Narrative Features

It took us three years to make Drift. It was three years of intense experiences and encounters, it was three of the most beautiful years for me. The process became part of our lives and new relations between us and the life worlds surrounding our path were built. It is now one year that the film is on its journey and meets its audiences. The process continues whenever someone can relate to the film, when anyone accepts the invitation to drift with us, with the tide. Receiving this award is a feedback that informs us about new relations that had been built and this is the most wonderful thing to know. We are very thankful that Tacoma Film Festival gave us the space for new encounters between the film and the people who attended the screening. And we are very thankful that the jury let us know that they could relate to our work. We send warm and happy wishes over the oceans!

It’s such a huge honor for me and my co-director Bayley Sweitzer to receive the award for Best Directors! The film was cobbled together amongst friends over many years and required persistence of vision and a lot of risk taking. After three years of making the film, the opportunity to present it at TFF was such an honor! To be there in person and engage with the audience at Tacoma and receive this award from the Jury will fuel us to continue to make new work. Thank you so much for the opportunity!

I’m truly honored to receive this award at a festival with such an innovative program full of people who love film as an art form.

Thank you so much! I'm honored and happy that the film resonates with audiences.

Narrative Shorts

Super proud and honored. This is my second time screening at Tacoma and I love this film festival. Wish I could be there. It was a pleasure working on Piu Piu with Shawn. We didn’t have much time in pre-production but with the one meeting we did have, I came with a million ideas and Shawn was receptive to all of them. And then the day came to shoot and we just sorta threw out the shot list and went with what Made sense in the moment. With someone of his caliber you can do that—just work off of instinct and trust that he’s going to make it beautiful and more importantly, make sure it hits the right tone emotionally. I want to thank him, Natalie Paul—the lead, Damani Pompey for the choreography, and Jason Hightower, Natalie Clunis for producing. Terence Nance for EPing. And of course Tacoma for inviting us here again. (Naima Ramos-Chapman, Director of Piu Piu)

Documentary Features

Documentary Shorts

Best Regional

I am so grateful to have been included in this amazing program; David and the rest of the TFF team put together something really special... It would have been honor enough simply to screen Civil with so many other fantastic films, but to receive an award and have people respond to my piece was deeply encouraging. 

TFF also has one of the most warm and welcoming teams I've ever met, constantly going above and beyond to make us feel at home. It really did blow me away. I will be working hard to make sure I can return again in the future!

Audience Choice

We’d also like to congratulate our Audience Choice winners, the winners determined by your ballots!

Virtual Reality

Wow, wonderful news! What an honour! I'm so pleased to have this recognition from the festival for our piece which brings the past and future together to give us a unique perspective that can help us think about our present moment. (Lisa Jackson, Biidaaban: First Light)