The Together! 2024 Disability Film Festival screened 50+ films from 25 countries in 10 themed programmes. Our Kat Awards are made each year in memory of artist-filmmaker Katherine Arianello. The 2024 winners are…
Best Animation
Miss Odd. Robyn Wisker-Stilling. UK. 2024. 4:47. Online Premiere. DDD. FFF. In private, everything is pink. Silent DJ Jolene is getting ready for a date to meet Theo. She is rehearsing and being her joyful self. Suddenly, this happy tune gets disrupted by her neighbour Camille, who calls her “Miss Odd.”
Best Artists Film
Crip/Mad Archive Dances. Petra Kuppers. USA. 2024. 36m. FFF. DDD. How do disabled and mad people survive, dance, insert their differences in a world full of stigma? How do we live through bodymindspirit experiences of alienation and pain? This experimental documentary charts disability culture archives, and embodied gestures of survival and creative expression. https://www.petrakuppers.com/cripmad-archive-dances An in-depth Audio-Described Version is available here: https://on.soundcloud.com/bv9pE
Best Dance Film
Danse de la Lune (Moon Dance). Melanie Lane. Australia. 2022. 4m. UK & European Premiere. FF. D. With audio-description. A film created by Chamaeleon Collective and Melanie Lane. After a 4 day workshop exploring the spirit of the moon, its energy and the imagination it conjures, the Chamaeleon dancers celebrate its power through dance, dreams and togetherness.
Best Drama
Spectrum. Rick Stanton. UK. 2024. 30:48s. D. F. Set in East London and shot in black and white, Spectrum explores the life of Steve, a man with autism, as he navigates a world that often isolates him. Along the way, Steve redefines what it means to be a superhero, facing challenges with courage, resilience, and deep humanity. https://rickstanton.co.uk/spectrum
Best Documentary
The way we are. Daria Tchapanova. Austria. 2023. 16m. UK & Online Premiere. FFF. DD. Takes a critical look at inclusive education in Austria. The film features dance scenes as a fusion between three choreographers and students at a dance workshop and provides key statements by a performer, guiding the film’s critique of the barriers present in public spaces, the exclusion of people with disabilities in relation to human rights, and the lack of social integration within the Austrian educational system. The film was blocked for its original screening and has not yet been shown publicly in its country of origin.
Best Film Featuring a Young Disabled Actor
Andy & Kaliope. Crystal Arnette and Catriona Rubenis-Stevens. USA. 2022. 6m. UK Premiere. DDD. FFF. When Andy must move to yet another foster home, his case worker helps him connect to his inner superhero.
Best First Film
I Would Like to Live on the Moon. Emily Burke. UK. 2023. 2:13. DDD. A young non-binary person feels overwhelmed and wants to escape – literally, to the moon.
Best International Film
Rising Tides, Raising Voices. Jody Santos. USA. 2024. 14:41. UK & European Premiere. With audio description. DDD. FFF. Facing rising sea levels and ecological destruction, Indigenous Pacific Islanders with disabilities race against time to ensure that when the next disaster strikes, no one is left behind. https://disabilityjusticeproject.org/rising-tides-raising-voices/
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