Celebrating Innovation: Los Angeles New Media Film Festival Unveils 2025 Award Winners, with Godcasting Taking Top Honors
Visionary Storytelling Takes Center Stage as New Media Film Festival® Announces Award Winners for 16th Edition. This year’s selections highlight groundbreaking creativity and innovation from across the globe, reinforcing the festival’s role as a leader in pushing artistic and technological boundaries.
With a diverse selection of 80 pioneering New Media films and tech-driven narratives from 14 countries, the festival continues to elevate fresh voices and revolutionary content. This year’s lineup showcased visionary works that merge artistry with cutting-edge advancements, demonstrating the evolving landscape of new media. https://www.newmediafilmfestival.com
“I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful this Festival was! Everyone was so supportive & enthusiastic and I was proud to have my work featured alongside some incredible films!” — Emmy Winner Richard Wilson
The Los Angeles New Media Film Festival® proudly presents the full list of winners for 2025. These visionary artists, through their brilliance and dedication, continue to redefine creative possibilities and inspire the future of storytelling.
And the winners are:
GRAND PRIZE
Godcasting
Director Florent Agostini from France- Premiere U.S. — Florent was granted a first-film fund from the Corsican regional authorities, this enabled him to direct his first futuristic film, Godcastin, produced by One Shot Film.
A revolutionary AI-driven cinematic experience integrating social media with interactive storytelling. To integrate new participants into the program it created, an artificial intelligence is developing a new cinematic concept based on an interactive short film and social media.
BEST ANIMATION
Meevil the Weevil: Breakfast of Champions
Director Kyle Arneson from USA — Premiere L.A.
A little bug with big dreams of being a stuntman. “Breakfast of Champions” mixes stop motion animation with live action footage where we follow Meevil’s thrilling ride across a 1970s breakfast table on rocket roller skates.
BEST AI
Nezhaverse — Birth of a Legend
Director Taige Shi from Asia
Dragon King sends its evil powers all over the world.
BEST AR
Penguin Court
Director True Interactive from USA — Premiere World
A digital archive and reconstruction of the Scaife Mansion, a historic building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This project focuses on digitizing and making accessible extensive records and materials from the city archives, including materials related to the Scaife Mansion itself.
BEST ART / Photo
The Rose Garden
Director Christopher Ruane from USA — Premiere World
An art and augmented reality interactive experience. Space and Earth.
BEST CHILDREN
Mint Condition
Director So Man Tsoi from Hong Kong — Premiere L.A.
Lok Chen, a primary school student, was sent by her father to a school that champion perfection. Anything that is less is intolerable. With a grading scheme of either a full 100 or 0, those who fail to perform to perfection will be modified for improvements. Soon, Lok Chen discovers that the system itself is flawed with dystopic intent. Will she survive the system now becomes the question.
BEST DIGITAL COMIC
Halloween Girl Book One: Promises to Keep
Writer Emmy Winner Richard T. Wilson from USA
Angsty, teen ghost, Charlotte (aka ‘Halloween Girl’) and supernatural gal pal, Poe battle diabolic, secret society, The Hollow for the soul of Crystal Springs — and their own salvation.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Seizure
Director Matt Durrant from Australia — Premiere L.A.
The film follows a real-time case involving one of the world’s most trafficked commodities, pangolin scales. “Seizure” is a gripping tale of courage, sacrifice and the fierce determination to preserve life in all its forms.
BEST FAITH and FAMILY
Ever So Faintly I See
Director D. Jason Knowles from USA — Premiere World
In finding a harmony of spirit through creativity in fishing and painting, an artist reminisces about an old friend and realizes that solitude is is not loneliness.
BEST FEATURE
Revival
Director Wendy Fleetwood from USA — Premiere L.A.
Despite Nick’s reluctance to commit to a long-term lease, Emma is desperate to pay her rent, so she agrees to let him move in. Emma slowly starts to fall for Nick, only to find out that he has a shocking and mysterious past.
BEST GAME
Sky of Tides
Director Judith Cheung from Canada
Explore numen9, where the oceans float in the sky. In this rich narrative adventure, Rin D’Lorah sets off to find her missing father with a runaway rebel and a robot with humor settings on max.
BEST METAVERSE
VirtualWorlds Museum
Director Julian Reyes from USA — Premiere World
Researcher In Kenzo &AI archivist SEHU teleport to virtual realms, speak to world builders, and catalog virtual world platforms for posterity.
BEST MR
Beyond the System
Director Fergus Mulligan from Ireland — Premiere L.A.
A worker in a future dystopian world begins to question his place in the production line and takes steps to break free from it.
BEST MOBILE
Cobbled Strings
Directors Milena Stoykova and Paulina Gegova from Bulgaria — Premiere USA
The poetry video explains love for the town of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, with poems and shots. Plovdiv was founded in 4000 BC and it’s one of the oldest cities in the world and the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. Today the slogan of the town is “Ancient and eternal”. Shot on iPhone 13 Pro Max.
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
McKenna Michels Monster
Director Nicholas Nephi Peterson from USA — Premiere L.A. Cast and Crew
A female warrior battles her inner demons, embodied in a dark witch, to save the world and free her friends from mental illness.
BEST NEW MEDIA
If War Comes To You
Director Mathias de Melo Lundegaard from Denmark — Premiere World
An interactive film launched in 10 different language and country versions, set in a fictional war scenario, created to shed light on how the laws of war can reduce suffering in wars and conflicts.
BEST NFT
CharityNFT by Newton Lee — Premiere World for a global community
Through this initiative, festival entrants can see their posters transformed into unique NFTs, enabling them to compete in audience awards while simultaneously contributing to charitable causes.
BEST PILOT
Wizdom
Director Layne Marie Williams from USA — Premiere World
In a world where daylight is scarce, humans live with bionic implants in a colony called Wizdom. Eos, a professional thief, is saved by a strange character, Carbon, who has a higher purpose for Eos and their younger sibling Vayle.
BEST PODCAST
Covering Their Tracks
Director Matthew Slutsky from USA
Premiere USA
The extraordinary story of a young man’s escape from a moving train bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust, and his fight to hold the French national rail company, the SNCF, accountable for their actions as they later bid for lucrative high-speed rail contracts in the United States.
BEST SCRIPT
The Scorpion Dance
Writer Jon Haller from USA — Premiere World
When a witness coach meets with her new client, the CEO of an entertainment company, she must decide how much she’s willing to help the man who ruined her previous career.
TOP 3 SCRIPTS — Ace’s Wild III, A Boy Called Freddie & Last Stand at Butte City
BEST SHORT
May Contain: Danger
Director Jennifer Greenstreet from USA, World Premiere
This film exposes the life-or-death need to normalize food allergies and the difficult choice between staying alive and fitting in. This captivating story reveals how people escape the hijacking of their lives, offering a blueprint for everyone to embrace, understand, and live life fully amidst this growing public health crisis.
BEST SR
Interwoven
Director, Dawn Carpenter from USA U.S. Premiere
In the wake of the textile industry’s decline, a community in North Carolina fights to reclaim its economic future through innovative worker-owned cooperatives and sustainable practices, transforming the remnants of their industrial past into a beacon of hope and resilience for future generations.
BEST STEAM
AI in the Street: Drone Observatory
Directors, Phan and Jeni Lee from Australia L.A. Premiere
Logan is one of the world’s largest drone delivery trial sites. What do locals feel about the presence of commercial and autonomous drone delivery systems in their neighborhood?
BEST STUDENT
Solitude
Writer, Ryan Moore from USA Los Angeles Premiere
The journey of a young man solo traveling through Iceland to understand what it means to be alone.
BEST TRAILER
Atlas Shrugged: A Book Trailer for Ayn Rand’s Masterpiece
Director V Hill from USA
From the perspective of Dagny Taggart, female railroad executive and the main protagonist of the novel, we see a world crumbling around her as she embarks on a mission to find the man behind the destruction… and stop him.
BEST TV
The Crest
Director Aditya Patwardhans from USA
All too real nightmares of a terrifying mythical creature prompts a teen from the wealthy and powerful Mercer Island to investigate the people closest to her only to unveil layers of deep and dark secrets within and around the island.
BEST VR-360
Back To The Past
Directors Dario Melo Maciel from Brazil, Premiere World
Rui Barbosa is a historic person in Brazil that lived in the later 19th to the 20th century. Famous for being an abolitionist, jurist and politican from the late Empire and the new Republic. He is waiting for his wife to get dressed. They have a party to go soon. While he waits, help him fix a historic scanned car and find out more about his house (that would become a museum later on). This experience uses only hands as controllers to give the viewers an incredible immersive experience using Meta Quest 3. Put your seat belt and come back to the past!
BEST WEB SERIES
Sky of Tides: Alta Ep1
Directors Jason Loftus & Masha Loftus from Canada — Premiere World
In the fractured world of numen9, the oceans float above the sky, and two powerful factions are on the brink of war.
About the Host:
Media Futurist Dame Susan Johnston Hosts New Media Film Festival®, Celebrating Innovation in Storytelling. Recognized for her contributions to the film industry, Johnston was knighted in Italy 2017 Cavaliere dell’Ordine di San Martino for her outstanding work in arts and humanity. A respected columnist for Rolling Stone and Authority Magazine, she has spent over two decades championing innovative narratives across multiple platforms, reinforcing her role as a leading voice in storytelling evolution. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0426856/
About the New Media Film Festival®:
Founded with a mission to merge technology and artistry, the New Media Film Festival® continues to push creative boundaries, offering a global stage for visionary creators. Each year, the festival curates groundbreaking content across emerging mediums, celebrating pioneers in digital storytelling, immersive experiences, and tech-driven narratives. Dedicated to story and forward-thinking excellence, the festival elevates fresh voices and fosters conversations shaping the future of entertainment. https://www.newmediafilmfestival.com
