2015 Neuro Film Festival Winners

Farrah J. Mateen, M.D., from Cambridge, Mass., is the grand prize winner of the 2015 Neuro Film Festival, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has announced. Mateen’s short film, titled “The Curse: The Bhutan Epilepsy Project” depicts epilepsy in the remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, a place where much superstition and faith surrounds treatment of the disease. Selected by a panel of judges, the video beat out 65 other entries. Mateen won $1,000 and a trip to Washington D.C.

See Mateen’s video here:

The runner-up award went to a video by Pamela Hogan from New York, NY, for a touching and personal glimpse at Laury Sacks, a mother, actress, and writer, who at the age of 46, gets a crushing diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia but wants her story told. Second place received $500, and a trip to D.C.

See Hogan’s video, “Looks Like Laury, Sounds Like Laury” here:

Jennifer Cody, from Richardson, Texas, won the “Fan favorite” award for her video titled, “Changing the Face of Parkinson’s,” which aims to show a different side of living with the disease. The fan favorite was chosen by public voting on video entries.

See Cody’s video here:

The film festival contest runs annually to help raise awareness for research toward cures for brain diseases, such as dementia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. All three films were screened at the AAN’s 67th Annual Meeting this week in Washington, D.C.