Tallgrass announces 2020 festival award winners

The virtual 18th Annual Tallgrass Film Festival is proud to announce this year’s programming award winners – the best of a program full of excellent films – all deserving of their own praise in one way or another. This year, Tallgrass screened 47 features and 196 shorts, from more than 35 countries around the world.

On this year’s winners, Programming Coordinator Hannah Bothner said:

“We’re incredibly proud of this year’s winners! This group of films really highlights the wide breadth of our programming and represents all of the wonderful stories you can find at Tallgrass. These are going to be the films to look out for in the next year and we cannot wait to see what the future holds for these filmmakers.”

Thank you to Groover Labs for creating the 2020 Tallgrass Film Festival awards.

UPDATE: 2020 Audience Award winners have been announced. See the list below. Congratulations to all!

Audience Award: Best Documentary Feature – Thumbs Up for Mother Universe: The Life of Lonnie Holley

Audience Award: Best Narrative Feature – Two of Us

Audience Award: Best Narrative Short – The Dying Breed

Audience Award: Best Documentary Short- The Roads Most Traveled: Photojournalist Don Bartletti

See the full list of winners below

Best Kansas Documentary Short – WuShock Doc: The History and Making of WuShock in Bronze directed by Tyler Pennick

Best Kansas Narrative Short – Fear Not directed by Emily Railsback

Best Emerging Student Documentary Short, a documentary film made by a student 18 or younger – Chasing Normality directed by Madison Empalmado

Best Emerging Student Narrative Short, a narrative film made by a student 18 or younger – Faulty Roots directed by Ella Greenwood

Excellence in the Art of Filmmaking, Outstanding Female Filmmaker – A Song Without a Name directed by Melina León

Outstanding Courage in Filmmaking – The Roads Most Traveled: Photojournalist Don Bartletti directed by Bill Wisneski

Outstanding Cinematography – No Fear No Favor directed by Mirra Bank

Outstanding Screenplay – Dramarama directed by Jonathan Wysocki

Outstanding Editing – Out of Stock directed by Bryan Taira

Outstanding Film Animation – Yuan Yuan and the Hollow Monster directed by Catherine Chen

Outstanding Rising Star – Katie Beth West in GraceLand directed by Bonnie Discepolo

Outstanding Male Actor – Zachary Schultz in Itchy Fingers directed by Anna Nilles & Marco Jake

Outstanding Female Actor – Jennifer Lafleur in Baby Kate directed by Jennifer Lafleur

Outstanding Ensemble Cast – Materna directed by David Gutnik

Outstanding First Feature – Puppy Love directed by Michael Maxxis

Outstanding Documentary Short – Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad directed by Camrus Johnson and Pedro Piccinini

Outstanding Narrative Short – Sitting directed by Jones

2020 DOXX Award Winner – The Earth is Blue as an Orange directed by Iryna Tsilyk

2020 Stubbornly Independent Award Winner – Materna directed by David Gutnik

Outstanding Documentary Feature – Whirlybird directed by Matt Yoka

Outstanding Narrative Feature – Itchy Fingers directed by Anna Nilles & Marco Jake