TheWrap<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" American Cinematique\u2019s third annual Proof Film Festival wrapped Nov. 9 at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles, honoring a new class of emerging filmmakers and their proof-of-concept short films. TheWrap served as a media sponsor for the 2025 festival, which crowned \u201cThirstygirl\u201d and \u201cMy Kind of People\u201d with top honors. The festival\u2019s biggest prize, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2143131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[339600,317163,415110],"class_list":["post-2163181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-american-film-market","tag-film-festival","tag-grand-jury-award"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/7-Movies-You-Didnt-Know-Were-Adapted-From-Stephen-King.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2163181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163182,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163181\/revisions\/2163182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2163181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2163181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2163181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\n
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