The 2025 edition was the festival's first in person event: on Friday 31 January 2025 the festival screened at the Stafford Gatehouse Theatre, with an audience, filmmaker Q&As and a live awards ceremony.
BEST FEATURE FILM
★ WINNER
Flight animal
Mikael Palm
NOMINATIONS
Legal
Daniel Arango
Stork of Hope
Alexander Franskevich-Leie
There and Back
Oleg Asadulin
CROOKEDFINGER
Julia Halperin, Jason Cortlund
BEST TV PILOT / WEB SERIES
★ WINNER
Gangs of Kazan
Zhora Kryzhovnikov
NOMINATIONS
Ballet
Evgeniy Sangadzhiev
Доброволец / Volunteer (Web Series "About people and about war")
Dmitry Pasichnyuk
Sasha Counters!
Anna Zaytseva
Dick Bunny
Katie Locke O'Brien
BEST SHORT FILM
★ WINNER
Twenty
Jason Hogan
NOMINATIONS
Still Here / Immerdar
John Graham
Egoist
Rakhat Erdinbaevich Muratov
175
Kasra Karimi
Camping in Paradise
Eirik Tveiten
The Purpose
Dimitri Nasennik
Reconsolidation
Abbie Lucas
Got Your Nose
Stuart Hardy
BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM
★ WINNER
Matterhorn
Anne Madeleine Mancosu
NOMINATIONS
Higher Knowledge
Elijah Bigler
You Free Tonight?
Will Bottone
The Only Son
Piotr Matyja
Spider
Samuli Reunanen
Audition
yihan
Saw the obituary of a tree
yutong
BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM
★ WINNER
Somnus
Josh McCausland, Glen Kwon
★ WINNER
Remains
Robert Duncan
NOMINATIONS
Where the Shadows Meet the Light
John Slemensek-Thorne, James Beale
DAKINI
Arniko Kumar Singh
3 6 5
Matt Sedgley
Like the River Lea
Jean Abreu, David Kaplowitz
BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
★ WINNER
She Walks A Line
Timothy Stuart Lovell
NOMINATIONS
Is It Your Money?
Chude Jideonwo
They and Them
Ingrid Kamerling
PROTAGONISTS
Luis Calero
The Dark Side of Japan
Omar Farooq
Unification Orah
gyumin GIM
Before 1770 The Journey Home
Wesam Charkawi, Fred El-Harris
The Architects of Hope: The First Steps in Rebuilding Ukraine.
Paul Thomas
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
★ WINNER
Mellowcroft
Luke Dell
NOMINATIONS
Portrait of a Master Leatherworker
Richard Benjamin Forbes Edmunds, Sam Michael Wood
How to Sue the Klan
John Beder
Heart of the Biosphere - A Year in the Life of Merrick-Kells and Silver Flowe
Steve Cranston
BEST STUDENT DOCUMENTARY
★ WINNER
Waiting Onna Punch
Victoria Wilcox
NOMINATIONS
Dancing Palestine
Lamees Almakkawy
Modern Masturbation Allegory
Xinyi Li
The Homes of Donegal
Siobhan Bahl
New Town
Campbell Fraser Anderson
Fading Fires
Benjamin Lev Bogorad
BEST ANIMATION
★ WINNER
We`re Going To Hell
Al Buchanan
NOMINATIONS
Fall to the ground by Teon Blake - Stewart
Teon Mark Blake-Stewart
LOOK UP—The Science of Cultural Evolution
Nini Caroline Skarpaas Myhrvold, Espen Jan Folmo
BEST SHORT ANIMATION
★ WINNER
Unstoppable Beat
Luke Dye-Montefiore, Rufus Dye-Montefiore
NOMINATIONS
Vita Nova
Dmytro Zavora
Mahsa - Woman Life Freedom
Shahrad Fredotti
The Loving Couple
Mhairi Kerr
The Price of Nice
Yalin Solmaz
BEST STUDENT ANIMATION
★ WINNER
Hot Mess
Tortor Smith
NOMINATIONS
The Nut Case
Katie Mia Illsley
Catastropizza
Casey Lieu
The Time of Noise
Juanita Samper Calderon
BEST AI GENERATED FILM
★ WINNER
Gorilla Story
Roope Rainisto
★ WINNER
Bound by the Brush
Mark Wachholz
NOMINATIONS
The Future Can Be Yours
Simon Ball
The Kalevala – A Few Selected Poems About Creation
Umberto Onza
Unblind
Mark Wachholz
Transformation (English version)
Marcel Barsotti
BEST MUSIC / PERFORMANCE VIDEO
★ WINNER
AMMO 'Harm'
Adrian Pruett, AMMO
★ WINNER
Air de Temps
Benjamin Williams, Alesandra Seutin
NOMINATIONS
Grief's Embrace
Samuel Laubscher
Dream State
Fabian Sackis
Wander
Marcus Mezzano
Chrome Heart
Gabriel Luca Hodgetts
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
★ WINNER
Aidan's Song (From The Short Film 'What We Wished We Could Be')
Nick Blyth, Chris Cheater, David P. Goodes
NOMINATIONS
IS THAT YOU?
Debra Gussin, Rik Howard
TOTEM - Best Song
Amaury Laurent Bernier
"Wasting My Time" (song)
Douglas Heil
BEST ONE MINUTE FILM
★ WINNER
Monster Day
Andrea Ricca
NOMINATIONS
My Place
Owain Paciuszko
M0D3RN T1M3Z
Richard Thompson
ADDICTION
Toxine
The Loudest Train
Andrea Ricca
BEST FIRST TIME FILMMAKER
★ WINNER
BETA MALE
Andreas Alexander Skyggebjerg
NOMINATIONS
After ISIS
Jimmy Galt
Fly-Tipping
Gareth Malone
Mountain Boy
Zainab Sheheen
Never Have I Ever
Damon Rickard
Fruitcake!
Remy Madge
BEST FEATURE SCRIPT
★ WINNER
SAKLI (HIDDEN)
Hakan Ünal
NOMINATIONS
Some Desperate Glory
Bert Pigg
The Inheritance
Richard Edwards
On the Last Day
Rachel Thomas-Medwid
The Grand Magister
Ioanna Spanomarkou, Areti Spanomarkou
BEST SHORT SCRIPT
★ WINNER
The Estate
Rachel D Griffiths
NOMINATIONS
Today While Resting
Tommy Britt
How Possible.
D.K. Nwosu
Movie Man Munch (Script)
Ryan Daly
The Art of Eternal Love
Dawn Reavis Martin
BEST PHOTOGRAPH
★ WINNER
Sampaguita
Jessica-Jane Samways
NOMINATIONS
Go Noles
Laila Thaler
Pop of Color
Laila Thaler Sucher
Blue Home
Cécile Vernant
Lava Creek
Cécile Vernant
STAFFORDSHIRE FILMMAKER
★ WINNER
7 times 7 times 7
Anderson West
NOMINATIONS
Noodles
Kayleigh Pepper
Our First Christmas
Emily DeJesus