World Premiere BlackStar Film Festival August 20th Winner: Best Narrative Short and the Liongate/Starz Short Film Award Jury Comment: The filmmaker handles the punitive burdens faced by immigrants with wit, spectacular performances and unlikely connections between characters. It’s a film that moves through politically charged emotions with cinematic grace. Winner: Woodstock Maverick Award, Best Short Narrative Jury Statement: Rosa represents a female voice we haven't heard before, and takes us on a journey with a female character that we also haven't seen before. The film blends formal assurance with depth and strength in the performances, balancing subject matter as disparate as flowers and corpses, but still speaking with total tonal confidence. Rosa's narrative integrity as a short made it stand out, and it always kept us intrigued, by veering off in directions we never anticipated or expected. Jury Comment: The filmmaker handles the punitive burdens faced by immigrants with wit, spectacular performances and unlikely connections between characters. It’s a film that moves through politically charged emotions with cinematic grace. suhamaria.com/#/rosa/