The dark comedy The Touch of the Master’s Hand won the Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The announcement was made Tuesday evening (February 2) during the Sundance virtual awards ceremony.
The short follows a young Mormon missionary who must confess to church leaders that he has a pornography addiction. It was written and directed by Gregory Barnes. The cinematographer on the short was San Antonio native and filmmaker Fidel Ruiz-Healy (The Homefront), a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
The Touch of the Master’s Hand was produced by The American Standard Film Co., a collective of filmmakers that work together on each other’s projects. Ruiz-Healy co-founded ASFC alongside Jordan Michael Blake and Tyler Walker.
“It’s a crazy feeling to say the least,” Ruiz-Healy told the Current after the win. “If you find your voice and find the best way to tell stories that are true, it will pay off. Our team has done nothing else but focus on our work and craft. We can’t wait for things to get back to a semblance of normal, so we can keep making films for years to come.”
Since last summer, Ruiz-Healy has been back in San Antonio working on the script with his brother for a short horror-comedy set on the Rio Grande. Once the pandemic is over, he’s not sure if it means he will move back to New York City for commercial work or stay closer to home to make movies.
“I need to figure out what the next chapter of filmmaking is for me,” he said.
Whatever that next chapter is, Ruiz-Healy can now add cinematographer of a Sundance award-winning film to his résumé.
For more information on The American Standard Film Co. and to see more of its projects, visit its website.
Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.
The short follows a young Mormon missionary who must confess to church leaders that he has a pornography addiction. It was written and directed by Gregory Barnes. The cinematographer on the short was San Antonio native and filmmaker Fidel Ruiz-Healy (The Homefront), a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
The Touch of the Master’s Hand was produced by The American Standard Film Co., a collective of filmmakers that work together on each other’s projects. Ruiz-Healy co-founded ASFC alongside Jordan Michael Blake and Tyler Walker.
“It’s a crazy feeling to say the least,” Ruiz-Healy told the Current after the win. “If you find your voice and find the best way to tell stories that are true, it will pay off. Our team has done nothing else but focus on our work and craft. We can’t wait for things to get back to a semblance of normal, so we can keep making films for years to come.”
Since last summer, Ruiz-Healy has been back in San Antonio working on the script with his brother for a short horror-comedy set on the Rio Grande. Once the pandemic is over, he’s not sure if it means he will move back to New York City for commercial work or stay closer to home to make movies.
“I need to figure out what the next chapter of filmmaking is for me,” he said.
Whatever that next chapter is, Ruiz-Healy can now add cinematographer of a Sundance award-winning film to his résumé.
For more information on The American Standard Film Co. and to see more of its projects, visit its website.
Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.
