And the winners are
The 9th Annual Fort Myers Film Festival wrapped up last night with a dessert and champagne awards ceremony at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre. Each of the 89 films juried into this year’s festival were exceptional this year and deserving of accolades in many respects. But that didn’t deter Director Eric Raddatz and his team from the challenging task of choosing winners in seven categories … and the winners are:
Best Documentary: Where There is Darkness, directed by Sean Bloomfield and Cimela Kidonakis.- Best Feature: Surviving Lunch, directed by KT Curran, produced by Jerry Chambless, and starring Avery Arendes, Parker Padgett and Kaycie Lee.
- Best Short Film: Peggy, directed by Justin O’Neal Miller.
Best Short Short Film: Baghdad Photographer, directed by Mejd Hameed.- Best Student Film: Swift, directed by Byco Ri Kim, Hae Deun Woo and Ye Bin Ahn.
- Best Local Film: Eliades Ochoa From Cuba to the World, directed by Ruben Gomez and produced by Cynthia Biestek.
- Edison Award of Innovation: Fly Like a Girl, directed by Katie McEntire Wiatt.
The 
scores of cineastes who attended this year’s festival got to weigh in with a choice of their own and, voting via social media, they selected as Audience Favorite of the 9th Annual Fort Myers Film Festival #SLUT, directed by Jenna Kanell and written by and starring Sophia Watson.
Click on the foregoing hyperlinks for detailed information on the highlighted films and filmmakers. And return over the next few days for additional posts that feature this year’s films, filmmakers and the actors who 
breathed life into the pictures you most enjoyed.
April 15, 2019.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.