SoCal Film Awards Announces Season 22 Winners, Continuing a Legacy of Independent Film Excellence

By INFLUX Magazine Staff

The SoCal Film Awards has officially announced the winners of Season 22, celebrating another remarkable collection of independent films, documentaries, and screenplays from around the world.

Building on a legacy that spans more than two decades, the SoCal Film Awards continues its mission of recognizing exceptional storytelling while providing filmmakers and screenwriters with meaningful opportunities for exposure, recognition, and professional growth.

Originally established as the SoCal Independent Film Festival, the event has theatrically exhibited more than 1,000 independent productions, welcoming everyone from first-time creators to Academy Award winners and internationally recognized industry professionals. Over the years, the festival has featured projects involving Tom Hanks, Danny Trejo, Ann-Margret, John C. McGinley, David Morse, Louise Fletcher, William Katt, Andy Dick, Michael Welch, and many other accomplished artists.

Behind the scenes, filmmakers such as Trent Opaloch, who later became the cinematographer for blockbuster films including Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War, and Elysium, shared their early work with SoCal audiences before reaching worldwide acclaim.

Today, that tradition continues through the reimagined SoCal Film Awards, a global celebration dedicated to discovering outstanding independent voices wherever they are found.

Season 22 featured an impressive range of dramatic features, documentaries, shorts, experimental cinema, animated films, music videos, and original screenplays. This season’s award recipients represent filmmakers from across the United States and around the world, each bringing unique perspectives and unforgettable stories to the screen.

Diamond Awards

The festival’s highest honor recognizes the finest achievement in each major category.

Best Feature Film: Texas Rhapsody — Director Taylor Stanley
Best Short: Blue Sky — Director Tony Jopia
Best Documentary Feature: Demetrius DuBose, All American — Director John Kouris
Best Documentary Short: Before Citizenship: Women and Political Action in the French Revolution — Director Mary Xu
Best Long-Form Screenplay: Flashing Back — JJ Brent
Best Short-Form Screenplay: Jane Austen in Time — Victoria Therese Kieburtz

Awards of Excellence

Best Feature: The Kingdom of Rexmonte
Best Short: Understudy — Director Dongchae Shin
Best Documentary Feature: Kern Oil — Director Rickey Bird
Best Documentary Short: Bordeaux 2025 — Director Rusty Jeremy Matalou
Best Long-Form Screenplay: Don’t Eat the Mushrooms — Robert C. Hall
Best Short-Form Screenplay: Perfect Execution — David R. Schleicher

Awards of Achievement

Best Feature: Frankenstein — Joe LoBianco
Best Short: Bennetts: A Family Dilemma — Director Lohn Lenoir
Best Documentary Feature: Every Soul Knows: The Joy of Remembering Who We Really Are — Director Peter Alessandria
Best Documentary Short: Confetti Star-ion: The NASA COSI & Cosmic Rhapsody Initiative — Director Susan Mey Lee Lim
Best Long-Form Screenplay: All Nazis Die — Nathan Shapiro
Best Short-Form Screenplay: Little Wing — Benjamin S. Frahm

Additional Awards

Actor in a Lead Role: All the Colours — Jamie Kenna
Actress in a Lead Role: Quarantine — Bailey Sorrel
Animated Short: Kopavi4 — Director Satoshi Inukai
Cinematography: Voices in Solitude — Director Donald Milne
Director: The Kingdom of Rexmonte — Rebeccah Crabtree
Editing: The Woman is Perfected — Ruth Fowler
Experimental Film: Abuse — Avith K.P. Grolley
First-Time Filmmaker: Cookies — S’Carr Mahdi
First-Time Screenwriter: Frame — Xinrui Liu
International Film: Unforgettable Love and Promises — Shihuyn Wang
International Short Film: Another Name for Longing — Woo Young Choi
Micro Short: Pushed Together — Ben Sapir
Music Video: The Flea — Ryan Jay Reynolds
Original Score: The Kingdom of Rexmonte — Composer Hunter Change
Sound Design: Enemy Heroes — Mark Diamond
Web Series: Made in Atlantic City — Frank Herman Thon

Screenplay Finalists

Long-Form

Blackjack Inc. — Heath Erik Papkov
City of Three Rivers — Michael Carvaines
Holy Sedation — Olga Lehman & Denis Saklakov
Luck, Faith, and Our Passions — Kurt Anbarci
Nine Bridges to Vicksburg — Willie Rudolf Brown
One Day at a Time — LX Scott
Private Fire — Kirt Allen Shineman
Ratacholo — Teresita Carson
Serpentine — Arinjoy Majumder
The Talisman — Kurt Anbarci

Short-Form

A Safe Place — Vee (Vijaya) G. Kumari
Meeting Marty — Kevin John Longfield
Retribution — Brandon J. Somerville
To an Unknown God — Kit Wilson

Screenplay Honorable Mentions

A Sauin Saga — William Alexander Murphy
Darrell from Congo — Bryant Karnes
Dead Cargo — Theodore Carl Soderberg
Four Corners — Chris Ducey
Ghosts of Roe — James Wayne Telford
Lord High Executioner — Grant Huffman
Narrow Escape — Amy Lehman Klimek
Our Good, Good Boys — Rafaelle de La Tullaye
People in the West — Eddie Denzil
Sparrow — Andrew James Bleidner

Film Honorable Mentions

Becoming Bond 008 — Director Mike Gage
Chaton – We Are Invincible — Director Marcus CB Soori
Colors & Curves: The Story of Human Creativity — Director Walter Johnson Jr.
Crazy Lady — Director Daria S. Rountree
Echoes of War — Director De’Ontae Brooks
Final Hours: Is Death Really the End — Director Katherine Lee
Mental — Director Suzanna Turner
One Last Day — Catherine Heath
Popcorn Button — Director Joshua Crenshaw
Pretty Girls — Director Benjamin Folstein
The Adventures of Paleta Man — Director Paul Ramirez
The Quran — Director Masood Ali

As the SoCal Film Awards prepares for future seasons, its mission remains unchanged: to champion independent storytelling, celebrate creative achievement, and provide filmmakers and screenwriters with a platform where exceptional work can be discovered and appreciated.

From world premieres and emerging filmmakers to internationally recognized artists, the festival continues to honor the creative spirit that has defined its history for more than twenty years.

Congratulations to every filmmaker, screenwriter, cast member, and creative team recognized during Season 22. Your work continues the proud tradition of independent cinema, and we look forward to seeing where your next story takes you.