#RSFF2016 Winners
Congratulations to Winners of the Raw Science Film Festival 2016!
The 3rd Annual Raw Science Film Festival was held Saturday, December 10th, at the Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California, featuring film screening and red carpet award ceremony at the Zanuck Theater. The film Arrival and the planet Mars swept the awards. The event was lived streamed by Livit. Virtual awards were designed by Jeremy Roush.
The Awards Ceremony was emceed by Paul Hynek of Giant Studios. Speakers covered everything from aliens to space lasers sending chips to Alpha Centauri near the speed of light. It was a special moment in Caltech-Hollywood history when Kip Thorne presented the Kip Thorne Gravity Award for Best Depiction of a Scientific Principle to Stephen Wolfram for the portrayal of linguistics in Arrival. Speakers included Naveen Jain (Moon Express) who roused the audience with a pledge to dream audaciously. His inspirational life story was the subject of a Google Lunar X Prize video directed by JJ Abrams. Peter Samuelson spoke on the importance of popularizing the “marginalized nerd” globally followed by the ending scene of Revenge of the Nerds which he produced. There is a new Samuelson Star Catcher Award for pro-social media which was presented by Samuelson along with iGIANT creator Dr. Saralyn Mark to Hidden Figures.
Zanuck Theater, Fox Studios — Chris Farina (Kip Thorne, Stephen Wolfram)
Stephen and Christopher Wolfram accepted the first Wolfram Award for Best Technical Advisor for their work on the alien language in Arrival. Video game and STEAM education icon Brent Bushnell of Two Bit Circus gave a moving speech on the ways virtual reality will change media and our world. Janet-Ivey Duensing of Janet’s Planet presented the Permission to Dream Award to young filmmaker Radheya Jegatheva for his film Journey. Philip Lubin brought a phased laser demonstration and presented the Starshot Initiative and explained how we will send nano-chips to Alpha Centauri with a laser! Sheldon Brown also presented the first annual Arthur C Clarke Center for Human Imagination Prize in Speculative Media to Arrival. Linda Rheinstein, actor Marshall Teaque, and New England Patriot Brock Vareen represented Space Games Federation and their quest to crowdsource videos for sports in space. Will Nix accepted the Best Series (Non-Fiction) Award on behalf of National Geographic for the series Mars.
It was a night of aliens, space lasers, and #EqualAccess to space. The night was topped off by a secret screening of the amazing film Hidden Figures in advance of its theatrical release.
The festival was co-founded by Mitchell Block and honors films on science and technology worldwide. Partners for the event included Explore Mars, Space Tourism Society Canada, and the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. It is eligible to be an Academy Award qualifying festival in 2019.
Zanuck Theater, Fox Studios — Chris Farina (Madeleine Cook of Seat 25, Maxx the Robot)
The event kitcked off at 1PM with a screening of select winning films including Journey by Radheya Jegatheva, Seat 25 by Nicholas Agnew, and Passage to Mars by Jean-Christopher Jeauffre amongst others. Planetary scientist and explorer Pascal Lee of the Mars Institute and SETI Institute attended the festivities.
The red carpet and press event was held outside the Zanuk Theater. Space Games Federation conducted interviews with VIPs, and ’Maxx The Robot’ made a debut at the festival thanks to Janet’s Planet. Maxx is a giant 9-foot tall robot, provided by Gigamaxx productions in Nashville, TN. He created a big buzz. A special iGIANT Roundtable event was held. Panelists explored the impact of gender/sex on innovation and novel technologies (iGIANTTM) as it pertains to Commercial Space and Sustainable Development. Space Games Federation conducted interviews and announced a video challenge for the next festival.
“The mission of the festival is to keep the beauty and logic of science on center stage in popular culture,” commented Keri Kukral, founder and CEO of the Raw Sciene Film Festival and the Raw Science Foundation.
“It is extremely gratifying when the culmination of our efforts including tremendous work by Jack Klink, who in conjunction with other team members, created a night to remember,” commented co-producer Derek Casari from Fox Studios.
WINNERS
Amateur Dramatic <10min
1st – Ex Vivo
Youth Dramatic <10min
1st – Journey
Youth Documentary >10min
1st – Food From the Sky
Student Dramatic >10min
1st – Starry Night
2nd – Human Protocol
Student DOCUMENTARY >10min
1st – Epigenetics: Memory of Our Bodies
2nd – I Want to Be an Astronaut
Professional Dramatic <10min
1st – Dreams on Sale
2nd – No Guarantee
3rd – Tempo
Professional Documentary <10min
1st – Microsculpture
2nd – Loop
3rd – Dish Life
Professional Dramatic >10min
1st – The Cradle
2nd – Patient 39
3rd – Darkwave: Edge of the Storm
Professional Documentary >10min
1st – Morgan Spurlock’s Inside Man
2nd – Death & Taxidermy
3rd – Ghost of the Mountain
Professional Feature [Fiction] >59min
1st – Seat 25
2nd – The End of the Lonely Island
3rd – A Promise of Time Travel
Professional Feature [NON-Fiction] >59min
1st – Passage to Mars
Best Science Fiction
Arrival
Best Documentary
The University
Best Series (Fiction)
Stranger Things
Best Series (Non-Fiction)
MARS (Nat Geo)
Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination Prize in Speculative Media
Arrival
Kip Thorne Gravity Award for Best Depiction of a Scientific Principle
Arrival for linguistics
Stephen Wolfram Best Technical Advisor Award
Stephen & Christopher Wolfram
(Arrival)
Janet Ivey Permission to Dream Award
Radheya Jegatheva
(Journey)
Peter Samuelson Star Catcher Award
Hidden Figures
Prize in MetaPhysical Media
Einstein’s God Model
A full list of Official Selections can be found here.
