The 2022 New York Science Fiction Film Festival has announced the award winners for its second edition, which featured a lineup of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films and screenplay entries. Held virtually on Friday, May 13 and Sunday, May 15, and in person on Saturday, May 14th at the Producers Club Theaters in Midtown Manhattan, the festival honored the city’s diverse filmmaking community and recognized 15 official selections for exceptional storytelling. More information on this year’s festival is available here.

Congratulations to the award winners of The 2022 New York Science Fiction Film Festival:

BEST SCI-FI FEATURE

Tales of Tomorrow (2020)

Director: Pedro de Lima Marques

Synopsis: In 2165, the kidnapping of a young girl puts the last stronghold of human civilization at war! The problem is that, in order to save humanity, it will be necessary to rely on the help of an adolescent who lives in 1999.

BEST SCI-FI FEATURE IN A DRAMATIC SETTING

12 Months of KAI (2021) — EAST COAST PREMIERE

Director: Mutsumi Kameyama

Synopsis: What would you do if an “impossible thing” was born between humanoids and humans? Kyoka, who works as a web director in Tokyo, gets a personal care humanoid (PCH) Kai. Kai learns various things about the owner. Kyoka gradually invites Kai to “more emotions as a thing.”

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Exegesis: Lovecraft (2021) — EAST COAST PREMIERE

Director: Qais Pasha

Synopsis: A cathartic journey that Qais Pasha, a Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker embarks on as he traces the life of cult author H.P. Lovecraft, from woodland cemeteries in Rhode Island, to the docks of New York and on to the cobbled stone streets of Quebec City.

BEST SCI-FI SHORT

One-Hit Wonder (2021)

Director: Amanda Dow

Synopsis: A cab driver takes a former pop star on a one-way Twilight Zone-like ride.

BEST SUPERNATURAL SHORT

Moore’s Void (2020)

Director: Brad Bangsboll

Synopsis: A grieving mother attempts to speak with her deceased son.

BEST DIVERSITY IN SCI-FI SHORT

Looking Glass (2020)

Director: Ginew Benton

Synopsis: After his father was murdered Benjamin Looking Glass II, a young Native American man builds a time machine using modern science and ancient knowledge in an attempt to bring his father back but ultimately discovers his true purpose in creation.

BEST FANTASY SHORT

Fulgidusen (2020)

Director: Alexander Feichter

Synopsis: Felix has first met his paper friends: He has discovered them on the pages of some of the old books on the bookshelf. Uncle Armin calls them the Fulgiduses. As Felix is browsing through the books again, he discovers something new: Tentacled beings called Skures.

BEST ANIMATION

Kaiju Decode (2021)

Director: S/N

Synopsis: The catastrophe “Skyfall” was brought by the collapsed orbital space colony crashed into the Earth. Inside the crater at the crash site now inhabit Kaiju born by a gene mutation. Ray, an avatar, comes to the area to collect the scattered “seeds”, not knowing what really is going on there, He soon meets Mil, a mysterious girl. Is she a human, or a Kaiju. A secret government film from the 1960s reveals a scientist desperate to work a mysterious AI to uncover the secrets of a fictional reality invading our own.

BEST VIRTUAL REALITY

Kaiju Decode: First Contact (2021)

Creator: Tsuburaya Productions, Toei Animation

Country: Japan

Synopsis: This virtual reality animation work is about a girl, Mil, who encounters, plays and interacts with a Kaiju. This VR film can be watched from three different viewpoints: the audience’s perspective (default), the Kaiju’s perspective, and Mil’s perspective.

BEST WEB SERIES

Atlas – Chapter One (2021)

Director: Ayman Chaudhry

Synopsis: Technology has replaced currency. Wealth has replaced humanity. When a rebel cell interrogates a corrupt politician, they uncover a secret more terrifying than anything they could have imagined

BEST TRAILER

In Search of Hawaiian Bigfoot (2021)

Director: MarQ Morrison 

Synopsis: This award-winning experimental, hybrid, cinematic, vlog film follows “marQ,” an award-winning micro-documentary filmmaker turned Cine-Vlogger as he searches for the Maui Skunk Ape a.k.a. Hawaiian Bigfoot in the jungles of Maui.

BEST SUPERNATURAL SCREENPLAY

The Bad Ones

Writer: Dempsey James Tillman, Ted Dewberry

BEST SCI-FI SCREENPLAY

The Cheating Vaccine

Writer: Duncan B. Putney

BEST WORLD-BUILDING SCREENPLAY

Escape to Hollow Earth

Writer: Colin K. Stewart

BEST SHORT SCREENPLAY

Transistor

Writer: Brendan P Lee

About The New York Science Fiction Film Festival: Founded in 2017, The New York Science Fiction Film Festival celebrates freedom of expression and the unique approaches of independent filmmakers as a merit to the science fiction, supernatural, horror, and fantasy genres. By honoring a groundbreaking past and looking ahead to an unprecedented future, the festival is committed to encompassing the brilliance of film.

[Based on a press release.]