A massive thank you to everyone who participated in the Amsterdam Lift-Off Film Festival 2022. It's been fantastic having so many filmmakers involved and seeing the global support for true indie film...
The judges' votes have been counted and added to the audience's feedback. Huge congratulations to the filmmakers who screened with us! A particular well done to the following films...
Season Award Nominations
The Lift-Off Season Awards is an annual event that celebrates the very best of indie film. Following each Lift-Off film festival, films that have excelled in their respective category are nominated and invited to attend the prestigious Lift-Off Season Awards, culminating at the end of the Lift-Off season. Click here for more information about the Lift-Off Season Awards.
So Loud The Sky Can Hear Us
(Nominated for Best Short Documentary)
Dir. Lavinia Xausa
Synopsis: So Loud the Sky Can Hear Us explores the identity of a group of football supporters of the Dutch team Feyenoord. This portrait unfolds a hidden world of faith, love, compassion and vulnerability. In the search for the 'lost voice of God', the monophony of old hymnes and stadium chants morphs into a new polyphony as a symbol for the diversity within Feyenoord.
Season Award Short Listed Films
Lie Still
Dir. Ida Marie Meurs-Gerken
Synopsis:"The film revolves around siblings Johanne and Simon who are enjoying their youth in Copenhagen with shared parties, shared friends and a shared apartment. Everything changes one night when Simon brings a girl home, believing that Johanne will sleep over at a friend’s house, and then ends up raping her with Johanne as a witness on the other side of the wall. This sends Johanne into the biggest dilemma of her life in which she must choose between helping and ‘saving’ one of the people she loves the most or standing up for the girl whose rape she unwillingly became the key witness of.."
Nocturne
Dir. Jordy Tempelman
Synopsis: Entangled in a dark dream, HIM finds HER- searching for the true meaning of happiness. When HIM begins to lose himself in his everlasting search, he is confronted with the truth about his reality. A short film about modern love and the destructive pursuit of happiness told through a mixture of poetry, music and dance.
Audience Choice
The Audience Choice award is given to the filmmakers whose film received the most votes during the festival. The filmmakers will be invited to join us on the Lift-Off YouTube channel for a directors commentary roundtable. Join in the conversation as we delve deeper into each film.
Runaways
Dir. Brandon Oelofse
Synopsis: Weglopers (Runaways) is the story of Robert (Lev Kitilzepe) and Frank (Thomas Puvill) who have been sex buddies for months, and while Robert has affections for Frank, he also recognizes that Frank is guarded and emotionally detached. Robert knows about Daan (Olchert Molendijk) Franks, younger handsome boyfriend, but he believes that he can earn Frank's affection.
Sex Sells
Dir. Rudi Brekelmans
Synopsis: An independent sex worker tries to keep her head above water during Covid times.
RENT-A-MAN
Dir. Rafal Zlak
Synopsis: A seasoned gangster is a debt collector for the underworld who tracks marks with gambling debts. One unexpectedly dies, the other escapes. Big Slick, his boss texts him the Rent-a-Man ad so he decides on a conniving plan where our story begins. Jackie the gangster, and Dillon the Rent-a-Man, play a stylistically subtle yet dangerous game of cat-and-mouse while hiking Valley of Fire State Park outside Las Vegas until an ultimate future-changing twist!
A FISTFUL OF KARMA
Dir. Terence Gross
Synopsis: Il Santuario is a retreat centre nestled in the Tuscan hills. Run and staffed by a group of misfits, it hosts groups seeking spiritual growth, weight-loss, detox and escape from reality. Its six hundred year old walls bear witness to the entire emotional spectrum from desire to insanity that comes with the territory of spiritual seeking.