Complete coverage of the festival Short Awards Jury Bruce Fessier Christopher Swan Julie Albertson Stephen Doucette Official Jury and Audience Awards

Welcome to our first-ever thedesertsun.com Short Awards. These titles carry only the prize of honor (and a bit of extra publicity). It's our way of giving a little thanks and recognition back to the filmmakers who've worked so hard to entertain us over the past week.

best short - live action
MIMMO & PAULIE
Domenic Silipo masters the art of the understated. It was difficult to give the live action award to a film that's really just two guys in a room for 29 minutes, but the dialogue was blow-you-away fantastic.

best short - documentary
PARENTS OF THE YEAR
James Scurlock's poignant portrait of one mother's hard work, sacrifice and determination to buy a better life for her children.

best short - animated
HELLO
A charming and beautifully animated 7-minute commentary on music, technology and love from Jonathan Nix.

best short short (5 minutes or less)
TIE: PLAY WAR (Robert Jones, 4 minutes) & IN TOO DEEP (Rene Hernandez, 5 minutes)
Sometimes the challenge is knowing when to stop. These two films -- one serious, one decidedly not -- couldn't have less in common except that they've cleverly told their stories in under 5 minutes.

best long short (25 minutes and up)
ANIMA
Based on the true-life 16th century Latin American Catholic practice of sealing nuns in walls to ward off evil spirits.

best script
MIMMO & PAULIE
(see above)

best cinematography
NEWS FOR THE CHURCH
Actor-turned-director Andrew McCarthy put forward a beautifully shot film.

best local film
WHERE THE GIRLS ARE
It's funny. It's eye-opening. It's unabashedly Palm Springs. From Tricia Cooke & Jennifer Arnold.

funniest short
CHICKEN PARTY
This short from Tate Taylor is completely hilarious -- 29 minutes of non-stop LOL humor with a timeless "can't we all just get along?" message.

most heartwarming
TIE: FLOWERS FROM THE HEARTLAND & TRIUMVIRATE
Peter Daulton documents the movement started by a Minnesota man (and quickly spread across the country and world) to send flowers to gay couples getting married in San Francisco. Jean Strauss tells a lovely true story about finding family. Your heart will grow three sizes at either.

most heartwrenching
ARIANA
Magnificent -- a well-done and truly moving commentary on family, relationships and responsibilities from Michael Sandoval.

best costumes/style
THE 17th MAN
Between the camera angles, lighting, costumes, and set decoration, Yimeng Jin's film was, stylistically speaking, mature, rich, and textured, much like the performances of its cast.

best fight scene
IN THE BATHROOM
A hotel tryst turns into a knock-down brawl in this oh-so noir 8-minute flick from Olivier Venturini that twisted and turned at every opportunity possible.

best kiss
CRAZY LOVE
This sweet and witty short from John Cabrera ends with a kiss that changes everything.

best dance scene
GAY PIMP DADDY, LOOKING CUTE FEELIN CUTE
Jonny Mcgovern brings short fun to the big screen. This 4-minute musical is all dance, all laughs.

best love scene
HANDICAP
Technically it's the best near-love scene and it has more humor than steam, but Lewis-Martin Soucy's spin is unforgettable.

best film title
F***ING HOLLYWOOD
This was a tough category, but in the end we had to give it to Aundre Johnson for the sheer audacity of "F***ING HOLLYWOOD." It's perfection.

best trailer
wow & flutter
Do short films have trailers? Gary Lundgren's one-minute trailer proves there is an art to promoting a short without giving it all away.

best program
STAR POWER
This program couldn't be beat for its star power on the screen and in the audience. Not to mention the quality of these celeb-fueled films.

best crowd
TIE: Gay Shorts: Out and About & Gay Shorts: Pride and Prejudice
The Palm Springs gay community continues its loyal film fest patronage, taking this category by a landslide in both numbers and spirit. We just couldn't decide which was better: the Friday or Saturday night crowd.