Thank you to all the filmmakers who participated in the 2024 Paris Lift-Off Film Festival!
The festival platformed hundreds of films, each project worthy of recognition and celebration. We want to extend a giant thank you to everyone who took part and a special congratulations to all the incredible talent that went into making these projects.
The judges' scores have been combined with the audience's choices, and after careful scrutiny, it's our pleasure to announce the Paris Lift-Off Film Festival winners!
Winners: Paris Network Round Shorts
Surrender
Director/Writer/Producer: Raphael Buisson
Country of Origin: United States
Genre: Drama, thriller, psychological thriller
Synopsis: Two brothers find themselves entangled in a violent confrontation at a beach house in Malibu. One of the brothers loses his life, while the other, awaiting the arrival of the police, reflects on the events that led to this tragedy.
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Short Live Action Narrative
Kismet
Producer/Editor/Cinematographer: Lucien Newell
Country of Origin: United States
Genre: Documentary, Experimental
Synopsis: The dissimilar lives of twelve California locals are shown in raw form.
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Short Documentary
Winter Song
Director/Writer: Kate Graham
Producer: James Bridger
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Genre: Horror, Drama, Thriller, Gothic
Synopsis: A composer’s reality unravels at an isolated Yorkshire house, as she battles the demands of work and early motherhood.
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Director, Best Actor (Nina Mazodier)
my mom
Writer/Producer: Yasir Musa Al_nasr
Country of Origin: Iraq
Genre: Shorts
Synopsis: Hamed, 28 years old, suffers from a psychological complex. He lives alone in a small house. He hides a woman in the basement and enjoys abusing her. He listens to the sound of a young man being beaten, so he tries to help. After the child enters the house and tells him his story, he tries to teach him how to use a gun so that he will not be beaten again, etc. If they enter the basement toward the imprisoned woman, something unexpected happens.
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best First-Time Filmmaker
In appearance
Director/Writer/Producer: Marine ARLEN
Writer: GENDERA Aurélie
Producers: Raymond ACQUAVIVA, Franck ARLEN
Country of Origin: France
Genre: Short film
Synopsis: Students girls with different backgrounds and convictions are preparing for their business school's Miss election night. This wild and controversial event questions the image of the "ideal woman" in 2024, in the era of social media, conflicting "body positive" movements, and the democratization of cosmetic surgery.
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Acting Ensemble
A Day Like Tonight
Directors/Writers/Producers: Patricia Allison, Philipp Walsch
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Genre: Psychological thriller
Synopsis: A man leaps from a rooftop to escape his reality and the apathetic world in which he lives, only to question his existence in another. Philipp Walsch and Patricia Allison (Sex Education) star in this experimental portrayal of a modern psychosis..
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Art Direction
Eden
Director/Writer: Louis-Ferdinand Jean Larrouturou
Producer: Rachel / Roncin
Country of Origin: France
Genre: Short film
Synopsis: A film about the journey into memory, oscillating between infinite lightness and the incipient, misunderstood pain of childhood. Eve dives into her unconscious in search of the memory of her childhood, from which she has long been dissociated
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Cinematography
Tension
Director: Dariya Susak, Pavel Pakhomov, Nina Frolova
Producer: Dariya Susak
Country of Origin: Germany
Genre: Music Video
Synopsis: A person is transformed from an individual into part of the crowd, and in the end, is killed for dubious ideas.
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Music Video
Winners: Paris Network Round Features
The End of Humanity
Director/Writer: Andreas Duerr
Writer: Oliver Dürr
Writer/Producer: Jan-Marc Furer
Country of Origin: Switzerland
Genre: Sci-Fi, Documentary
Synopsis: Strange talk has become mainstream: The end of humanity is near. AI, ChatGPT, humanoid robots are beginning to take over.
Among the technology elite, the idea is gaining ground that humans must merge with machines in order to remain useful. This idea is called transhumanism.
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Feature Documentary
New Squam City
Director/Writer/Producer: Quentin Trélet
Country of Origin: France
Genre: Feature
Synopsis: On 01-01-00, a woman disappears at a rave not far from skyscrapers of a generic city. Thomas, a cameraman, who regularly films this kind of events, goes to investigate. Thomas soon realizes that an entity is trying to hush up the affair. The only clues he has : the party filmed some time before the disappearance and an old drawing of a desert…
Season Award #15 Shortlist: Best Feature Live Action Narrative
15th Annual Lift-Off Season Awards
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 short listed for a Season Awards Nomination. At the end of the year, once all the 12 city-based festival have taken place, the shortlisted nominated films are reviewed again by the jury and Official Nominations are designated. Click here for more information about the Lift-Off Season Awards.