2014 Winners of New Urbanism Film Festival

Announcing the winners of the 2014 New Urbanism Film Festival.  Film receiving awards and honorable mentions will be screened in Dallas TX at the 23rd Annual Congress for the New Urbanism.

The Congress for the New Urbanism Award for Best of Fest

Big Kids, Little City

“Big Kids, Little City” is a web series developed by Envision Utah.  The series examines urban design concepts through the eyes of children.  They ask kids to explain concepts like density, pedestrian friendly streets, or transit oriented development, and then animate the explanations or have adult actors re-enact the explanations.  In this series, kids teach us that “‘pedestrian-friendly’ means not running people over.”  For the simple and effective and fun take on city planning, we award Big Kids Little City the top prize, the CNU Award for Best of Fest.

Best Urban Design Film

The Bus Stop: London’s Agent of Change

The Bus Stop: London’s Agent of Change re-imagines the bus stop.  First they look at the function and realize it is a transition place. Where the pedestrian become a transit rider.  And to make the change, we need to make it comfortable for change.  The next question was how can we make the bus stop a place where people want to be and where the bus also happens to stop.  The isolated take on a common urban fixture, inspires us to re-imagine other elements of urban design with new eyes, and for that reason we award it the Best Urban Design Film of 2014

Best Bicycling Film

Power to the Pedals

 Power to the Pedals tells the story of Wenzday Jane and her company Metro Pedal Power.  Her company consists of several cargo bikes and trikes which she uses to collect recycling, haul compost, and deliver CSA boxes.  Power to the Pedals does not limit bicycle advocacy to safety and transportation issues, rather it demonstrates the role the bicycle can play in economic development and how it can empower an individual’s resilience.

Best Healthy Cities Film

Oak & Scott: Pausing at High Speed

Oak & Scott is one intersection in San Francisco.  Pausing at High Speed tells the story of this intersection, how it shapes history and how it has been shaped by history.  From highway removal, to “the wiggle,” long term residents of this intersection have seen urban design right outside their front door. Rather that tout changes of city wide plans or regional development systems, this film brings home city planning to how it effects residents. And for that we award it 2014 Best Healthy Cities Film.

Best Walkability Film

Walk, Don’t Walk

Walk, Don’t Walk is a comedy where Andy Boenau plays all the characters involved in street design: city planner, engineer, professor, advocate, protester, yadda yadda yadda. The overall tone of the film is that modern street design discriminates against children.  It advocates for street design that is more inclusive and makes the streets comfortable for and usable by children, the elderly, everyone.  For that reason, we award Walk, Don’t Walk Best Walkability Film 2014.

Emerging Ideas Award

BUSted! Storytelling Show

BUSted! features true tales from people who ride the bus in Los Angeles. The stories are hilarious and often cathartic.  The stories delighted audiences while letting them know that even though the bus can be creepy at times, there are regular people on the bus.  Regular people who just might be performing later at the New Urbanism Film Festival.  For that reason we are happy to give BUSted! the Emerging Ideas Award.

The winners of the 2014 New Urbanism Film Festival will be screened in Dallas and elsewhere around the country for the next year as part of the Best of New Urbanism Film Ferstival.  These films are helping transform cities around the world.