Pour L’Amour picked up the coveted Grand Chameleon and the Best Narrative Feature awards, and From the Hood to the Holler took home the award for Best Documentary Feature at the 25th Brooklyn Film Festival “Unthinkable Edition” which ended on Sunday, June 12th.

In Pour L’Amour directed by Andrzej Mańkowski, Marlena struggles with a serious marital crisis due to the alcohol addiction of her husband, Zbigniew. Via the Internet, she meets Bruno, a Senegalese, who brings back Marlena’s self-confidence and sense of womanhood. However, it turns out that the man plans something rather different for her than building a relationship with her… The film is inspired by true events and touches upon the overwhelming problem of how modern technologies affect people’s lives today.

Directed by Pat McGee, From the Hood to the Holler follows Charles Booker as he rode to the brink of one of the biggest upsets in political history. The documentary follows his campaign across Kentucky from the most urban to the most rural settings. Booker and his team rewrite the campaign playbook. They lean into the charge that average Kentuckians have common bonds, a unifying day-to-day struggle. That struggle is color blind. Booker fights to represent Kentuckians that feel invisible. His message is simple whether you are from the city “Hood,” or the Appalachian “Holler,” you are not invisible.

“A wonderful journey with a group of people the festival trusts in full. A diverse and eccentric film program and a group of programmers who made the 2022 fest, Unthinkable Edition, a truly remarkable adventure that at the end was pretty much what it was set up to be. A quirky, but optimistic trajectory in the midst of one of the toughest human crises many of us had to experience for the very first time in our lifetime,” said Marco Ursino, Brooklyn Film Festival Executive Director. “Thanks to indie filmmakers for helping us re-imagining a brand new world.”

And the winners are:

Grand Chameleon Award
POUR L’AMOUR by ANDRZEJ MAŃKOWSKI

Best Narrative Feature
POUR L’AMOUR by ANDRZEJ MAŃKOWSKI

Best Documentary
FROM THE HOOD TO THE HOLLER by PAT McGEE

Best Short Documentary
KEYS TO THE CITY by IAN MOUBAYED

Best Narrative Short
ACT OF GOD by SPENCER COOK and PARKER SMITH

Best Animation
MY YEAR OF DICKS by SARA GUNNARRSDÓTTIR

Best Experimental
DREAM CHILD by LEAH BROWN

Best New Director
SIGNS OF LOVE by CLARENCE FULLER

Best Brooklyn Project
LEON’S FANTASY CUT by JOSH CARAS and JON VALDE

Spirit Awards
Feature Narrative: WELCOME, VIOLETA! by FERNANDO FRAIHA
Feature Documentary: MERRY CHRISTMAS, YIWU by MLADEN KOVACEVIC
Short Documentary: NOAH by MONTY MARSH
Short Narrative: MOVER by JACKSON JARVIS
Experimental: BEEF by BRENDON KINGSBURY and SEAN WEBLEY
Animation: THE BROTHER MIKE TAPES by RODD PERRY and MIKE COHEN

Audience Awards
Feature Narrative: LEON’S FANTASY CUT by JOSH CARAS and JON VALDE
Feature Documentary: DROWNING IN SILENCE by CHEZIK TSUNODA
Short Documentary: MY OWN COLORS by BRENDA ELIZABETH
Short Narrative: EL CARRITO by ZAHIDA PIRANI
Experimental: I’M AT HOME by PHILIP THOMPSON
Animation: BETWEEN LINES by SARAH BETH MORGAN
KidsFilmFest: IT’S ALRIGHT, DAD by Lynn Dow

Certificates of Outstanding Achievement
Producer: ALONA METZER for LEARN TO SWIM
Screenplay: AMELIE BONNIN & DIMITRI LUCAS for BYE BYE
Cinematography: AKZHOL BEKBOLOTOV & MURAT ALIYEV for SHAMBALA
Editing: FAUSTINE CROS for RANDOM PATROL
Style: EM JOHNSON for BALLOON ANIMAL
Original Score: MICHAEL BACON for FREE RENTY: LANIER v. HARVARD
Actor Female: ZOË BLEU for SIGNS OF LOVE
Actor Male: EDDIE CRADDOCK for RAGGED HEART