Bandit, The Last Place On Earth Win DWF: LA Top Prizes
SkimNews Take
Dances With Films handing its top honors to a crime drama and an environmental documentary illustrates how independent festivals increasingly function as the discovery layer for stories traditional studios overlook — a parallel track to YouTube-native talent bypassing the same gatekeepers.
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- Dances With Films: LA wrapped its 29th edition at the TCL Chinese 6 complex inside Ovation LA in Hollywood, presenting Grand Jury prizes determined by previous festival winners.
- Bandit, directed by Brian L. "BLT" Tan, won Best Narrative Feature — an Indonesia-U.S. action-thriller starring Wafda Saifan Lubis and Roy Sungkono about two friends who steal a G-Wagon and discover a corpse in the trunk; it marked its world premiere.
- The Last Place on Earth, directed by David Booth Gardner, won Best Documentary Feature; the film follows wildlife activists trying to protect Sumatra's Leuser Ecosystem — home to tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans — from illegal deforestation.
- Godpower (Geoff Browne) took Best Narrative Short, while the Industry Choice Award under 40' went to Charlie Roth's comedic short The Expiration of Darius Campbell and the over 40' went to Stan Lee: The Final Chapter by Jon Bolerjack, an investigative look at exploitation of the late comic creator's likeness and memorabilia.
- Littermates (Scott Tinkham, Michael Woloson) won the Competition Narrative Feature Audience Award, while the Documentary Feature Audience Award was shared by My Name Is Gitta (Beatrix Ryle) and Tell Me About Tomorrow, a film about late TikTok star Cooper Noriega directed by Brad Alexander.
Why it matters: The festival's top narrative and documentary winners — an Indonesia-U.S. heist thriller and a Sumatra conservation doc — signal DWF: LA's continued appetite for genre-driven international stories and issue-driven nonfiction, while the Industry Choice win for 'Stan Lee: The Final Chapter' spotlights a documentary alleging mistreatment and financial exploitation around the late Marvel icon's legacy.
