By: Renée Santos
The 2025 LA Femme International Film Festival closed with a night full of bold voices, smart storytelling, and work that reminded us why boutique festivals matter: they discover risk-taking filmmakers and give them a stage.
The awards ceremony was hosted by Sandra Valls — comedian, actor, and longtime champion of women and queer voices in entertainment — fresh off her recent Broadway run in REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES. Valls, known for her turn on Showtime’s The Latin Divas of Comedy, LOGO appearances, and national tours, brought exactly the right mix of irreverence and reverence to the evening: sharp, political, joyful, and rooted in lived experience. Her presence framed the night as both celebration and cultural statement.
It was also a night that implicitly honored Leslie LaPage, founder and festival director of LA Femme — a pioneer who built and sustained a women-centered festival ecosystem long before the industry caught up. LA Femme exists because LaPage insisted — for two decades and counting — that women’s stories and women-led crews deserve institutional oxygen.
Winners (by award)
- Best Animated Short — “Horse Girl” (Amber Greenwood)
A dreamy, visual miniature about a girl who daydreams her way out of the ordinary. Amber Greenwood’s short uses delicate color and a childlike point of view to turn longing into movement — the kind of animation that lingers after the lights come up.
- Best Short — “the HOLE truth” (Alison Whitney & Natasha Goss)
Sharp, funny, and unexpectedly tender, this short mines real-life postpartum experience for comedy and heart. The performers’ grounded delivery keeps even the most outrageous beats feeling honest.
- Best Music Video — “collecting dust” (Cat Davies)
A music-driven piece that pairs intimate performance with striking production design; Cat Davies’ direction frames the song with a cinematic eye and theatrical staging that suits festival screens.
- Best Screenplay — “Bathwater” (Katie Ryan & Dana Fares)
A taut, character-forward script — the kind that shows up on respected screenplay lists (it has appeared in Big Break/Final Draft listings) — and the judges rewarded the craft and structure behind the voices on screen.
- Lifetime Achievement — Donna Pescow
The festival honored Donna Pescow for a career of memorable, empathetic performances and a steady presence across stage and screen. Press coverage and the festival’s own notices celebrated her life’s work during the awards evening.
- Best TV Pilot Script — “MURDER OF THE WOLF” (Lauri Levenfeld)
A propulsive pilot concept with a genre hook and strong series potential — evidently a judges’ favorite for its plotting and character stakes.
- Best Webisode — “The Crit(ique)” (Zoey Hudson)
Zoey Hudson’s web series pilot blends awkward comedy with keen observational writing about belonging and artistic ambition — a perfect fit for web-first storytelling and festival audiences.
- Best Documentary — “The Window on Death Row” (Linda Catherine Freund)
A compassionate documentary that follows a man exonerated from death-row, confronting incarceration, memory, and spiritual renewal. The film drew strong reviews for its humane approach and intimate access.
- Best Special Focus Documentary — “The Ramba Effect” (Claire Sandberg)
A focused, investigative piece that asks sharp questions and keeps its subject front-and-center — the kind of documentary that sparks conversation long after the screening.
- Best Foreign Feature — “The taste of the blackberry” (Anahí Borges)
A lyrical, internationally-minded feature that the jury rewarded for mood, atmosphere, and a distinct directorial voice.
- Best Feature — “DON’T LET THEM OUT” (Lila McLaughlin)
A tense, identifiably contemporary feature whose urgency and production confidence earned it top honors. The film’s direction and ensemble work were repeatedly singled out by viewers and jurors.
- Honorable Mention — “Mama’s Voice” (Ganna Yarovenko)
An affecting portrait of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the film examines the bonds that hold people together in the midst of conflict. It earned a special nod for its emotional clarity and the way it renders wartime connection with restraint and force.
- Best Foreign Short — “NEPO BABY” (Khanh Nguyen)
A clever short with cultural bite and an economical narrative that lands its satire quickly and cleanly.
- Best Feature Director — “GLITCHED” (Zoe Quist)
Zoe Quist won for direction — for precise control of tone, an assured visual language, and the ability to wrangle genre elements into something fresh.
This year’s program leaned decisively toward intimate human storytelling. From the inward, almost whispered emotional register of the animated short Horse Girl to the restorative, memory-laden arc of The Window on Death Row, the curation favored films that foreground character and empathy over spectacle.
Notably, a number of the winning titles have already begun to gather traction in screenplay labs, on the festival circuit, or on emerging web-series platforms — further underscoring LA Femme’s role as a launch pad for work with clear momentum and audience potential.
