The 2016 Oxford Film Festival highlighted the closing night of the film festival with presentations of the film festival’s celebrated Hoka Award along with cash prizes and in-kind production packages were made in front of a raucous crowd at Oxford’s Lyric Theater, including two Hoka Awards going to Claire Carré’ for her work on the critically-acclaimed sci-fi drama EMBERS.

The Hoka Award for Best Narrative Feature Film went to Carré’s EMBERS. The award comes with a $20,000 camera rental package from Panavision, eight hours of post color correction from John Davidson Color and an InkTip Script listing. The filmmaker also received a second Hoka as she was the first filmmaker honored with the Alice Guy-Blaché Filmmaker Award which was created to honor the top female filmmaker at Oxford FF. That award includes a $1,000 prize from the Louis M. Rabinowitz Foundation this year. Carré’ noted that she had seen and was a fan of Guy-Blaché’s work, which made the award all the more special to her.

Special Jury Awards in the Narrative category were given to Kostadin Bonev for Best Director for his work on THE SINKING OF SOZOPOL, and Best Cast for John W. Mann and Jon Gunn’s THE WEEK.

The Hoka Award for Best Documentary Feature Film was given to Nick Brandestini’s CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC. Included as part of that award is 3 days of audio post production from Bad Animals, a Seattle-based post-production facility and 8 hours of post color correction from John Davidson Color.

The Hoka Awards in the Mississippi Films Category were presented to Gabriel Robertson’s THE GIFT for Best Narrative Film. The award includes a cash prize through the Casey Spradling Memorial Endowment. The young star of the film, Brady Permenter, accepted the award on behalf of Robertson and won over the audience as he said the award was for the film’s crew.

The Hoka Award for Best Documentary Film in the Mississippi category went to Larissa Lam’s FINDING CLEVELAND. Lam’s husband, Baldwin Chiu said the search for his Chinese forbearers had unexpectedly led them to Cleveland, Mississippi (as opposed to China) where they were heartened to see the Chinese community working with both the Black and White communities, re-affirming the best of this country. Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) will provide a special prize of broadcasting the film. Both winners gain membership in the OxFilm Society and get free equipment rentals for one year.

Oxford Film Festival Executive Director Melanie Addington said, “This was a major year of growth for the Oxford Film Festival and the increased number of films we accepted and presented this year was only matched by the artistic quality and creative achievement of those films. Our film juries were faced with a number of difficult decisions choosing the Hoka Award winners over the other films in each of the categories, thus quite a few films received special mentions as well.”

In the Short Film category, Best Narrative Short went to Fred Castadot’s Belgian drama, BLAZING SUN, with a Special Jury Citation for Southern Spirit going to Paul D. Hart’s THREE FINGERS.

The winner of the Hoka for Best Documentary Short was Nicholas Coles’s THE HOUSE IS INNOCENT. A Special Jury Citation for Social Significance was given to Jarratt Taylor’s FITTING THE DESCRIPTION IN NORTH PORTLAND.

The Hoka Award for Best Animation went to James Dastoli’s THE SEAFARER AND THE MOONLIGHT, with a Special Jury Mention given to Sihanouk Mariona’s THEY CRAWL AMONGST US.

The Hoka Award for Best Experimental Film went to André Silva’s CYBERGENESIS, with Special Jury Mentions also given to Edward Ramsay-Morin’s A PLACE WITHIN A PLACE, and Heidi Kumao’s SWALLLOWED WHOLE.

The Hoka Award for Best Music Video was presented to Clay Hardwick for his music video, FALLEN STAR, and a Special Mention went to George Gross’s BOOKER WRIGHT’S MASHUP.