(Photo Courtesy of Gershon Hinkson.)
The animated film La Noria, the dramatic short Black Hat, and the politically-charged Big Money Agenda: Democracy on the Brink have come out on top as winners of the 11th annual Movies at the Mill film festival.
Movies at the Mill was held Saturday at the Sigal Museum in Easton. Nine short films were featured, with submissions from the Lehigh Valley as well as international offerings.
La Noria, from director Carlos Baena, won the Best in Show award. The emotionally stirring film centers on a child mourning the loss of his father and the monsters he (literally) faces as he searches for light within his darkness.
La Noria and director Sarah Smith’s Black Hat tied for the Audience Award. The latter film follows a Hasidic Jewish man who, as festival founder Gershon Hinkson explained during an Aug. 11 interview, “leads a double life and things get pretty awkward when his two worlds collide.”
Director Vincent Mondillo’s Big Money Agenda, which examines lobbying and how money control politics, won the Best of the Valley award. Mondillo’s film Big Pharma: Market Failure won the 2017 Best of the Valley and the Audience Award.