MOMO Film Festival Announces 2026 Winners: 'Mom Dances' and 'Everyone Calls Me Mike'
MOMO Independent Film Festival honored five short films and a screenplay in 2026. 'Everyone Calls Me Mike' won four feature awards; 'Timings' earned a special mention.
MOMO Independent Film Festival announced the winners of its fourth edition after the festival ran Oct. 9–11 at South Lyon Theater in Michigan. An independent jury chose the short film awards, presented at Closing Night & Awards on Oct. 11. Festival directors selected the feature film awards.
Short Film Awards (Jury)
- Best Short Film: 'Mom Dances', directed by Mégane Brügger
- Best Director: Mégane Brügger, 'Mom Dances'
- Best Actress: Magdalena Broto, 'Teodoro'
- Best Actor: Sébastien Novac, 'End (It)'
- Best Cinematography: 'Movement, Light, and Life', directed by Winston Stemler
- Special Mention: 'Street Muse', directed by Beth Cloutier
Screenplay Award (Jury)
- Best Screenplay: 'Master' by Antonio Foli
Feature Film Awards (Festival Directors)
Guillaume Bonnier's sea thriller 'Everyone Calls Me Mike' won four awards: Best Feature Film, Best Feature Director (Bonnier), Best Feature Actor (Abdirisak Mohamed), and Best Feature Actress (Daphné Patakia). The film follows a family sailing around the world who stop in Djibouti and agree to take a local taxi driver named Mike aboard, then must decide how far to trust a man they barely know. It is Bonnier's first feature; Le Monde called it "a successful debut feature film."
Jeffrey Moore's 'Timings' received a Special Mention, presented on stage at Closing Night. The film puts seven relationships in one room at a New York City party. Moore, a music video director for more than 20 years, made it as his feature directorial debut with a script by Ricky Whitcomb. The team funded the film themselves and shot it in eight days, mostly in an unheated warehouse in winter.
"Independent cinema exists because filmmakers keep making the work they believe in," the festival said in its announcement. "MOMO exists to give that work a room, an audience, and a moment of attention."
The festival thanked its jury, its Official Venue Partner South Lyon Theater, and everyone who attended. Full coverage of both award announcements is available in the MOMO Festival Journal.
Sources: MOMO Festival Journal · Short film award winners · Feature film award winners · MOMO Independent Film Festival · FilmFreeway
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