In its second year, the Fort Smith International Film Festival on Aug. 26-27 brought together 137 movies from more than 30 different countries, nations and tribes and nearly 600 fans and filmmakers from the River Valley and beyond. And the winners are:

Best Overall Film & Best Narrative Feature -- "Guthlee Ladoo" by Ishrat R. Khan, India. Guthlee, the son of a poor sweeper, has a dream -- to go to school. But the obstacle is his caste.

Best Overall High School Film -- "Ruby" by Gwendoline Laurent, France. Ruby wakes up in a place unknown to her. She hums a rhyme but doesn't remember where she learned it. This rhyme is also hummed by a stranger, whom Ruby's instinct tells her is the key to understanding where she is.

Best Local High School Film -- "A Chat with Tony C" by Gabe A. Hobbs, U.S. The director's interview of a friend.

Best Alumni Film & Best Documentary Feature -- "The Journey of Tiak Hikiya Ohoyo" by Mark D. Williams, U.S. The history of Mississippi Choctaw Stickball and what it would mean for one particular small community, Standing Pine, to bring home the title for the first time.

Best Local Film & Best Regional Film -- "Double Trouble" by Levi Matthew Smith and Blake Dean Allen, U.S. Two teenagers stay overnight in an arcade and happen upon a spooky haunted arcade machine.

Best International Award -- "Opal" by Alan Bidard, Martinique. In a magic kingdom where summer lasted forever, the source of all magic was a young princess called Opal.

Best People of Color Film -- "Blurring the Color Line" by Crystal Lee Kwok, U.S. Digging into her grandmother's experience of growing up Chinese in a black neighborhood in Augusta, Ga., during Jim Crow, Kwok exposes uncomfortable truths behind today's Afro-Asian tensions.

Best Western Film -- "Heart of the Gun" by Travis Mills, U.S. Travers, a doctor who deserted his military post, searches the frontier for the wife who left him.

Best Short Film & Best Indigenous Film -- "Peace Pipeline" by Gitz Crazyboy and Tito Ybarra, Canada. Comedian/activists pose as an Indigenous energy company sharing plans to reroute a pipeline through the wealthy white suburbs of Duluth, Minn.

Best Documentary Short Film -- "Sam Wang: Centripetal Persistence" by John Rash, U.S. Follow pioneering Chinese-American photographer Sam Wang from his birthplace in Beijing to Clemson, S.C., on a journey of shifting cultural identity and constant visual creation.

Best Animation Short Film -- "Lotus" by Gwyneth Jones, Australia. A girl at a party is taken advantage of by a demon after being handed a spiked drink.

Best Music Video -- "Outta Here: Escape the Simulation" by Danielle Eilesse Smith, Avitiuh. A young woman realizes she may be stuck in a simulation.

Best College Local Film -- "Fort Smith: Developing Creative Economies" by Dillon Hudson, U.S. Initiatives led by a group of disruptive leaders are making the River Valley a better place to live.

Best College Short Film -- "Vlada Goes to London" by Arti Savchenko, Israel. Vlada is a pizza delivery girl who lives in Haifa and dreams of becoming a famous DJ.

Best Thriller Short Film -- "Hunger" by Carlos Melendez, Mexico. A child is tormented by a voracious well demanding food.

Best LGBTQ+ Short Film -- "Just Benjamin" by Paige Murphy, U.S. Since coming out as transgender in his 20s, Benjamin Davis has found acceptance in unexpected places, both in the military and with his traditional, small-town Arkansas father.

Best Comedy Short Film -- "Valera" by Olga Artushevska, Ukraine. One morning Valera wakes up as a people's hero, but the problem is that he can't remember anything.

Best Sci-Fi Short Film -- "Young Liars" by Adam Christy, U.S. An aspiring journalist is invited to experience "the story of a lifetime" when his ex reveals that she has stolen a prototype of an experimental psychic machine.

Best Action Short Film -- "Delville Wood" by Izette Blignaut, Connor Weidemann, Mitchell Weidemann, South Africa. Following a brutal artillery barrage in 1916, the South African Army is forced into a tactical retreat. Through the chaos, a nurse, a soldier and an unarmed stretcher bearer have to work as a team in order to survive the night and reach the safety of the reserve trench line.

Best Drama Short Film -- "Join Me" by Anais Nativel, France. During a Napoleonic war, a young recruit discovers that his comrade is planning to desert to join his beloved.

Best Experimental Short Film -- "Triangle" by Peter Engelmann, U.K. A sci-fi pseudo-docudrama explores three strangers who are about to become friends for life.

Print Headline: And The Winners Are…

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