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The coveted Vimeo “Best of the Year” awards have been announced.

In its 17th year, the annual awards celebrate the most outstanding shorts and video creators on the independent platform. Many “Best of the Year” alumni have later won Academy Awards, Sundance Awards, Cannes prizes, and more. The Vimeo Curation Team reviews thousands of films to select the winners based on originality, technical excellence, storytelling impact, and overall artistic merit.

“We’re proud to highlight the most iconic short films and branded content of 2024,” Ina Pira, Head of Curation at Vimeo, told IndieWire. “These films are the very best of those that received ‘Staff Picks,’ which in its 17th year is still curated by humans sifting through and handpicking the best work shared on Vimeo.”

Pira cited highlight films including Bill Morrison’s surveillance and body cam documentary “Incident” and Renee Zhan’s live action and animated film “SHÉ (Snake)” as standout originals.

The Palm Springs International ShortFest has announced the juried and audience award winners for its 2024 edition, which took place June 18-24. Over $25,000 in cash prizes and five Academy Award-qualifying honors were presented to the winning films, which included Esteban Pedraza’s “Bogotá Story” and Jadwiga Kowalska’s animated film “The Car That Came Back from the Sea.”

See a full list of winners below.

Oscar Qualifying Awards:

Best of the Festival Award –

• Winner: “Bogotá Story” (Colombia/USA), Directed by Esteban Pedraza

Best Animated Short –

• Winner: “The Car That Came Back from the Sea” (Switzerland), Directed by Jadwiga Kowalska

Best Documentary Short –

• Winner:” Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr” (USA), Directed by Kimberly Reed

Best Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes presented by V Channels Corp –

• Winner: “Oyu” (France/Japan), Directed by Atsushi Hirai

Best Live-Action Short 15 Minutes and Under –

• Winner: “Complications” (Norway), Directed by Ivar Aase

Student Short Awards:

Best Student Animated Short –

• Winner:...

Sffilm has announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Awards competition and the Audience Awards at the 67th San Francisco International Film Festival (Sffilm Festival). The awards serve as a launching pad for internationally renowned filmmakers who are early in their careers, and they qualify films under 40 minutes for the Oscars. Past Golden Gate Award winners include Panah Panahi, Reid Davenport, Nadav Lapid, Marlon Riggs, Céline Sciamma, Jia Zhang-ke, Stanley Nelson, and Tasha Van Zandt.

This year, the 2024 Sffilm Festival ran five days from April 24 – 28 rather than its usual sprawling two weeks. The Sffilm board opted to pull back conservatively where others would have gone bigger to keep a more expansive footprint. Altogether they brought in 130 filmmakers this year, an excellent global selection of films despite the calendar disadvantage of being caught between Sundance and Cannes.

The big talk at this year’s Sffilm was the news that San...