The Psychedelic Film and Music Festival has announced the award winners for its fifth annual event, which featured a lineup of science fiction, horror, and fantasy films, music videos, and panels with filmmakers. The festival took place in person at the Producers Club Theaters in Midtown Manhattan on November 19, and virtually on November 20. 

The event recognized 11 official selections for outstanding filmmaking and storytelling that explore the influence and breakthroughs of the psychedelic community. 

BEST PSYCHEDELIC FEATURE

Trap (2021)

• Director: Anthony Edward Curry
• Run Time/Country: 96 min, USA
• Synopsis: Facing life in prison, a hood dreams of the violent streets that forged his identity, but cursed his soul.

BEST PSYCHEDELIC SCI-FI FEATURE

Enter Mycel (2022)

• Director: Daniel Christian Limmer
• Run Time/Country: 74 min, Austria
• Synopsis: After the death of her mother, thirteen-year-old Lena struggles to keep the family life together, between her newborn baby sister and her depressed father, who seeks relief from his loss through the manic belief of a timeless and worldwide emotion-based communication system enabled by a natural fungal parasite called the Mycel.

BEST PSYCHEDELIC DOCUMENTARY

Woodstock: A Snapshot in Time (2022)

• Director: Nancy Cohen Koan
• Run Time/Country: 79 min, USA
• Synopsis: Two filmmakers, one an alumni of the original Woodstock Festival, the other, a younger Brit who only read about the sixties, plan a return to the original site in hopes of re- kindling the spirit of the time. They meet up with the philosophic and political icons of the era who encourage them to believe in a more just world. In the meantime, they fall into their own kooky relationship, perhaps an accident of working closely together or a necessity born out of a need for spiritual growth for the changing times.

BEST PSYCHEDELIC/TRANSPERSONAL DOCUMENTARY 

Hearts Road (2021)

• Director: Colin Finlay
• Run Time/Country: 35 min, USA
• Synopsis: Hearts Road was photographed in 95 countries and produced over a period of 30 years. It represents one man’s journey of evolution, his deep spiritual growth and ultimately his return to the seat of his soul. Transformative and prodigal, it also becomes a journey for every one of us. Take your innermost mind and, through his eyes, and his lens, discover a world that few have ever seen.

BEST PSYCHEDELIC HORROR/MAGICAL REALISM SHORT

Out There (2021)

• Director: Luka Mikkas
• Run Time/Country: 30 min, Denmark
• Synopsis: A young man finds himself in his own primitive self-created world, consisting of a tent, a well, a small garden and a scrap yard. He performs some rituals over the book Karma Sutra and cuts important notes, images out of the book as a form of worship and sacrifice to make a new life grow, all the while his subconscious takes more and more control and brings him beyond nature and far out in the universe.

BEST AUDIENCE IN THE PSYCH AND SCI-FI

227 (2022)

• Director: Matthis Dor
• Run Time/Country: 22 min, France
• Synopsis: A young man wanders between the walls of his house, sinking into the darkest depths of his psychology. As memories of his past life wander around him, his thoughts escape into the void that surrounds him.

BEST ANIMATION

The Interrogation (2022)

• Director: Marisa Cohen, Peter Issac Alexander
• Run Time/Country: 6 min, USA
• Synopsis: Set several decades in the future, The Interrogation is a cat and mouse game between a corporate media executive performing a “loyalty test,” and a savvy news director harboring a potentially game-changing secret.The Interrogation explores a mind-bending and often-psychedelic world where an all-powerful media company sets all the rules and demands religious like devotion from his employee

BEST PSYCHEDELIC SONG

Melody (2021)

• Director: Eric Harrison
• Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA
• Synopsis: An homage to “Spill the Wine” by Eric Burdon and War, “Open My Eyes” by Nazz, “I Heard Her Call My Name” by the Velvets and a few dozen other great psychedelic nuggets.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

I Gets No Sleep (2021)

• Director: NAJD FerencME
• Run Time/Country: 14 min, USA
• Synopsis: A music video director moonlights as talent during the pandemic. A 14 minute film told through song.

BEST EDM SONG

Fight For What Is Right (2020)

• Artist: Carlos KRL Mera
• Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA
• Synopsis: Hello I am KRL and I am giving you for consideration one of my songs that I am most proud about, the process of making Fight For What Is Right is a whole story that I am willing to tell you about.

BEST SCREENPLAY

Sugar Water

• Writer: Noelani Mei Lee

[Based on a press release.]