Imagine Science Film Festival 2022: Recap
Imagine Science Festival
Event
Highlights
Summary
The 15th edition of the annual Imagine Science Film Festival took place in New York from October 14-21, 2022. The hybrid event featured over 100 films from 46 countries, including numerous premieres. The festival focused on the "Science New Wave," promoting innovative and experimental scientific storytelling.
Key insights:
Festival Dates: The event ran from October 14-21, 2022.
Event Format: It was a hybrid event in New York and broadcast globally on Labocine.
Film Participation: Over 100 films from 46 countries were featured.
Premieres: Included 7 International, 21 New York, and 32 East Coast premieres.
Theme: The "Science New Wave" promotes experimental scientific storytelling.
Opening Film: 'Utama' premiered at the Museum of the Moving Images.
Award Winners: 'The Sacred Spirit' won the Science New Wave Award.
Other Highlights: Featured films like 'The Invisible Extinction' and 'In Letter from Yene.'
Special Awards: Included Theme-Sensitive Award, In-Vivo Award, and Avant-Garde Award.
Here’s everything that went down at the 15th edition of the annual Imagine Science Film Festival 2022.
What is Imagine Science Films?
Imagine Science Films is a non-profit organization dedicated to making scientific information easily accessible via the Internet by blending Science with Film.
ISF also hosts a number of satellite events globally, and some of its platform feature short animated movies about various topics in science, technology, art, engineering, and mathematics contributed by a diverse group.
Imagine Science Films Festival is an annual science film festival that takes place annually in New York ever since its inception in 2008.
Event Details: Imagine Science Film Festival 2022
This year marked the 15th anniversary of the festival that took place in New York between October 14 - 21, 2022.
This was a hybrid event that was also broadcast globally on ISF’s science film platform Labocine.
Over 100 films submitted by filmmakers from 46 countries featured at this year’s festival which was themed the ‘Science New Wave’.
Moreover, ISF had 7 International Premieres, 21 New York Premieres and 32 East Coast Premieres.
What is the Science New Wave?
Established in August 2016 by a committee of scientists and artists in the French city of Lairoux, The Science New Wave laid out a set of principles of encouraging experimentation and innovation in science and rejecting the conventional science film methods.
The Science New Wave aims to provide information to the general public about how science works and how it affects them.
Imagine Science Film Festival 2022 featured 29 feature films and 72 short videos in line with the Science New Wave principles. Program celebrates cinematic work that encourages new, bold, and hybrid forms of scientific storytelling.
Event Highlights
The event’s first day, 14th October, started off with Alejandro Loayza’s feature ‘Utama’ premiering at the Museum of the Moving Images in Queens, New York.
A story of an old couple living in the Bolivian highlands, Utama details their survival struggles amid a severe drought grapping the highlands.
Day 2’s highlight was ‘The Invisible Extinction’ covering talks by scientists on their journey of rescuing microbes from extinction.
On Day 3, a US Secret service agent’s rescue mission to the distant space city of ‘Alphaville’ premiered across screens. Day 4’s highlight was ‘In Letter from Yene’ in which filmmaker Manthia Diawara shares his experiences with his new found family Senegal’s seaside town, Yene.
Renowned visual artist Ali Cherri brought his feature film ‘The Dam’ to the festival, whereas Documentary filmmaker Ross Kauffman’s Of Medicine and Miracles’ visualizes a young girl’s cancer story and her family, and doctor’s efforts to rescue her.
Moreover, 72 shorts, which were divided into 10 programs, were high-quality works which chronicled the importance of experimentation in blending science with cinema.
Some of these short films include a pupper performance on artificial neural networks ‘Diteggiatura’, ‘Como Miramos (As We See)’ which gave insights into the observation methods of scientists, Peter Galison’s ‘Dream of a Shadow’ and last but not the least, ‘It's Raining Frogs Outside’, themed on the last day on world.
Awards
Science New Wave Award: $2000 cash prize
Winner= The Sacred Spirit / Espíritu sagrado (Directed by: Chema García Ibarra)
Honorable Mention= Neptune Frost (Directed by: Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman)
Honorable Mention= Scales / Sayidat Al Bahr (Directed by: Shahad Ameen)
Theme-Sensitive Award: $500 cash prize
Winner= TheTwo Faces of Tomorrow (Directed by: Patrick Hough)
Honorable Mention= Aralkum (Directed by: Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhluktenko)
In-Vivo Award
Winner= Haulout (Directed by: Evgenia Arbugaeva & Maxim Arbugaev)
Honorable Mention= As We See (Directed by: Xavier Nueno)
Avant-Garde Award
Winner= Wrought (Directed by: Anna Sigrithur & Joel Penner)
Honorable Mention= Biopixels (Directed by: Kristina Dutton)
Symbiosis Competition ($1500 cash prize)
Winner= Interference Patten (Written by: Niccolò Bigagli & Ramey Newell)
Best Rhythm Award: Garden of Mirrors (By Danna Grace Windsor & Anthony Chesebro)
Best Nightmare Award: Access Denied (By Jordan Lei & Asia Khmelova)
Most Obliterating Film Award: ΔS ≥ 0 (By Maria Fernandez Pello & Kaze Wong)
Page-turner Award: Eat up, Bear! (By Alice Yan & Anthony Banua-Simon)
Most Encapsulating Film Award: Sincerely Yours, Ethel Browne of Harvey (By Advik Beni (filmmaker) & Beatrice Steinert)
