The bittersweetness of Closing Night is inevitable.

By tomorrow, the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival will be wrapped, which means there are still a few hours left to celebrate the achievements of all of the extraordinary filmmakers who made this year’s Festival such an inspiring event.

Above all, we are proud to honor the 2015 Festival competition winners. If you missed seeing their work at the Festival, keep an eye out for their films to hit theaters. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you cry. All will remind you what you love about the spirit of independent film.

U.S. Fiction Award: Out of My Hand, director Takeshi Fukunaga
World Fiction Award: Flocken, director Beata Gårdeler
Documentary Award: My Love, Don’t Cross That River, director Mo-Young Jin
LA Muse Award: Can You Dig This, director Delila Vallot
Nightfall Award: Crush the Skull, director Viet Nguyen
Zeitgeist Award: Stealing Cars, director Bradley Kaplan
Audience Award for Best Fiction Feature Film: POCHA (Manifest Destiny), director Michael Dwyer and co-director Kaitlin McLaughlin
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature Film: (tie) I Am Thalente, directeor Natalie Johns and Be Here Now, director Lilibet Foster
Best Short Fiction: Drama, director Tian Guan
Best Short Documentary: Dolphin Lover, director Kareem Tabsch
Audience Award for Best Short Film: In Her Place, director Kevin Hamedani
Audience Award for Best Web Series: The Genderton Project, directors Anna Martemucci and Victor Quinaz

Pamela Miller / Website & Grants Manager