Prize Fest celebrates 11th year with record sales and national audience

Shreveport, LA – Prize Fest, a celebration of Film, Food, Music, Fashion and Comedy, announced its winners from Weekend 2 (FIlm, Food & Comedy) today at a live-broadcasted awards show watched throughout the country and the world. The festival, now in its eleventh year, showcased the work of independent filmmakers, fashion designers, musicians, chefs and comedians during a festival spanning two weekends across multiple venues in downtown Shreveport, LA.

“While Prize Fest was the most epic it’s ever been, today’s Film Prize ending took our festival to a new level,” said Gregory Kallenberg, Executive Director and Founder of the Louisiana Film Prize and Prize Foundation. “We are proud to award the cast and crew of ‘They Grow Up So Fast” the world’s richest prize for a short film, and we are so proud of all the deserving winners from Prize Fest 2022!”

Louisiana Film Prize 

The 2022 Louisiana Film Prize grand prize winner is “They Grow Up So Fast,” directed by John F. Beach. Beach walks away with $50,000, the world’s largest cash prize for a narrative short film.

The winning film was chosen from the Top 20 short film finalists, all of which were filmed in the state of Louisiana, and determined by a unique 50/50 combination of votes from online and in-person attendees and a panel of industry judges from across the country.

The other short films that joined “They Grown Up So Fast” in the Top 5 this year were: “Bamber Bridge” (Mark Bonner), “Betty Lou Had A Son” (David Long), “Credit” (Patrick & Susan Kirton) and “Unicorn Poop” (Lorna Street Dopson).

Best Performance was awarded to John F. Beach for his role as Brian in “They Grow Up So Fast.”

The Film Prize Foundation also announced the recipients for its Founder’s Circle Grants. Founder’s Circle is a $3,000 reimbursable filmmaking grant that allows filmmakers to come back and make a film for Louisiana Film Prize 2023. The recipients of this award for 2023 were Josh Munds (“Peeping Todd”), Jaya & Jacob McSharma (“Please Scream Inside Your Heart”), Monique Morton Derouselle (“Rising Dawn”), Carlos Jiminez (“Strangers in Common”), John F. Beach (“They Grow Up So Fast”), and Lorna Street Dopson (“Unicorn Poop”).

Food Prize

Food Prize 2022 again featured its premier Come and Get It event. Seven local chefs were paired up with nationally recognized celebrity chefs across the country to collaborate to create a dish and then serve incredible tastings to attendees. These celebrity chefs, like Chopped winner Chef Tristen Epps, came from all over the country to be a part of this celebration of the culinary arts.

Attendees of Come and Get It voted on their favorite dish, crowning local chef Anthony Felan (Fat Calf Brasserie) and celebrity chef Denise Joseph (Dallas, TX) the People’s Choice winners. The attendees also chose the Golden Shaker champion, voting local mixologist, Andy Flook of the soon-to-open Cypress by the Revenir, the winner. The Food Prize Mentor-Judges crowned this year’s grand prize Golden Fork Champion team: local chef Sean Sullivan (Frank’s Louisiana Kitchen) and celebrity chef Eppie Connolly (Detroit, MI).

Food Prize also introduced its inaugural Food Prize University event in which Food Prize Mentor-Judges and visiting celebrity chefs participated in a roundtable discussion with the public on life in the industry and how to build a food city that cultivates community.

Comedy Prize

In its second year, the Comedy Prize hosted 7 hopeful national touring comedians who each performed 10 minute sets in front of a live sold out audience. Son Tran of Houston, TX was crowned Comedy Prize’s grand champion for 2022. 

Louisiana Music Prize

Louisiana Music Prize 2022, the GRAMMY-affiliated competition for rising musicians, saw 10 musical acts from across the country compete for the $10,000 grand prize. The grand prize winner, The American Hotel System out of Grand Rapids, MI, was chosen by a jury of nationally recognized music industry professionals. The competition also featured a People’s Choice Award which was won by Shreveport-based band Benedetto.

This year’s Louisiana Music Prize also saw the return of MPCon (Music Prize Conference), created to offer artistic and career building mentorship to up and coming musicians.

Fashion Prize

Now in its fourth year, the Louisiana Fashion Prize hosted a live runway presentation of 5 designers’ collections at the Phoenix. Sophia Omoro (odAOMO) of New Orleans was named the judges’ grand prize winner. The event also featured a capsule collection from 2021’s winner, Jessica Hall.

To learn more about the Louisiana Film Prize and Prize Fest or to watch the Louisiana Film Prize awards ceremony, please visit www.prizefest.com.

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The Prize Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2012. Our mission is to promote economic growth, workforce development, youth job training, creative class entrepreneurial buildout and increased tourism through education, entrepreneurship, conferences, contests and festivals in Shreveport and Northwest Louisiana. The Prize Foundation operates six major initiatives year-round: Louisiana Film Prize, Film Prize Junior, Startup Prize, Food Prize, Music Prize, and Fashion Prize. Each Prize has a qualification process, engagement with economic and cultural resources, and an educational component.

The Louisiana Film Prize invites filmmakers from across the country to make a short film between five and fifteen minutes long to compete for the largest cash prize for a short narrative film offered in the world. The chief requirement is that the films must be shot in Louisiana. The top twenty films that have been submitted are then screened for audiences and judges in October and a winner is chosen based on the voting from those two factions.