The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival has announced the award winners for its eleventh annual event, which presented films, panels, screenplay and graphic novel competitions, and virtual reality demonstrations. Screenings were held from April 4-7 in Queens and Manhattan. 

Exploring the influence of novelist Philip K. Dick and the sci-fi community, the event recognized 20 official selections for outstanding filmmaking and storytelling. 

The award winners follow the jump.

Congratulations to the award winners of The 2024 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival:

BEST PKD FEATURE

• Creep Box
• Director: Patrick Biesemans
• United States, 95 min

A scientist uses groundbreaking technology to communicate with the deceased but once he is through the looking glass, there is no turning back.

BEST SCI-FI FEATURE

• Quantum Suicide
• Director: Gerrit Van Woudenberg
• Canada, 87 min

A lone physicist builds a particle accelerator in his garage and embarks on a quest to understand the nature of reality. In the process of his experiments he suffers radiation poisoning, loses his vision and alienates his partner, who eventually leaves him. But in his obsession, he finds clarity and the key to understanding our reality. There is one final test he must perform.

BEST SUPERNATURAL FEATURE

• Alone Together
• Director: William Kresch
• United States, 94 min

After fleeing their pandemic-ravaged city for the safety of a remote family cabin, a physically and emotionally abused woman and her volatile boyfriend are forced to face the vengeful spirit that haunts it—and each other.

BEST CULTURE IN SCI-FI FILM

• Distant Thunder
• Director: Takayuki Ohashi
• Japan, 140 min

The end of the world is just months away. A comet collision is about to destroy the human race in a few months. The three sisters, Ayane, Kanon, and Oto, who have been living separately for a long time, come to live together in Setouchi, their birthplace, after the death of their father. Oto, the youngest sister, feels uncomfortable living.

BEST PKD SHORT

• Buffering…Please Wait
• Director: Samantha Cheryl Lai
• Canada, 14 min

A nameless woman confronts the memory device embedded inside her brain, in search of a lost identity. The truth, however, bears too much weight. Whatever she uncovers, continues to weigh her down, time and time again.

BEST SHORT FILM

• Purgy’s
• Director: Robbie Bryan
• United States, 17 min

At a magical bar, spirits from the other side can take the form of another human and interact with those in their past who need closure and re-connection.

BEST SCI-FI SHORT

• Homologies
• Director: Bryerly Long
• Writer/Co-Producer Tatiana Blackington James
• United States,12 min

Anna, a lonely computer coder, has been nurturing an illegal romance with an AI in a computer simulation for the past six months. When her company uncovers the affair, she’s forced into a desperate battle to save her precious relationship.

BEST SUPERNATURAL SHORT

• The Gorge
• Director: Ryan Neil Butler
• Australia, 15 min

A grieving woman and her friends must survive a night in the woods when an unseen force begins to hunt them. But not is all as it seems.

BEST SINGULARITY, ESCHATON AND BEYOND FILM

• Algodreams
• Director: Vladimir Todorovic
• Australia, 11 min

Algodreams are made by prompting AI systems to imagine the future of life on planet Earth. They dreamt of time machines, memory machines, flamingos that can save the oceans, the AI civilization that destroys humans to protect the planet, and they dreamt of self-driving bicycles that fall in love.

BEST VIRTUAL REALITY

• Broken Specter
• by Evan Jones
• Canada, 120 min

BEST ISOLATION IN SCI-FI

• Dandelion
• Director: Gillian Simpson
• United Kingdom, 12 min

Alice lives alone in the middle of a field of wind turbines, the constant thump thump her only companion. She is haunted by the memories of the day her daughter Grace and her partner, Jamie died, a tragedy that she can’t seem to recover from.

BEST ANIME/ANIMATION

• Feast of Amrita
• Director: Saku Sakamoto
• Japan, 47 min

Xiao Kai, a young man from a small town, starts to live-stream his sensory experience through “Butterfly Dreaming Live Show,” and goes step by step into a deep abyss under all kinds of temptations.

BEST SCI-FI MUSIC VIDEO

• Lift Me Up
• Director: Daniel Corey
• United States, 2 min

Set in a futuristic Blade Runner Universe, “Lift Me Up” is a music video that gives the listener a feel that blends the aura of Paul Simon with the rustic Americana of Bruce Hornsby and the raise-the-roof anthems of U2.

BEST WEB SERIES

• Strange Days at Blake Holsey High: Echoes — Episode ‘Hanna Part 3’
• Director: Paul Hart-Wilden
• United States, 12 min

The NBC sci-fi series Strange Days at Blake Holsey High returns as an original web series, Strange Days at Blake Holsey High: Echoes. Set in the present-day, Echoes takes place 16 years after “the Science Club” graduated from Blake Holsey High and the school closed forever.

BEST TRAILER

• Burner’s Face
• Director: John Gaunt 
• United States, 2 min 

Composed by a team of 3 creatives + Midjourney AI, this trailer tells a story in less than 2 minutes. It is not a tech demo but a taste of what’s possible when Culture & Code come together. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• Is Not Up to Us 
• Director: Anthony Werhun
• United States, 13 min

Legendary visual artist Nancy Burson sparked a technological revolution by using computer morphing techniques to blend art and science but claims she didn’t do it alone. The complex truth behind Nancy’s beliefs and how they shaped her career evokes questions about the nature of creation and of reality itself.

---

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL

• Halloween Girl Book One: Promises to Keep
• Writer Richard T. Wilson
• United States

BEST SCI-FI SCREENPLAY

• The Nether
• Writer: Jannik Ohlendieck
• Ireland

BEST SUPERNATURAL SCREENPLAY

• Passage
• Writer: Firdaus F. Bilimoria
• Canada

BEST SHORT FORM SCREENPLAY

• Solipsism
• Writer: Duncan B Putney
• United States

[Based on a press release.]

Update 04/11/2024: Added “Best Documentary” item, which had been omitted from the press release.