'The President's Cake,' 'Sentimental Value,' 'To the West, in Zapata' Top Hamptons Film Festival Award Winners Angelique JacksonOctober 15, 2025 at 3:57 AM 0 Courtesy of Films Boutique As awards season contenders continue to take shape, the Hamptons International Film Festival has delivered the winn...
- - 'The President's Cake,' 'Sentimental Value,' 'To the West, in Zapata' Top Hamptons Film Festival Award Winners
Angelique JacksonOctober 15, 2025 at 3:57 AM
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Courtesy of Films Boutique
As awards season contenders continue to take shape, the Hamptons International Film Festival has delivered the winners of its 33rd outing in the luxurious beach haven.
"The President's Cake," from filmmaker Hasan Hadi, won best narrative feature. From distributor Sony Pictures Classics, the feature follows a young Iraqi girl who is chosen to bake her school a celebratory dessert in observation of Saddam Hussein's birthday. As she hustles to gather ingredients over a scarce landscape, the realities of a dictatorship become clear.
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HIFF, presented by Artemis Rising Foundation, awarded Hadi a $2,500 cash prize plus a film production package of in-kind goods and services valued at $92,500 from TCS, Neon Diesel Finishing, Hamptons Locations and On Location Education.
"Through the eyes of a young girl torn between tradition and survival, Hasan Hadi's expansive drama shows us what's really at stake in a dictatorship led with violence and fear," Narrative Competition Jury members Jody Arlington, Brian Burns and Variety's Matt Donnelly said in a statement.
In the nonfiction program, "To The West, In Zapata" won best documentary feature. David Bim's film looks at the egregious struggles Cuba suffered in the pandemic was awarded a $2,500 cash prize plus a film production package valued at $50,000 from Neon Diesel Finishing, TCS and Greenslate.
"No film quite took this jury's breath away" like Bim's, said the documentary advisors Monica Castilo, Agnes Chu and Loren Hammonds. They called it a "black-and-white cinema verité-style masterpiece" and "a heartbreaking look at the struggle of everyday Cubans in the face of insurmountable odds."
In the shorts program, Rein Maychaelson's "Sammi, Who Can Detach His Body Parts" received best narrative short. "Correct Me If I'm Wrong" nabbed best documentary short. Each winner got $1,000 in cash and an Academy Awards qualification for best live action short film and best documentary short, respectively.
Audience Awards went to Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value" for narrative and "The Eyes of Ghana" for nonfiction. "Lighting Bug" from Zan Pais and "Island Willing" from Cece King took audience prizes for best narrative and doc short, respectively.
Additional special jury prizes included narrative recognition for Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay's "intellectually stimulating" feature script "Hysteria"; Shehrezad Maher for "subverting expectations with a short that proves communication transcends language" with the short "The Curfew"; doc short directing for Tony Benna's "André is an Idiot"; and a recognition for innovative storytelling through animation, social commentary and interviews for Glenn Kaino's "Hoops, Hopes & Dreams."
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