OKLAHOMA CITY — With four days down and one still to go, the deadCenter Film Festival announced the big winners Saturday for its 25th anniversary year, handing out trophies in an evening ceremony at Oklahoma Contemporary’s Te Ata Theater.
It was a culmination of a festival week that saw visibly higher attendance compared to recent years, multiple sold-out, capacity screenings, and some serious buzz surrounding some of its world premiere selections.
“I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished in the past 25 years,” said outgoing Executive Director Cacky Poarch. “Tonight, as we honor this year’s award winners, we also honor all the people that brought this festival to life.”
Poarch was unexpectedly awarded a special prize to commemorate her years of overseeing the festival.
Here are the winners of the deadCenter Film Festival 2025:
- Best Narrative Feature – “500 Fireflies”
- Best Oklahoma Narrative Feature – “Anywhere”
- Best Oklahoma Documentary – “Drowned Land”
- Best Oklahoma Short – “Thin Places”
- Best Documentary – “67 Bombs to Enid”
- Special Jury Prize: Narrative Feature – “The Other People”
- Special Jury Prize: Writing and Directing – “Two People Exchanging Saliva”
- Special Jury Prize: Documentary Feature – “Assembly”
- Special Jury Prize: Documentary Short – “Wafaa from Gaza”
- Special Jury Prize: Narrative Short – “Synthesize Me”
- Special Jury Prize: Animated Short – “Whose Woods are These?”
- Special Jury Recognition: Editing – “WTO/99”
- Best Live-Action Short (Academy Award-qualifying category) – “F*** That Guy”
- Best Animated Short (Academy Award-qualifying category) – “Persebus”
- Best Short Documentary (Academy Award-qualifying category) – “Between the Fire and the Moonlight”
- Best Series – “I Hate My Love Life”
- Best Music Video – Kai Straw: “Chokin’”
- Best High School Film – “Pulpitum”
- Best Indigenous Feature – “Remaining Native”
- Best Indigenous Short – “Kusi Smiles”
- Best Pride Feature – “Queens of the Dead”
- Best Pride Short – “Buscando Alma”
- Film ICONs 2025 – Adam Hampton, Hayley McFarland, Amy Scott
- Special Recognition: Cacky Poarch
Production powerhouse named deadCenter director
It wasn’t only the festival itself that celebrated a climactic event during the ceremony.
The opening hours of deadCenter 2025 on Wednesday saw the announcement that founding Executive Director Cacky Poarch would be stepping down, with Oklahoma-based producer, organizer, and production facility co-owner Amy Janes set to take the reins of the festival.
It’s a stunning consolidation of power for Janes, who co-owns the sprawling Filmmaker’s Ranch production facility in Spencer (which recently brought post-production company Apex in-house) as well as co-managing Rodeo Cinema, one of deadCenter’s festival venues.
Additionally, Janes co-founded the OK Film & TV Academy and Film Crew Institute, oversees the advertising outfit Fanology, and maintains a consistent lobbying presence for filmmaking incentives and legislation in Oklahoma state government.
But when Free Press caught up with her on the festival’s second day, she said she expects that running deadCenter will be her primary focus going forward.
“All of that is going to take a step back,” Janes said. “I expect this to be the thing.”
Poarch to take time off for a change
For her part, Poarch, who already abdicated power at deadCenter once before, then was asked back on board as the temporary Executive Director amid sudden leadership shakeups in 2021, has no plans to stay quite so busy just yet.
“I promised my husband that I’d take at least a three-month sabbatical,” Poarch told Free Press. “So that’s the only thing on my schedule right now.”
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
