The 2023 Trekzone Fan Film Awards hit the airwaves (streamwaves?) at 7:30am AEST on Monday, July 10, 2023, with the show being a live presentation as part of Trekzone’s 20th Anniversary.

Nineteen awards were given out, it was not easy to do this year, there was a bit of chaos to get through that put the awards in doubt but once that was over and done with, it was down to going through the fan films and the competition was fierce.

We had fan films of all different shapes and sizes to consider, from full cast productions to all computer graphics ones, long fan films and short ones from ones in English to ones in German, we had it all.

Planning for this year’s awards started as soon as eligibility for 2022 closed and so that means whatever shape any 2024 awards will be in has already begun and creators are already pumping out the fan films.

Awards are difficult to judge, and this year was no exception, there were no easy decisions like Best Story, it was going back and forth between 359 and Psioduel, each had something to offer, it came down to Psioduel’s ending that gave them the nod, it was clever, naughty and humorous.

Thanks to the many fan film creators for not doing any lobbying during the process, it was a nice, smooth, easy process with nobody begging to be a winner.

Many thanks to Matt for doing all the visual work and putting up with any fan film creator made chaos and my numerous script requests and many thanks to everybody who hit the right buttons to make the show go smoothly.

So here for your love and affection to give are all the winners of the 2023 Trekzone Fan Film Awards and why.

Best Production House

Potemkin Pictures is a quality factory of Star Trek, they may not have the expansive sets of Warp 66 and Neutral Zone Studios but the amount of quality work they put out with different starship crews and the occasional Klingon one is really admirable, even inspiring that anybody if they got the determination can make something special on home turf.

Best Supporting Actor

Tom Erdmann as Lt. Commander Aigan DiFalco for Next in Line plays his role perfectly,
we got the feeling that he was the perfect foil for Commander Harriman especially at the end when Commander Harriman thrusts more power upon Lt. Commander DiFalco.

Best Supporting Actress

Sarah Johnson plays the Ensign role perfectly in 359, you get the feeling that she is
overwhelmed by the situation that had taken place at Wolf 359 and the frantic effort
to reunite with Starfleet personel.

Best Actor

Adam Zammiello as Commander Tyson Zahn, he goes from being a Commander to being the Captain of the survivors of Wolf 359 as he seeks to unite everybody and get them out of their predicament, something that Starfleet had never faced on that scale before.

Best Actress

Emma Thorne gave the perfect portrayal of an enthusiastic young ensign eager to make their mark in Starfleet, a million thoughts a second, the confidence, the uncertainty, it was the complete package, therefore worthy of being our winner.

Best Short Fan Film

Commanders of Starfleet was the perfect tribute to the serial days of cinema or the early days of
Science Fiction on TV, I believe that if you stuck the film in rotation with other similar films,
people would have trouble figuring out its a modern piece of art.

Best Fan Film

359 was our choice for Best Fan Film, it adds to the famous Battle of Wolf 359 that has enchanted Star Trek fans for many years.

Voyager and Deep Space Nine opened the door on the subject of battle survivors and 359 gave it new depth because you always wondered what happened after Starfleet personnel abandoned ship.

Best Editor

Dave Ellis entered the Fan Film scene and put together a great first effort, 359 was risky but it was worth taking the chance on expanding upon an iconic storyline.

Best Story

Jan “Sokar” Krátký’s story for Psioduel was one that lived up to its title and the way the film was wrapped up was an interesting solution.

Best Costume

The Starfleet uniforms in Reciprocity were unique, the black uniforms gave the Caliborn crew a certain level of mystique, in a way it matches the Caliborn perfectly as both have that aura of power about them.

Best Villain

The Romulans in Star Trek Sirius destroyed the USS Drexler and were eager to deliver the USS Enterprise the same fate, the Romulan Commander was just as troublesome as the one in the classic episode “Balance of Terror”.

Best Re-imagined Character

Markus Bennewart as Captain Christopher Pike in Starfleet Legends Act II, Markus played the role of Captain Pike with authority, you can see it the way he stands and talks and you just identify him as a leader of the captains that are with him.

Best Music

Nicholas Gardner’s music in Resistance really gave the fan film that extra punch, music can kick a film up a notch and Nicholas’ music done that.

Best Gag Reel

Next in Line’s gag wheel hit the right spot, from the burp to the knocking over of the cup, it is always good to see fan films having fun especially when it is unintentional.

Best Hero Ship

The USS Euderion showcases the beautiful Akira class design and fans get to enjoy the interior of the ship as well as the exterior.

Best Make Up

Dagmar Singer, Silke Pursche and Antje Simon’s make up work in Starfleet Legends Act II was good especially when it came to showing the injuries that were suffered by the crew.

Best Director

Aaron Vandekley is one of the best directors in the Star Trek fan film world and “Resistance” was made to excellence and capped off a great trilogy of fan films.

Best VFX

The VFX in Sirius by Steve Neill and Matt Boardman was excellent, the use of the Constitution Class model by Chris Martin who is also known as The Evil Genius was great, the Romulan ship was beautiful, I did like seeing the CGI Enterprise decks.

Award Totals

359 – 5
Next in Line – 3
Potemkin Pictures – 2
Starfleet Legends Act II – 2
Star Trek Sirius – 2
Resistance – 2
FSFilm – 1
Chaos at the Neutral Zone – 1
Commanders of Starfleet – 1