Cinekink Announces 2020 Film Festival Award Winners

NEW YORK—The organizers for CineKink 2020, the fetish-themed film festival held Dec. 2-6, have announced the festival’s awards.“We’re so very grateful that we were finally able to present these works to our audience,” said Lisa Vandever, CineKink co-founder and director. "Congratulations and thanks are in order, not just to the winners tonight, but to all of the filmmakers for contributing to this year’s outstanding line-up!"The festival’s CineKink Artist Spotlight award, designed to recognize outstanding artistry over a body of work, was presented to Shine Louise Houston, whose erotic films, including this season’s The Camera & I, Tickle Takedown, and Writing in Bed, have been featured at CineKink since 2008. Houston’s work includes the creation and curation of the streaming platform PinkLabel.TV, which has “opened up resources for independent adult filmmakers and festivals, allowing them to bring their works to a global audience,” organizers wrote in their announcement.The Audience Choice Awards for CineKink 2020 were presented to Volunteers Wanted (directed by Ron Rex) for Best Narrative Feature, with Thee Debauchery Ball, (directed by David Weathersby) winning for Best Documentary Feature.In the CineKink Best Shorts competition, awards went to The MILF Next Door (Sadie Lune) tied with Side Order (Ashley Mosher) for Best Dramatic Short, Spellbound (Ulrike Kaffei) for Best Experimental Short, The Rep (Douglas Knox) for Best Comedy Short; The Fathers’ Project (Leo Herrara) for Best Documentary Short and Best Digital Series, and Butt Fantasia (Mohit Jaswalm) for Best Musical Short.Honorable Best Mention awards were presented to The Multiverse in a Mouthf*ck (Jorge The Obscene), Polyamory The Musical (Inka Winter), Put Your Feet Up (Peter Horgan) and Walking a Fine Line (Meti Oker).The CineKink jurors for the shorts competition included Thor Stockman, creator of The Good, The Bad and The Ridiculous: S/M at The Movies; Viviane Tang, co-founder of The Pleasure Salon, and Bill Woods, a film festival programmer and curator of the New Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives.The annual CineKink Bring It! award, determined by audience vote, went to Restless, directed by Urvashi, a three-time winner of the award.The CineKink Tribute, recognizing extraordinary depictions of kink and sex-positivity in mainstream film and television, was tabled until another time, as CineKink organizers confessed they could no longer recall which works were released or aired in the United States from January 1 until December 31, 2019, key criteria for eligibility.Originally scheduled for March, CineKink, with the assistance of its streaming partner, PinkLabel.TV, made its 17th annual run last week, presenting a virtual program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality. Billing itself as "the kinky film festival," with offerings drawn from both the independent film world and the adult, works featured at CineKink range from documentary to drama, comedy to experimental, mildly spicy to quite explicit - and everything in between.Along with PinkLabel.TV, sponsors and partners of CineKink NYC/2020 included njoy and Pendulum NYC, along with Athena Productions, Film Festival Secrets, #Open and Robel Films.Covid-19 permitting, selections from CineKink 2020 will be featured in a traveling version of the festival, slated to appear in various cities throughout the next year. Dates for the next edition of the festival have not yet been determined.For more information, visit Cinekink.com.