2022 Catalyst AWARDS
Awards: 2022
BROWNSVILLE BRED
OUTSTANDING EDITING - Eddie Frente
Set in 1980's Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY at the height of the crack and crime epidemics, a spunky Latina must find her own path as she comes of age to face the grim realities of the deteriorating neighborhood she calls home and the musician father she once idolized.
HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST ECOCIDE
OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY SERIES VIDEO
5 portraits of people from China, France, Lituania and Switzerland join forces on a hunger strike. Each protagonist has their own interests, their own struggles and follow their own reasoning. They don't always agree but they are all fighting for the same thing : criminalize Holcim for Ecocide.
LAST NAME UNKNOWN
OUTSTANDING DRAMA ENSEMBLE CAST
Last Name Unknown is a dramatic series that examines the gripping reality of the growing youth homelessness crisis; as it follows several residents of the Beyond Hope Youth Shelter's harsh, yet hopeful lives of beating the odds, finding their place in society, and living their distant dreams.
DEATH DOULA
OUTSTANDING DRAMA DIRECTOR - Jenna Sutch
Grief-stricken Annie loses her best friend in a car accident and starts experiencing visions of a world beyond the mortal plane. Channelling her newfound abilities, Annie trains to become a DEATH DOULA - haphazardly walking people to the other side.
NEPTUNE RISING
OUTSTANDING THRILLER SCRIPT - Maxie Rockymore
Natalie Jackson, a black marine microbiologist on the coast of Nome, Alaska, grieving the loss of her parents, struggles to discover her secret identity as a Russian Super-Agent.
REDNECK ARMY
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SCRIPT - Mark Brown & Whitni Resides
Based on the forgotten tale of the largest insurrection in U.S. history, husband and father Bill Blizzard and shotgun-wielding Charlotte "Charlie" Kelley lead a bloody clash over workers' rights with a ruthless coal company owner and his hired thugs in 1920 West Virginia.
WASH YOUR BIRDIE
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SCRIPT - Stephanie Bast
A Catholic school prude at a performing arts college is told her virginity stands in the way of being a great actress, forcing her to choose between her soul and Broadway.
CRASH PUNKS
OUTSTANDING INNOVATION - Grace Ng
VICTORIAN LADIES
OUTSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA SERIES
Abigail, Beatrice, Caroline and Daphne ruffle some 19th-century feathers.
SISTERS OF GRENDEL
OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK - Susan Thurston
ALL THAT GLITTERS
OUTSTANDING TABLE READ - Susan Marks
Quintessential 195O’s housewife, Grace Whitmore discovers a murdered young woman in the pristine suburban town of New Rochelle, New York. Grace’s own investigation into the murder leads to the discovery of a sadistic Nazi doctor hiding in plain sight and the subsequent unraveling of her own life.
2021 Catalyst AWARDS
If I'm Alive Next Week
Outstanding Short Comedy Series
When a foul-mouthed, 80-year-old grandma gets dumped and booted from her boyfriend's brownstone, she's forced to return to the rent-stabilized apartment housing her broke-ass, ungrateful kids. An irreverent meditation on aging that asks: can you really reimagine your life on the cusp of its twilight?
Dear Brown People
Outstanding Documentary
Dear Brown People debates the need for and practices of the “racial courts”, so-called “verification boards”, in Brazil, whose purpose is to verify the color, race, and ethnicity of candidates who are applying for affirmative action and, in particular, the systematic discrimination against mixed-race people in this process.
Peter Friedman (If I'm Alive Next Week)
Outstanding Comedy Actor
When a foul-mouthed, 80-year-old grandma gets dumped and booted from her boyfriend's brownstone, she's forced to return to the rent-stabilized apartment housing her broke-ass, ungrateful kids. An irreverent meditation on aging that asks: can you really reimagine your life on the cusp of its twilight?
L.J. Johnson (Breakdowns)
Outstanding Comedy Actress
Breakdowns is a mockumentary style digital series about Patty Lee Casting, a Minneapolis-based film and commercial casting office that pines for the good old days when the local film industry was booming.
Gretl Claggett (Stormchaser)
Outstanding Writing
All Bonnie Blue ever wanted was to chase tornadoes with her Dad. But dreams die with time. Now, she’s become a different kind of storm chaser — hawking roofing, siding and storm doors “door-to-door” for her charismatic boss, Flip Smyth: a cult-like father figure to Bonnie and his tribe of young sales bucks.
Paul Kakert & Justin Norman (Complete Bull)
Outstanding Editing
A marketing executive who reluctantly joined her father’s bull-semen business seeks a way back to the city, but both she and her rural hometown face an unexpected upheaval after the arrival of hundreds of relocated immigrants from the nation’s water-deprived coastal cities.
Superhuman Public Radio
Outstanding Comedy Podcast
Superhuman Public Radio a comedy audio drama about a publicly funded radio station (ahem, NPR) In a world where Superheroes are not only real, but central to American life. SPR is an immersive experience bringing you news, ads, music and slice of life stories that explore the unexplored comers of the superhero world. Over the course of the season, the news programs develop season-long stories of alien deportations, genetic data breaches, corporate greed and stolen identities while our programming blocks explore more intimate, personal stories of people in every facet of the super world. Or as we say: "the stories that fall between the panels."
Leading Edge
Outstanding Drama Script
Rachel Su, an edgy Chinese tech prodigy in Silicon Valley, has invented a disruptive energy technology that could eliminate much of the world's need for oil, and solve global warming. But her technology puts Rachel on the razor's edge between those who want to exploit it, and the companies and countries who will do anything to stop it. A one-hour Asian female led drama similar tonally to "Billions", "Scandal", "Halt and Catch Fire", "Alias" and "Mr. Robot".
Canusa Street
Outstanding Comedy Script
Single Cam/Half Hour: In a small town cut in half by the Vermont/Quebec border, a jaded US Border Patrol Agent struggles to stave off boredom while maintaining a fierce rivalry with her twin sister in the Canadian Mounties. “BROOKLYN NINE-NINE” meets “PARKS & REC”
American Virtuosa
Outstanding Drama Pitch
American Virtuosa is an hour-long historical drama limited series based on the life of Amy Beach, America’s first successful woman composer. It’s the story of a young prodigy in nineteenth-century Boston who must fight gender barriers and her own family to follow her dream of being a world-famous musician. The series is a “feminist Amadeus” comprising of 6-8 episodes that are tonally similar to The Queen’s Gambit and visually rich as a nod to Amy’s synesthesia—her experience of music as color.
Mixed Signals
Outstanding Comedy Pitch
Mixed Signals is an absurd comedy that deep-dives into the biracial experience. The story centers Mak, a 24 year old mulatto woman back in her hometown of Kansas City trying to reinvent her career & restart her childhood friendships. Mak, with the help of her Black & White Consciences that only she and the audience can see, must navigate her evolving creative & racial identity in an unsupportive environment or risk falling into a cycle of mediocrity she's worked her whole life to escape.
Breakdowns
Outstanding Minnesota Project
Breakdowns is a mockumentary style digital series about Patty Lee Casting, a Minneapolis-based film and commercial casting office that pines for the good old days when the local film industry was booming.
2019 Catalyst AWARDS
Best of Festival
“Work/Friends”
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Writer: Karen Graci
Producer: Dave Hill
Outstanding Comedy Series
"This Isn't Me"
Director: Adrian Elliot
Writer: Ben Kawaller
Producer: Lauren Finerman
Outstanding Drama Series
"Home Turf"
Director: Mara Joly
Writer: Mara Joly
Producer: St Laurent TV
Outstanding Short Comedy Series
"Doxxed"
Director: Elaine Loh
Writer: Elaine Loh
Producer: Mary Lou Belli & Mandy Jane Turpin
Outstanding Short Drama Series
"Dad Man Walking"
Director: Clare Cooney
Writer: John O’Brien
Producer: Jimmy Boratyn
Outstanding Podcast Series
"Take It With You"
Writer/Producer: Blake Thomas
Outstanding Comedy Actor
"This Isn't Me"
Actor: Ben Kawaller
Director: Adrian Elliot
Writer: Ben Kawaller
Producer: Lauren Finerman
Outstanding Comedy Actress
"Pre-Mortem"
Actress: Ani Tatintsyan
Director: Danny Simonzad
Writer: Danny Simonzad & Ani Tatintsyan
Producer: Danny Simonzad & Ani Tatintsyan
Outstanding Drama Actor
"The System"
Actor: Akintola Jiboyewa
Director: Michael Cruz
Writer: Howard Bowler & John Mayer
Producer: Michael Romero
Outstanding Drama Actress
"Chosen"
Actress: Alison Jaye
Director: Daniel Pfeffer
Writer/Producer: Michael Goitanich
Outstanding Comedy Script
"Mr. Trivia"
Writer: Wendy Braff
Outstanding Drama Script
"Rust”
Writer: Justin Moran
Outstanding Cinematography
“Chosen”
Cinematographer: Ryan Z. Emanuel
Director: Daniel Pfeffer
Writer/Producer: Michael Goitanich
Outstanding Writing
"Scribbles"
Writer: Brandon Garegnani
Director: Lynnsey Ooten
Producer: Jeane Reveendran
Outstanding Directing
"Home Turf"
Director: Mara Joly
Writer: Mara Joly
Producer: St Laurent TV
Outstanding Editing
"The System"
Editor: Oliver Parker
Director: Michael Cruz
Writer: Howard Bowler & John Mayer
Producer: Michael Romero
Outstanding Pitch
"Georgi & the Bot"
Writer: Jade Daugherty & Fred Soligan
Outstanding Documentary
"Beneath the Ink"
Director/Producer: Cy Dodson
Outstanding Reality Series
"Run"
Producer: Ana Breton, Genevieie Thiers, Victoria Elena Nones, Samantha Bee
Writer: Ana Breton
Outstanding Animation
"Starship Goldfish"
Director: Jason Weight
Writer: Jason Weight
Producer: David Blance
Outstanding Minnesota Project
"Jeffrey T. Larson"
Director/Writer: Joe Hawkins
Producer: East Oaks Studio
Outstanding Short Film
"Lose It"
Director: Maximilian Clark
Writer: AJ Taylor
Producer: AJ Taylor
Best Breakout Creators (Influencer)
Producers: Sam and Colby
Best Breakout Series (Influencer)
"Challenge Accepted"
2018 Catalyst AWARDS
Best of Festival - 88
Best Drama Series - Currency
Best Comedy Series - Filth City
Best Minisodic Drama - Revenge Tour
Best Minisodic Comedy - Susaneland
Best Drama Actress - Vongai Shava
Best Drama Actor - Colman Domingo
Best Comedy Actress - Caroline Parsons
Best Comedy Actor - Tommy Kang
Best Short Film - Monday
Best Editing - Adventures of Brobot Johnson
Best Directing - Yair Valer
Best Writing - Stephen Ohl
Best Cinematography - Avenues
Best Reality - Charlie Bee Company
Best Documentary - Jacks & Jills
Best Drama Script - Near Death
Best Comedy Script - Not Liz
Best Podcast - Yarn Story