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Winter Film Awards is an annual independent Film Festival in New York City, established in 2011. Winter Film Award's mission is to recognize excellence and diversity in cinema and to promote learning and artistic expression for all people at all stages of their artistic careers. The primary focus of the festival is to showcase a broad range of films, showcasing emerging filmmakers from every age, ethnic, racial, religious, cultural, political and geographic perspective.

Overview
The Winter Film Awards is partnered with local NYC film schools, cultural societies and non-profit organizations. The Awards Celebration includes several other exciting components including Indie Film Awards, a Film Festival and a Talent Competition celebrating the Creative Arts.

The Winter Film Awards will be February 28 - March 3 2013 with an Awards Ceremony on March 2 that will be televised nationally on American Primetime Television via Omniverse TV and their national affiliates, and is to reach an international audience in 119 cities through multiple platforms, including iPad, mobile phones and other devices.

Founders
Winter Film Awards was founded by industry veterans George Isaacs and Ken Kushner. Kushner and Isaacs have worked with a number of production companies including Round House Pictures, I.D. Films, Park Avenue Post and Red Reel Pictures on projects ranging from commercial advertising campaigns to full-length feature films. Over the years, they collaborated to produce music videos for many of the industry’s renowned artists including Eve, Shai and Ruff Ryders, with film production credits including Paradox Lake, One Blood and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's Before I Self Destruct.

2012 Festival
The 2012 Winter Film Awards ran from February 10-12 with a series of award ceremonies and special events.

Best Picture: Grounded by Kevin Margo

Best Director: Tony Ferrieri, Runway

Best Feature Film: The Three Way, Julian Renner

Best Foreign Film: eMANNzipation, Philipp Muller-Dorn

Best Actor: Urs Stampfli, eMANNzipation

Best Actress: Kim Rhodes, The Death of Toys

Best Documentary Film: Wolves Unleashed by Andrew Simpson

Best Student Film: Brushstrokes by Zoi Florosz

Best Screenplay: “Cutthroat” by James Hsiao

Best Monologue: Yohan Belmin

48-Hour Film Challenge
Winter Film Awards challenged the local community to create a 5-7 minute film from start to finish in just a single weekend. The WFA 48-Hour Film Challenge got under way on Friday, November 30 at 8pm. Each team was provided with one of eight possible Film Genres, and all films were required to include the line "You are not a beautiful, unique snowflake. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time." (Chuck Palahniuk) and a required prop - a big bright snowflake sugar cookie. Final films were due by 9pm on Sunday, December 2.

All winning entries will be screened at the 2nd Annual Winter Film Awards Festival on February 28 2013 – March 2 2013.

WINNER – BEST PICTURE – THE COOKIE RUSH by MOTIONDREAMERS PRODUCTION Motiondreamers Production is a NY/NJ based production company that makes Films, Music Videos, Commercials, Wedding Videos, etc. "The Cookie Rush" was produced by Motiondreamers' Youngsam Yoon, Director of Photography, and Seong Kim, Director.

WINNER – FAN FAVORITE – PIANOFORTE by TEAM J Team J's creatives include director / composer Jerry Jean, videographer / editors Angelica Vanessa & Jennifer Painter, all NYC based. The trio first began working together shooting music videos for Jerry's gigs and projects. Angelica & Jennifer both honed their craft at FIT, and Jerry was a music major at NYU/Columbia.

WINNER – BEST SCREENPLAY – SNOWFLAKE by The Grape Dutches of York Best Screenplay winner, "Snowflake" was a film created by Daniel Florio and Chris Sciacco, with fellow members of the NY sketch group The Grape Dutches of York. The Dutches have also had films selected this year for the 2012 Off-Centered Film Festival and 2012 24hr. Film Festival. They primarily make original comedy sketches, and self-produced a web-series "Recession Whores".

WINNER – HONORARY AWARD – BREEDS OF MEN by APHORISTIC FILMS For the NJ-Based director Richard Lobrovich, a graduate of Full Sail University, writers Ryan Boyle and Rory Mooney, this is their first 48 Hour film challenge together and won't be their last. The team work and positivity on set allowed Aphoristic Films to deliver "Breeds of Men" on time and to win the Honorary Film Award.