FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Columbia, SC – October 18, 2025
Carol Higgins’ Pointé de Couture Wins Best Animated Short (Student) at THE ARTISTS FORUM Festival 2025 Festival of the Moving Image
Independent filmmaker Carol Higgins is thrilled to announce that her short film Pointé de Couture has been awarded Best Animated Short (Student Category) at the 10th annual THE ARTISTS FORUM Festival of the Moving Image, which took place in New York City. The film screened at the prestigious Dolby Screening Room in NYC where Higgins was present to receive the award in person at the festival’s event along with a nomination for the 2025 Jurors Award, also presented by THE ARTISTS FORUM 2025 Festival of the Moving Image.
About the Achievement
This award underscores the film’s distinctive blend of animation, musical storytelling, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Pointé de Couture challenges conventional fairytale narratives through historical research, autobiographical insight, and a deconstruction of Charles Perrault’s “Cinderella”. With this recognition from THE ARTISTS FORUM, Higgins joins an international cadre of filmmakers celebrated for innovative approaches to storytelling.
About the Film
Pointé de Couture is a non-linear, musical retelling and deconstruction of Charles Perrault’s classic tale of “Cendrillon” (Cinderella) – stripped of its magic and rebuilt through historical research as well as Higgins’ own autobiographical details. The film invites viewers to reconsider fairytale narratives and to reflect on how stories that reference history may distort or oversimplify events. By weaving in historically plausible details uncovered through research, the film suggests that what is often accepted as “truth” in literature and lore deserves closer examination. Drawing on an interdisciplinary process that blends archival study, cultural analysis, and the author’s personal memories, the film rewrites Cinderella through historical details grounded in reality to challenge Perrault’s version. By stripping away the fairy godmother myth, it re-centers the story around Rose, a dressmaker whose artistry is overshadowed and misattributed, raising questions about authorship, access to recognition, and the hidden systems that shape the stories we inherit.
About the Filmmaker
Carol Higgins is an interdisciplinary artist whose musical short films challenge stereotypes by intertwining autobiographical elements with the deconstruction of familiar stories. Her background spans music composition, fashion, performance, and computer programming, with training in systems analysis that informs the structural and conceptual rigor of her work. A graduate of Arizona State University’s Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance program and recipient of the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Fall 2024 Outstanding Undergraduate Award, Higgins continues to explore perception, memory, and authorship through interdisciplinary practice, developing projects that utilize the performance, design, storytelling, and analytical skills cultivated through her studies at ASU.
While living abroad in Bavaria, Germany, Higgins ran a boutique dressmaking shop where her work was often romanticized and identified as being completed (often overnight) by a “Fairy Godmother”. This misinterpretation, along with her travels through Europe, and memories of her mother (who first taught her to sew), sparked the inspiration behind Pointé de Couture.
Festival & Access
- NYC Premiere / In-Person Screening: October 17, 2025, Dolby Screening Room, NYC
- Online Festival Program: October 20, 2025 onward
- Festival Info: theartistsforum.org/film-fest-2025
Media Contact
Carol Higgins
iam@carolhiggins.art | 803-220-6327
Press kit, trailer, and high-resolution images available at: pointedecouture.com/press