NYC DFF IV: Meet the 10 Winners of One of the Most Competitive Drone Film Festivals in the World

This year’s fourth annual New York City Drone Film Festival featured some of the most incredible drone videos we’ve ever seen.

Christian (partner course instructor), Alan, Lana, and Zacc

There were some impressive panels on Saturday, especially one on drones and the law that we found really helpful.

Tip from a drone lawyer on the panel: Do your research. With so many new city and county drone laws popping up, you could cross a jurisdictional line and suddenly be violating a law in one city that doesn’t exist in the city where you took off.

We were also proud to be a media sponsor of the NYC DFF for the first time this year:

But it was Skydio that stole the show over the weekend, with their new fully autonomous R1 drone.

Alan with the Skydio R1

The R1 maps and interprets the world in real time, so you can start it flying and take off running, cycling, kayaking, doing parkour—you get the picture—and it will follow behind you autonomously, without anyone at the controls.

On Sunday at the Liberty Science Center, Skydio did a demo in the main stairway that featured a dancer interacting with their autonomous drone.

And of course, the videos were incredible this year.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the winners of this year’s fourth annual New York City Drone Film Festival.

Extreme Sports & Best in Show

“Quattro 2” by Candide Thovex

News and Docs

“The Big Ugly” by Maquina Voadora

X-Factor

“Kingdom of the Wild” by Mike Bishop

Freestyle FPV

“Muscle Up” by Robert McIntosh

Narrative

Donny the Drone” by Mackenzie Sheppard

Landscape and Architecture

“Ottsjo NY Air and Timelapse” by Marcus Muller

Dronie

“The Last Dronie” by Chris Castor

Featuring Drones

“Boston Rising” by The Famous Group / Strato Aerial

Still Photography

“Football Island” by Brent de Bleser

Showreel

“AirV8” by Holger Hirsch

Keep in mind that these are just the winning videos—all of the nominated videos this year were incredible, and well worth watching. When the competition is this stiff, just getting nominated is an honor.

The quality of work presented at the festival was some of the very best drone videography in the world. We can’t wait to see what next year brings.

Zacc Dukowitz

Contributing Writer

A writer with professional experience in education technology and digital marketing, Zacc Dukowitz is passionate about reporting on the drone industry at a time when UAVs can help us live better lives. Zacc also holds the rank of nidan in Aikido, a Japanese martial art, and is a widely published fiction writer. Zacc has an MFA from the University of Florida and a BA from St. John's College. Follow @zaccdukowitz or check out zaccdukowitz.com to read his work.