CHARLOTTSEVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Virginia Film Festival organizers are celebrating successes of films that were part of last fall’s event nominated for, and winners of, Academy Awards this past weekend. Festival Artistic Director Ilya Tovbis said there were 34 total nominations across films played at October’s event, including opening night Anora with five awards including Best Picture. And Best Actress winner Mikey Madison spoke after the screening in Charlottesville.

Another winner was the festival’s feature family film, Flow, a small independent Latvian film with no dialogue about a cat. Tovbis said if someone had said before that would win Best Animated Feature, it might have cocked some eyebrows.

Festival centerpiece film Emilia Perez won two Oscars, one for Best Original Song “El Mal”, and Best Supporting Actress in Zoey Saldana. I’m Still Here was the first Brazilian production to win Best International Feature film.

The Virginia Film Festival is accepting entries right now where you can click here for all the information on its 38th annual run October 22-26.