# Maverick Movie Awards

The Maverick Movie Awards annually honors films and screenplays. They were founded as the New Haven Underground Film Festival in 2004, and became known as Maverick Movie Awards in 2008. The awards are given out by a panel of judges working in the film industry. Its winners include both big-budget studio films as well as low budget independent films. An international film competition and awards event, MMA has received submissions for awards consideration from many notable filmmakers including Academy Award-nominee Sue Goffe, Academy Award-nominee Grant Orchard, Academy Award-nominee Pierre Coffin, and BAFTA Award-winners Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis. Additionally, numerous films submitted to Maverick Movie Awards have featured the work of notable actors such as Academy Award-winner Jim Broadbent, Doug Jones (actor), Ross Marquand, and Golden Globe-nominees Lee Meriwether and Judd Nelson; as well as the work of acclaimed cinematographers such as Academy Award-winner Vilmos Zsigmond and the original scores of composers such as Grammy Award-winner Thom Yorke, Academy Award-nominee Philip Glass, and Academy Award-nominee Johann Johannsson. Many Maverick Movie Award-winning films have gone on to receive other prestigious awards and nominations including A Morning Stroll (Academy Award-nominee; BAFTA Award-winner), The Imposter (2012 film) (BAFTA Award-winner; Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-nominee), Lost and Found (TV Movie 2008) (BAFTA Award-winner), and Varmints (BAFTA Award-nominee).

## Winners
### 2018
#### Feature Film

* Best Picture: Lost In Apocalypse
* Best Director: Ben Rider and Xavier Baeyens, Blood and Bones

#### Short Film

* Best Screenplay: Navjyot Bandiwadekar, Quarter

### 2017
#### Feature Film

* Best Picture: Outlaw Painter
* Best Documentary: The Children of the Noon
* Best Animation: Three Days Drowning
* Best Director: Vassilis Mazomenos, Lines
* Best Screenplay: Occupant, Julia Camara
* Best Cinematography: Ben Rider, Our Little Haven
* Best Editing: Sam Szafrans / Outlaw Painter
* Best Music: Forever Tomorrow
* Best Special FX: Teleios
* Best Actress: Alfeeya Shaikh in Jihad
* Best Actor: Fedja van Huet in J. Kessels
* Best Supporting Actress: Anu Hasan in IS THIS NOW
* Best Supporting Actor: Arish A. Khan in Fags in the Fast Lane

### 2016
#### Feature Film

* Best Picture: 1400
* Best Documentary: All the World in a Design School
* Best Animation: The Hunting of the Snark
* Best Director: Stephen Chen, Silent City
* Best Screenplay: Restraint, Adam Cushman
* Best Cinematography: Russ De Jong, Badsville
* Best Editing: Gordon Antell, Badsville
* Best Music: The Barn
* Best Special FX: Virtual Revolution
* Best Actor: Michael Padraic Scahill, Cowards Do It Slow
* Best Actress: Caitlyn Folley, Restraint
* Best Supporting Actor: Hoyt Richards, Dumbbells
* Best Supporting Actress: Gabrielle Rose, The Birdwatcher
* Best Ensemble Performance: Legend Of The Lich Lord
* Special Achievement: Arbitrary Fairytales

### 2014
#### Feature Film

* Best Picture: Bridge and Tunnel (Director: Jason Michael Brescia)
* Best Director: Alexander Tuschinski (for: Break-Up)
* Best Screenplay: Time Lapse (Bradley King & B.P. Cooper)
* Best Chronicle: chicagoGirl The Social Network Takes on a Dictator (Director: Joe Piscatella)
* Best Cinematography: Kauboji (Predrag Dubravcic)

#### Short Film

* Best Picture: Concrete/Night (Director: Noe Weil)
* Best Director: Joshua Hinkson (for [ [sic]])
* Best Screenplay: The Funeral (Yehudah Jez Freedman)
* Best Chronicle: Project: Shattered Silence (Director: Colleen Sparks Hamilton & Jared O'Roark)
* Best Cinematography: By My Hand (Tucker Macdonald)

#### Feature Film
### 2013

Best Director: Dimitris Athanitis (for: Three Days Happiness)

#### Short Film

* Best Picture: Mousse (Director: Jason Michael Brescia)

### 2012
#### Feature Film

* Best Picture: The Imposter (Director: Bart Layton)

#### Short Film

* Best Picture: Tumbleweed! (Director: Jared Varava)
* Best Actor: Dylan Smith (in Hangnail)
* Best Original Score: Atom
* Best Director Micah Magee for COMING HOME

### 2011
#### Short Film

* Best Soundtrack: Beatboxing - The Fifth Element of Hip Hop (Director: Klaus Schneyder)

### 2009

* Best Picture: On a Carousel of Sound, We Go Round Nicholas Kleczewski
* Best Director: Scream of the Bikini Kiff Scholl
* Best Screenplay: Lunopolis Matthew J. Avant
* Best Chronicle: When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun Dirk Simon
* Best Cinematography: When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun Jeff Pointer and Robert Muratore
* Best Actor: Lovers in a Dangerous Time Mark Hug
* Best Actress: Dirty Step Upstage Nova Reid
* Best Supporting Actor: The Dispensables André Hennicke
* Best Supporting Actress: Charlie Valentine Valerie Dillman
* Best Performance: On a Carousel of Sound, We Go Round The Snake the Cross the Crown
* Best Editing: On a Carousel of Sound, We Go Round Nicholas Kleczewski
* Best Original Score: When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun Philip Glass, Thom Yorke, and Damien Rice
* Best Soundtrack: Pig Hunt Les Claypool and Robert Mailer Anderson
* Best Sound Design/Editing: Scream of the Bikini Darrett Sanders and Brian Warwick
* Best Production Design: I Am Somebody/No Chance in Hell Aki Aleong, Conchita Culanding Aleong, and Caravan West
* Best Special Effects: Deadland Ralf Leeb
* Best Special Effects Make-up: Pig Hunt Erik Jensen, Danny Wagner, and Kerner Optical
* Best Stunts: Pig Hunt Justin Sundquist, Spiro Razatos, and Rex Reddick

## Reception

   One thing is clear, the festival circuit has to be taken back for those it was originally meant to serve: filmmakers and audiences. MMA is a group whose mission is so in line with what needs to be done in this ever-changing landscape.
   The Maverick Movie Awards puts credibility and intrigue back into the word 'maverick.'