2024 Bonneville T120 Awarded as Grand Prize
After a 6-month tour showing ten films in six cities across the United States, the VAHNA Magazine film festival has concluded with the top three films announced, including the Overall Winner and grand prize recipient of a 2024 Triumph Bonneville T120motorcycle.
In May of 2023 VAHNA Magazine and Journal (formerly META Magazine) launched the inaugural VAHNA Motorcycle Film Festival presented by Triumph Motorcycles. This annual film competition and festival tour celebrates the art of motorcycle cinematography and offers aspiring filmmakers a platform to showcase their unique storytelling abilities and creative vision to the world.
2023 Winning Films
Grand Prize
Film: “Chance”
Director: Chris Lomartire
Prize: 2024 Triumph Bonneville T120
Description:
“Chance,” is a mini-documentary on Chance Cleary, an Afghanistan war veteran who served in the early 2010’s. During his deployment, Cleary was critically injured during an ambush when a bomb went off under his vehicle. Among an array of other injuries, doctors advised him to have his leg amputated.
To this day, Chance races motocross around the country with a prosthetic leg. Chance has found that racing dirt bikes is a way to clear his mind from the trauma he endured and allows him to live life in the moment.
View the winning film “Chance” here: https://vahna.com/pages/filmfestivalfinalists
1st Runner Up
Film: “Cut Short Rides On”
Director: Connor Buss
Prize: Product vouchers from sponsors REV’IT, Bell Helmets, and Danner boots and a one-year subscription to VAHNA magazine (ARV: $1,500 USD).
Description:
“Cut Short Rides On” is a biography of Donovan Mitchell, a motocross rider who worked his way through amateur ranks to land a spot on the Factory KTM Team. A rising star, Mitchell’s career was cut short by a spinal cord injury just one year later. The film chronicles Donovan’s early life, his devastating injury, his journey through depression, and life after paralysis.
2nd Runner Up
Film: “Korta”
Director: Nick Dean
Prize: Product vouchers from sponsors REV’IT, Bell Helmets, and Danner boots and a one-year subscription to VAHNA magazine (ARV: $1,000 USD).
Description:
The short documentary “Korta” follows Kortel (AKA: “Korta – T”) Autrey a stuntman from Watts, Los Angeles with a dream to influence inner-city youth away from gang violence, Autrey uses motorcycle riding, racing, and stunting to show youth in his community what they’re capable of.
Film Selection
In May of 2023 a VAHNA panel selected 9 submissions as official 2023 Motorcycle Film Festival nominees from all qualified entries. The remaining qualified films were published on the festival website where fans voted for the 10th and final nominated film.
The 10 total selected films were shown in theaters during a 6-city US tour between October 2023 through April, 2024. The inaugural festival cities included Atlanta, Denver, Scottsdale, Costa Mesa, Austin, and Portland. Each event was open to the public with the films voted on by guest judges in each city.
Triumph Sponsorship
From classics pictures such as The Great Escape and The Wild One, to modern blockbusters like Jurassic World and 007’s No Time To Die, motorcycles in film have helped inspire generations on new riders. Triumphs have been prominently featured in many iconic motorcycle moments in film and television, such as the aforementioned. With this legacy in mind and to help ensure motorcycles in film continue to inspire the next generation of riders, Triumph proudly supports this important film festival dedicated to motorcycles.
Chris Lomartire – Director & Editor – “Chance”
“Being a part of the Vahna Film Festival was an awesome experience and something I am very grateful for! Joseph Beckham, the director of photography on the film, and I have been friends for some time and have followed Vahna over the years! We knew Chance’s story needed to be shared and this festival was a perfect outlet for people to experience a short glimpse of his story.”
Andrew Campo – Co-Founder & Publisher, VAHNA
“When we announced the VAHNA Motorcycle Film Festival in partnership with Triumph Motorcycles this time last year, we were venturing into a new lane. A lane that opened us to opportunities to further connect, activate within, and support both community and creatives alike. Countless hours were spent watching films, organizing venues, and traveling to six different cities across the country for screenings. In doing so we witnessed an idea come to fruition and personally that was very rewarding. We took a lot of notes along the way in effort to improve on things in the future, but I feel strongly that we built a solid foundation to expand upon. I want to thank each and every contestant that helped to make this possible, Adam Vanderveen and his team from Triumph Motorcycles for helping to shape and support this vision. We want to thank every person who stepped through theatre doors and to all the venue owners for opening your doors to us.
I would of course like to thank our incredible partners 805 Beer, REV’IT!, Danner, Bell, Rider Justice, Revzilla, Condition 1 and MotoTV. We truly appreciate you all, as did our attendees.
Congratulations to our top three finalists, each and every film in the top three gave me goosebumps, I loved watching the audience react to all of the finalists. To me that is extremely powerful and an indicator to what’s to come in the near future.”
Adam VanderVeen – Marketing Director, Triumph Motorcycles America
“When the festival launched, I couldn’t wait to see all of the talented cinematographers and story tellers gain a voice through this new platform. After seeing the films in a theater setting and sitting alongside the motorcycle community, I’ve been blown away by the level of talent that has been displayed. Not only does this festival show off the passion for motorcycling, but it also brings the local riding community together to share in the experience. We are so proud of what VAHNA and team have created and we look forward to what we’ll see in 2024.”
SOURCE: TRIUMPH
