AGBO “No Sleep ‘Til Film Fest” Winners Announced

Tom Tapp
·3 min read
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Anthony and Joe Russo’s AGBO announced the winners of its 48-hour filmmaking competition, “No Sleep ‘til Film Fest” today.

Waldo Levendal, a filmmaker based in Cape Town, South Africa, won first place for his short P E N, about a simple object that represents the complexity of life.

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Second place went to Australian filmmaker Joel Philips for his short, Trade, a horror-comedy-musical about a woman held for ransom.

Clay Lacey, an aspiring director from California, took third place for his film Movie, The Film: A Motion Picture, in which a filmmaker forces a bot to watch hours of romance, action, drama and horror movies to create the world’s first AI-produced film.

All of the winning shorts are available to watch on the AGBO YouTube channel.

AGBO’s “No Sleep ‘til Film Fest” is a 48-hour short filmmaking competition, which invites emerging creators to make a bite-sized film that runs three minutes or less and is based on a provided creative prompt. The judges for the festival included AGBO Co-Founders and Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, Co-Founder and Producer Mike Larocca, Co-Presidents of Story Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and President of Creative Angela Russo-Otstot.

All three winners will join the AGBO Storytellers Collective, an alumni network of participants from other AGBO fellowship programs.

The current members of the Storytellers Collective voted on a winning film to receive the inaugural “AGBO Storytellers Collective Award” which brings in another filmmaker to the mentorship and alumni program with their colleagues. The recipient of this year’s award is Dreamer 21B, directed by South London team Sofía Isabella and Ashwin Noel.

Winners and honorable mentions:

First Place

P E N, directed by Waldo Levendal (Cape Town, South Africa)

Second Place

Trade, directed by Joel Philips (Sydney, Australia)

Third Place

Movie, The Film: A Motion Picture, directed by Clay Lacey (Apple Valley, California)

AGBO Storytellers Collective Award

Dreamer 21B, directed by Sofía Isabella and Ashwin Noel (South London)

Honorable Mentions

Distance, directed by Eric Yang (Brooklyn, NY)

Strays, directed by Harry Smith (Grapevine, TX)

The Third Act, directed by Ben Lapides & Craig Dewey (Baltimore, MD)

VHS Sandwich, directed by Louie Gallagher and Exavier Orlino (Southern California)

The Sins Of Our Sons, directed by Jake Barcus (Cleveland, OH)

The Domino Effect, directed by Alessandro (AxiA) Serradimigni and Joe Daru (Los Angeles, CA)

Five Stars, directed by Spencer Higginson and Jesse Kendall (Los Angeles, CA)

Guys Be Like, directed by Tommy Heffernan (Seattle, WA)

Don’t Worry, directed by Phee Chai and Dara Xiong (Hastings, MN)

AGBO is an independent studio focused on developing and producing intellectual property universes spanning film, TV, audio, and interactive experiences. Founded in 2017 by award-winning and record-breaking directors Anthony and Joe Russo, along with producer Mike Larocca, AGBO’s mission is to innovate and advance the next generation of storytelling to entertain and inspire worldwide audiences.

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