Bensimon Byrne's "Short Life Stories" Wins ONE Screen Best of Show

Feb. 06, 2025

"Short Life Stories", created by Bensimon Byrne Toronto on behalf of White Ribbon, is the top winner in the global 2024 ONE Screen Short Film Festival, the premiere short film festival produced by The One Club for Creativity celebrating global filmmakers from both commercial advertising and film industries.

"Short Life Stories" tells a fictional story of a young trans woman as she celebrates the beginning of her new life and navigates the obstacles that ensue.  

The work was selected by a global jury as 2024 ONE Screen Best of Show and Best of Region: North America, as well as winner in the Best Casting, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Fiction, and Best Music Composition disciplines.  

Klick Health Toronto also had a strong year with five ONE Screen wins. They include three for “47” on behalf of Café Joyeux (in Best Animation, Best Branded Entertainment Film, and Best Production Design), and two for “American Cancer Story” on behalf of Change the Ref (in Best Directing and Best Drama).

Other 2024 ONE Screen winners are as follows.

Craft winners

• Best Emerging Filmmaker: Parker Schmidt Santa Monica “Bowl of Life”
• Best Screenplay: Zulu Alpha Kilo Toronto “Living From Work” for Zulubot
• Best Type on Poster: Lucky Together New York “Don't F*ck With Ba” 
• Best Visual Effects: Candice Wu Los Angeles “Erasure”

Genre winners

• Best Branded Content Film: Stink Films Berlin “The First Speech” for Reporters Without Borders
• Best Comedy: FCB Chicago “The Last Barf Bag” for Dramamine 
• Best Experimental Film: Parker Schmidt Santa Monica “Bowl of Life”
• Best Independent Film: Violeta Films Mexico City “The Mark on the Wall” for Anderson Wright
• Best Music Video: Kyle Gilmour Provo “Lonely World - A Dance Film”
• Best Non-Fiction/Documentary: FCB Chicago “The Last Barf Bag” for Dramamine
• Best Student Film: FH Salzburg “Drip”

Regional winners

• Best of Region-APAC: Publicis Communications Beijing “The Song of My Life” for Huawei (Runnerup: OPPO Shenzhen “For Moments You Have to Get Right” for OPPO Reno11 Pro)

There were no regional winners for Europe or Latin America. A showcase of all winners can be viewed here.  

ONE Screen is a global festival that recognizes numerous forms of short films, including narrative fiction, comedy, passion projects, commercials, branded content, music videos, spec work, animation, sound design, movie poster design, title sequences, and more.  

The mission of the program — which typically receives entries from upwards of 45 countries — is to celebrate filmmakers working in both the film and ad industries, with no limitation and total artistic freedom, all on one screen.  

ONE Screen has its pedigree in The One Club’s prestigious One Show, a leading global awards program for advertising and design. The One Show was the first ad industry awards competition to recognize original branded content, creating the separate new category of Branded Entertainment in 2003 to accommodate the first work from BMW Films. The ONE Screen Short Film Festival was launched in 2011 to further honor creative excellence in film.