Cambria Film Festival announces 2023 winners

More than a half dozen films were recognized with awards from a panel of judges for the 2023 Cambria Film Festival. The awards night February 12 capped five days involving over 60 competition films, filmmaker talks, world premieres, special programming and gala events.

The Nancy Green Founder’s Award for the film that best exemplified the festival’s goal of exploring romance and the complexities of love went to Look Who’s There (Italy). This feature-length film directed by Riccardo Camilli explores the dynamics of love, death and moving forward.

Volunteers of the Cambria Scarecrow Festival pose with Robin Smith, the director of “Something to Crow About.” Robin Smith’s documentary about the Cambria Scarecrow Festival had its world premiere on Saturday, February 11, at the Cambria Film Festival.

The judging panel made its official selections from over 400 feature and short films submitted from around the world. 

• Best Feature Film to Hard Shell, Soft Shell (France), directed by Emma Benestan. 
• Best Short Film to The Fool’s Mate (United Kingdom), directed by Cian Llewellyn. 
• Best Animated Film went to A Fleeting Moment, (United States), directed by Allyanna Demafeliz. 
• Best Long-Form Short (an award for short films more than 20 minutes in length) went to Shams (Belgium), directed by Pauline Beugnies. 
• Best Documentary award went to Blue Dots (Italy), directed by Lorenzo Squarcia.

6th Annual Cambria Film Festival pass sales begin | Programming highlights announced

The Cambria Film Festival will return for its sixth year February 8-12, 2023, bringing independent films from around the world to Cambria — all with a focus on romance, romantic comedies, and the complexities of love.

Passes are now on sale at CambriaFilmFestival.com at special Early Bird prices. This year’s festival will include more than 60 films, 3 parties, and multiple filmmaker talks.

Programming highlights include:

• Opening Preview Reception and Film on February 8 featuring Fire of Love – a stunning documentary that has been wowing film festival audiences around the globe since its premiere at Sundance earlier this year.
• Filmmaker Welcome Reception and Film on February 10 featuring Our (Almost Completely True) Story—a rom-com inspired by the real-life romance between actors Mariette Hartley and Jerry Sroka. Both actors will be in attendance.
• More than 50 independent short and feature films divided into 15 competition programs—selected from nearly 400 films submitted from filmmakers in 52 different countries.
• An annual awards night gala on February 12 featuring music, food, drink, clips of winning films—and the filmmakers themselves.
• Plus additional screenings of films not in competition at both Moonstone Cellars club members lounge and at the Cambria Memorial Veterans Hall, local film premieres and the opportunity to stream competition shorts after the live festival.

The Cambria Film Festival celebrates stories of love that connect us.