The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

The Extraordinary Tale of the Times Table

July 2014 •Spanish

Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl suffers an obsessive compulsive disorder, boy and girl live happily ever after.

The Lost Child

November 2000 •English

Knowing the past changes the future. Seeking a connection to her heritage, Rebecca Hoffman sets out on a journey of discovery following the deaths of her adoptive parents. She finds that connection with her birth family in the Navajo community. But cultures clash when her husband is rejected as an outsider. Rebecca and her family experience rebirth in a rich culture and renewal as a family in this dramatic film based on the autobiography Looking for Lost Bird by Yvette Melanson (with Claire Safran).

Model Minority

May 2012 •English

Kayla, an underprivileged Japanese American 16 year old, endangers her promising future as an aspiring artist when she becomes involved with a drug dealer.

Overseas

December 1990 •French

In French Algeria, after WWII, three daughters of wealthy settlers begin their adult lives. Zon marries an often absent sailor. Malene's husband, Gildas, refuses to work in the farm, so she has to take care of everything. Gritte, the youngest, does not want to marry and is a nurse for the natives. We will follow their three different destinies.

Alive

January 1993 •English

The amazing true story of a Uruguayan rugby team's plane that crashed in the middle of the Andes mountains, and their immense will to survive and pull through alive, forced to do anything and everything they could to stay alive on meager rations and through the freezing cold.

Frisky

September 2015 •English

Two twenty-somethings move to San Francisco to chase their career, but end up chasing tail instead.

Jellyfish

May 2007 •Hebrew

Meduzot (the Hebrew word for Jellyfish) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a young child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a young bride who breaks her leg in trying to escape from a locked toilet stall, which ruins her chance at a romantic honeymoon in the Caribbean. One of the guests is Joy, a Philippine chore woman attending the event with her employer, and who doesn't speak any Hebrew (she communicates mainly in English), and who is guilt-ridden after having left her young son behind in the Philippines.

SLC Punk

September 1998 •English

Two former geeks become 1980s punks, then party and go to concerts while deciding what to do with their lives.

The Forest for the Trees

September 2004 •German

As an awkward idealistic high school teacher begins her first job in the city, things turn out to be much tougher than she had imagined.

Cherry Blossoms

March 2008 •German

After finding out that her husband, Rudi, has a fatal illness, Trudi Angermeier arranges a trip to Berlin so they can see their children. Of course, the kids don't know the real reason they're visiting -- and the catch is, neither does Rudi...

Noch einmal lieben

September 2005 •German

Talk to Me

July 2007 •English

The story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.

Charlie Wilson's War

December 2007 •English

In the 1980s U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, Texas socialite Joanne Herring and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos form an unlikely alliance to boost funding for Afghan freedom fighters in their war against invading Soviets. The trio's successful efforts to finance these covert operations contributes to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Held for Ransom

August 2019 •Danish

HELD FOR RANSOM tells the true story of Danish photojournalist Daniel Rye who was held hostage for 398 days in Syria by the terror organization ISIS along with several other foreign nationals including the American journalist, James Foley. The film follows Daniel’s struggle to survive in captivity, his friendship with James, and the nightmare of the Rye family back home in Denmark as they try to do everything in their power to save their son. At the center of this crisis, we find hostage negotiator, Arthur, who plays a pivotal role in securing Daniel’s release.

Last Breath

February 2025 •English

Seasoned deep-sea divers battle the raging elements to rescue their crewmate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean's surface.

Nothing Special

January 2010 •English

A young and successful insurance underwriter must allow her mentally unstable mother to move in with her after the institution in which the mother had been living is deemed unfit for occupancy. The mother then begins to dislike how close her daughter is with her boss.

The Year of Spectacular Men

June 2018 •English

In the year after graduating college, Izzy struggles to navigate the seemingly incessant failures of adulthood, the reality of a substandard dating pool and a debilitating fear of top-sheets, all in between X-Files marathons. Comically unsuccessful in love over the course the year, including five half-hearted relationships with astoundingly self-centered men, Izzy resigns herself to the support of her mother and sister, who are struggling with their own relationship problems. Seeing herself in them, Izzy gradually gains the confidence to be honest and vulnerable.

Papillon

September 2017 •English

Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.

City of Lies

September 2018 •English

Los Angeles Police Department detective Russell Poole has spent years trying to solve his biggest case -- the murders of The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur -- but after two decades, the investigation remains open. Jack Jackson, a reporter desperate to save his reputation and career, is determined to find out why. In search of the truth, the two team up and unravel a growing web of institutional corruption and lies.

7 Days in Entebbe

March 2018 •English

In 1976, four hijackers take over an Air France airplane en route from Tel Aviv to Paris and force it to land in Entebbe, Uganda. With 248 passengers on board, one of the most daring rescue missions ever is set in motion.