NOFF2023 Jury Awards

The 34th New Orleans Film Festival Jury Awards have been announced! Congratulations to all the filmmakers who joined the festival this year.

Clickable film titles will be available to stream through November 12.

The New Orleans Film Festival is one of a limited number of film festivals in the country that is Oscar®-qualifying in all three short-form Academy-accredited categories: Narrative Shorts, Documentary Shorts, and Animated Shorts. Jury Award-winning films in these categories at NOFF automatically qualify for consideration for the annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.

Narrative Short Award (Oscar®-qualifying category)
The winning film will receive $2,500 in Kodak film stock and Academy Award® eligibility. 

Jury Award Winner: A Summer Job (Un Trabajo de Verano), dir. Joie Estrella Horwitz, Sergi Castella

Special Jury Mention: Burnt Roux, dir. Keisha Johnella Davis

Documentary Short Award (Oscar®-qualifying category)
The winning film receives Academy Award® eligibility.

Jury Award Winner:  Bone Black: Midwives vs. the South, dir. Imani N. Dennison

Special Jury Mention: Addresses (Direcciones), dir. María Luisa Santos, Carlo Nasisse

Helen Hill Award for Animated Short (Oscar®-qualifying category)
The winning film receives Academy Award® eligibility.

Jury Award Winner: Boat People, dir. Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma

Special Jury Mention: Aikane, dir. Daniel Sousa, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson

Special Jury Mention: Chutes, dir. Kenzie Sutton

Narrative Features Competition
The winning film receives a $15,000 Panavision camera rental package and $13,500 of Light Iron Post Production services.

Jury Award Winner: When Morning Comes, dir. Kelly Fyffe-Marshall

Special Jury Mention: Chronicles of a Wandering Saint, dir. Tomás Gómez Bustillo

Documentary Features Competition

Jury Award Winner: Q, dir. Jude Chehab

Special Jury Mention: unseen, dir. Set Hernandez

Louisiana Feature Award
The winning film receives a $15,000 Panavision camera rental package and one free screening at Light Iron’s New Orleans’ facility.

Jury Award Winner: Born to Fly, dir. Brennan Robideaux

Louisiana Short Award
The winner of this award will receive a $5,000 Storyville Post package.

Jury Award Winner: Bone Black: Midwives vs. the South, dir. Imani N. Dennison

Special Jury Mention:  Benediction, dir. Zandashé Brown

Special Jury Mention: first disappearances, dir. Milan Daemgen

Reel South Award
The winning film receives a $2,000 award and public media distribution through Reel South.

Winner: For the Record, dir. Heather Courtney

John-Carlo Monti Memorial Award
This year’s recipient receives $1,000 from the John-Carlo Monti Memorial Award Fund, honoring below-the-line, on-set crew members, not traditionally recognized.

Winner: Kenneth White Jr.

South Pitch Program
The winning pitches will each receive a $10,000 cash prize. 

South Pitch Documentary Winner: Resita Cox, Basketball Heaven (Feature)

South Pitch Narrative Winner: Hannah Patterson, Along the Way (Feature)

Past NOFF Jury Award Winners

See the #NOFF2022 Jury Award winners here.

See the #NOFF2021 Jury Award winners here.

See the #NOFF2020 Jury Award winners here.

To honor the legacy of New Orleans filmmaker John-Carlo “JC” Monti, the New Orleans Film Festival announces the third year of the John-Carlo Monti Memorial Award, an award for crew members in the Greater New Orleans film community who, like JC, bring warmth, joy, and energy to every set that they are a part of. We ask our treasured New Orleans film community to join us in honoring John-Carlo by submitting nominations for Louisiana-based crew members who carry on his spirit of excitement, generosity, joy, and adventure. The recipient of this award will be publicly announced at the 2023 New Orleans Film Festival Awards Ceremony and will receive an unrestricted $1,000 honorarium. 

Nominations are closed

The award is named for John-Carlo Monti, lovingly referred to as JC by friends. JC’s passing coincided with the New Orleans Film Festival in 2019, and his loss is felt deeply by our filmmaking community. The award highlights his contributions to our community, as well as the role filmmakers like JC play in independent filmmaking. 

JC’s name has rolled in the credits of countless New Orleans Film Festival films in various roles, and his collaborative spirit and enthusiasm highlighted the best of what the New Orleans film community can be. Like so many people in this community, as well as being an invaluable crew member in a variety of different positions, he was an artist in his own right. We hope this award will provide others like JC both an acknowledgment of their contributions as crew members and a validation that will help support their own career ambitions and artistic visions. Visit JC’s memorial website here.

This award is intended for below-the-line, on-set crew members who aren’t traditionally recognized at festival awards ceremonies.

John-Carlo Monti Memorial Award Winners

2023: Kenneth White Jr.

2022: Bao Ngo

2021: Andres Ballesteros

Watch the video below as our Programming Manager Zandashé Brown and New Orleans filmmakers Bruno Doria, Jason Foster, and Paavo Hanninen introduce the John-Carlo Monti Memorial Award.