iMordecai, Chess Story and The Long Rider share honors at the 2022 festival

 Prescott, Arizona (10/5/2022) – A man discovering a wider world through the loss of his cellphone; another escaping the calamities of his own by escaping into chess. A journalist on horseback crossing an entire continent, and a shell (with shoes on) moving mountains to find a family. Stories of personal discovery and wild imagination all won honors at last week’s 2022 Prescott Film Festival.

iMordecai, the charming Judd Hirsch/Carole Kane comedy of flip-phone loss and personal revelation, proved a favorite of PFF directors and audiences overall. The festival’s leadoff film captured both the Audience Favorite and Director’s Choice/Indie Spirit awards.

On the other side of the emotional scale, The Royal Game/Chess Story, the harrowing German tale of an imprisoned diplomat using chess to fight off his Nazi captors in pre-war Austria, wowed PFF audiences as well, taking home the festival’s Jury Award as well as the award for Outstanding Screenplay.

Festival audiences also offered high praise for The Long Rider, journalist Filipe Liete’s visually stunning Canada-to-Brazil horseback odyssey. The Long Rider won Best Documentary Feature honors in each of the Jury, Director’s, and Audience categories. Audiences also fell in love with Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. The animated story of a talking seashell, seeking his family with the help of 60 Minutes’ Dianne Sawyer, won the Director’s Choice Award for Best Narrative Animated Feature.

The Prescott Film Festival also honored a diverse slate of short-subject films, as well. Living Music, Libby Spear’s chronicle of a young singer’s quest to recover her voice, won the PFF’s Audience and Jury awards for Documentary Short Subject. Narrative Short Subject awards in the same categories went to American Dream, the tale of a recovering addict’s fight for self-sufficiency in the gig economy; and Launch, the story of one astronaut’s quest for the moon, won the Director’s Choice Indie Spirit Award for Narrative Short Film.

Bigger, better, and more diverse than ever, the 12^th Edition of The Prescott Film Festival held court at the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, Sept. 27 – Oct 2, with more than 25 feature, documentary and short-subject films, combined with industry talkbacks and community activities. PFF Director Helen Stephenson said the ’22 festival hearkened back to the PFF’s pre-COVID success.

“The 2022 festival felt like ‘we’re back!’” She said. “We had guest filmmakers flying in from Canada, Florida, Texas, and Washington D.C. We gave talks on topics important to our Film & Media Arts students looking for the next steps in their careers. Post-film discussions are my favorite part of the festival, and our most rousing was definitely after Elemental: Reimagining Our Relationship with Wildfire. A live orchestra from Colorado performed to the classic Buster Keaton silent film, Steamboat Bill Jr., and the PFF brought the community together in its own unique way!”

The 13^th edition of the Prescott Film Festival has already been scheduled for next fall. Follow

the Prescott Film Festival website, www.prescottfilmfestival.com, for more information as titles and detail become available, or email PFF Director Helen Stephenson at: helen.stephenson@yc.edu.

2022 Prescott Film Festival
Complete Winners List

 Jury Award Winners

Best Narrative Feature
The Royal Game/Chess Story

Best Documentary Feature
The Long Rider

Best Documentary Short
Living Music

Best Narrative Short
American Dream

Director’s Choice
Indie Spirit

Narrative Feature
iMordecai

Narrative Short
Launch

 Documentary Feature
The Long Rider

Documentary Short
Kanymda Kumiss

Animated Narrative Feature
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Director’s Choice
Best Screenplay
The Royal Game/Chess Story

Audience Choice Awards

Best Narrative Feature
iMordecai

Best Narrative Short
American Dream

Best Documentary Feature
The Long Rider

Best Documentary Short
Living Music