Christmas came a little bit early for eight filmmakers this month when the 4th annual Minneapolis Underground Film Festival handed out its annual awards. The fest was held earlier this month on Dec. 2-4.

The big winner this year was Steven Strauss’ Bronze, which took home the Best Feature Award. The controversial film tackles the issue of female “consent” through the story of three teenage girls who leave the comfortable confines of their suburban New Jersey home for a wild night of wicked fun — but end up getting into way more trouble than they wanted.

Another major winner at the fest was Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane, which won the Best Experimental Award. Profane was also named this month as the Underground Film Journal’s Movie of the Year for 2011. The film, which combines experimental and traditional narrative filmmaking techniques, focuses on an emotionally lost female Muslim sex worker hoping to reconnect with her spirituality.

As far as the MUFF audiences were concerned, they handed two awards to the fest’s opening night film 30 Days 30 Films by Tyler Jensen, a local production and an anthology film that consists of exactly what the title says. 30 Days 30 Films won both the Largest Audience and the Audience Choice Awards.

Other winners include Francesca Araiza Andrade & Julia Ostertag‘s Noise & Resistance for Best Documentary and Syl Disjonk’s Ethereal Chrysalis for Best Short. Awards were also given out for Best Editing and Best Cinematography.

The complete list of winners is below. And to see a list of all the films that played at this year’s MUFF, please see the official lineup here.

Best Feature Award
Bronze, dir. Steven Strauss

Best Experimental Award
Profane, dir. Usama Alshaibi (Read the review)

Best Documentary Award
Noise & Resistance, dir. Francesca Araiza Andrade & Julia Ostertag

Best Short Award
Ethereal Chrysalis, dir. Syl Disjonk

Largest Audience Award
30 Days 30 Films, dir. Tyler Jensen

Audience Choice Award
30 Days 30 Films, dir. Tyler Jensen

Best Editing Award
Johnny Ghost, dir. Donna McRae

Best Cinematography Award
Simulacra, dir. Sumie Garcia

Best Soundtrack Award
Invincible Force, dir. Dan Shneidkraut