Joey Brent
Winning filmmakers on the red carpet at the 2019 Oxford Film Festival, (left to right) John Charter, Paul Kaiser, Timothy Blackwood, Bradford Downs, Suzannah Herbert, Morgan Jon Fox, John Rash, Will Stewart, and Christian Walker
Memphis-born filmmaker Suzannah Herbert and directing partner Lauren Belfer’s documentary Wrestle took home the prize for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s Oxford Film Festival, which took place over the weekend. Herbert and Belfer were also awarded the Alice Guy Blaché Emerging Female Filmmaker Award. The sports documentary, about a high school wrestling team in Huntsville, Alabama, has also won the Ron Tibbets Excellence In Filmmaking Award at Indie Memphis, the audience and best sports documentary awards at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, and the Best Documentary award at the Denver Film Festival.
The Narrative Feature Hoka, as the festival’s awards are called, went to Jordan Noel for This World Alone.
Joey Brent
Sonya A. May, Hudson Phillips, Jordan Noel, and Trisha Solyn celebrate their win for Best Narrative Feature at the Oxford Film Festival.
Oxford’s Best Music Documentary Award went to John Rash’s Negro Terror, a portrait of the Memphis anti-racist hardcore punk band.
Memphis filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox’s short film “The One You Never Forget” tied for Best LBGTQ Short Film with Will Stuart’s “All We Are”. The documentary The Gospel Of Eureka by Michael Palmeri and Donal Mosher won in the LBGTQ feature category.
Memphis filmmaker Christian Walker won Best Mississippi Music Video for “Wash My Hands”, a video he made for Cedric Burnside with Beale Street Caravan.
Mississippi film awards included John Reyer Afamasaga’s Door Ajar: The M. B. Mayfield Story winning Best Feature, “Roots and Wings” by Hannah Miller winning Best Short, and Bennett Krishock winning Best Emerging Filmmaker for “Happy Birthday Papa”.
You can see the complete list of winners for the 16th annual film festival on the festival’s website.