AWARD WINNERS & HONOURABLE
BEST ANIMATION 2023
BEST FILM
MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MARRIAGE
directed by Signe Baumane
A bold and brilliant animated feminist feature. Hungry for love and acceptance, Zelma feels incomplete. Hounded by a Greek chorus, she sets out on a 23-year quest for perfect love and a lasting marriage, unaware that her own biology is the force to be reckoned with.
BEST FOREIGN SHORT ANIMATION
DANCING AMID THE FIRE, RISING ABOVE THE RUINS
directed by Essmat Sophie
BEST NORTH AMERICAN ANIMATION
OUROBOROS
directed by Jennifer Linton
Ouroboros spins a loose narrative of joy, grief, death, and rebirth, all told through looping images printed on physical animation devices known as phonotropes. Like the ouroboros, a symbolic snake that devours its own tail, everything in life is a loop.
BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM
BEHIND THE LOOM
directed by Heejoo Kim
An experimental animated short about the impact of war on women, underscoring rape as a war crime. Told from the perspective of one family during the siege of Berlin in 1945. Heejoo’s films and installations have been presented at festivals and galleries internationally, including at FeFF.
BEST SHORT FILMS 2023
EXCAVATING THE TRUTH
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN PROGRAM
BEST FOREIGN SHORT
THE SILENT CANARY
directed by Vera Graziadei
Joy (12), a talented cellist and adoptee from China with selective mutism, forms an unlikely bond with rebellious Kat (15). Joy’s concerned white British mother is delighted to see her daughter happy. However, when Joy discovers that her new friend’s secret “boyfriend” is in fact Kat’s stepfather, Stuart, her own trauma resurfaces. Joy finally finds the strength to speak out, at her music school’s recital, exposing Stuart, who had previously molested her.
BEST NORTH AMERICAN SHORT
ESMERELDA
directed by Jennifer Greco
When a young woman, Esmeralda, returns to her native land to confront her mother about a traumatic childhood memory, she discovers an unbreakable bond through a shared experience.
INTERGENERATIONAL FAMILIAL RESPONSE
HONOURABLE MENTION
THE SUN IS UP FOREVER
directed by Charlene Jones
On a hot summer’s day, a young girl seeks to soak up the sun but finds her thoughts are preoccupied with her mother at home.
BEST FOREIGN SHORT 2023
CYCLE
directed by Çaybaşı
One day, a girl living in a village sees blood on her panties. She’s menstruating, but she doesn’t know what it is. She hesitates to ask anyone and tries to discover what is happening her own. She finally finds an answer, but that answer is only part of the cycle she’s in.
BEST NORTH AMERICAN SHORT
SEVENTEEN
directed by Geqi li
In a small town in California, a 17-year-old Chinese girl named Jasmine gets pregnant. She wants to have this baby, but her 35-year-old mother, an OnlyFans pornstar, insists on making Jasmine have an abortion. They fight all the way to the hospital only to discover that even though they resent each other, they are still each other’s most solid support.
LOVE SEX & IDENTITY PROGRAM
BEST NORTH AMERICAN SHORT
HONEY & MILK
directed by Dash Donato
Grayson and Alice spend a final weekend together to dismantle their domestic life as Grayson embarks on a journey of gender expansion.
BEST FOREIGN SHORT
MY OLD GALS
directed by Natasza Parzymies
Two elderly women reunite after 50 years and fight for the feelings they once shared.
THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL
I WAS BORN IN 1988
directed by Yasamna Baghban
This experimental documentary is a personal essay based on the executions of Iranian political prisoners that began in the summer of 1988, following the end of the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq. The relatives of these prisoners, called the Mothers of Khavaran, are a symbol of resistance and freedom.
BEST SHORT FILM IN A GALA PROGRAM
JUNIORS GIANT
directed by Paula Brancati
A close-knit grandfather and his trans granddaughter struggle when his dementia sparks an imaginary giant and gender confusion, causing pain for them both.
BEST DOCUMENTARIES 2023
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
THE BIG IDEA: INDIGENOUS ROBOTICS
directed by Sarah Klein and Tom Mason
After Ojibwe student Danielle Boyer joined the robotics team in high school, she realized how out of reach robotics are for low-income families. Since then, she’s made it her mission to create free robot kits to connect other Indigenous youth to the tech skills that will shape their futures.
BEST FOREIGN FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
BEYOND THE LIGHT BARRIER
directed by Uga Carlini
Based on the true story of South African meteorologist Elizabeth Klarer, who spent her days convincing the world that her alien lover from an advanced human race existed and held the solutions to all our problems here on Earth. Science or fiction? Definitely, one of the greatest science-fiction love stories of all time.
BEST CANADIAN FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
CATEGORY: WOMAN
directed by Phyllis Ellis
When 18-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya burst onto the world stage in 2009, her championship was not celebrated – it was marred by doubt, her medical records leaked to the international media and her body publicly scrutinized. The International Amateur Athletic Federation (now World Athletics) ruled that certain female athletes must medically alter their healthy bodies to compete, their naturally high androgen levels deemed a performance advantage. Category: Woman focuses on four athletes forced out of competition by these regulations, the devastation to their bodies and lives, and their conviction to stand up for their human rights. Phyllis Ellis (director of the award-winning Toxic Beauty) exposes an industry controlled by men putting women’s lives at risk while this policing of women’s bodies in sport remains, in a more nefarious way, under the guise of fair play.
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
MOST IMPACTFUL FILM 2023
THE NATURE OF HEALING
directed by Faith Leone Howe
The spoken truth of seven courageous Elders, all survivors of the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, Canada’s first and longest-running Indian residential school. From victims to survivors to activists, their story is one of resistance, resilience, and a healing path.
From 1831 to 1996, Canada’s 139 residential schools ran in partnership between the federal government and Catholic and Protestant churches. This was sanctioned, systematic dehumanization through neglect, brutality, and child abuse in all its forms. The desired outcome, according to Duncan Campbell Scott, who, as head of the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932, oversaw the schools: “I want to get rid of the Indian problem … our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question and no Indian department. That’s the whole object of this project.”
Welcome by Leslie-Ann Coles, FeFF Director. Opening Prayer with Rowan Smith followed by Eagle Women Singerz. Audience Q&A with Faith Leone Howe and honoured guests, Elder, Blanche Hill-Easton, Elder, John Elliott, Elder, Bud Whiteye and Grandmother's Dawn Hill, Roberta Hill, and Sherlene Bomberry and crew members, Michael Howe (executive producer/ cinematographer), Preston Carruthers (cinematographer/ editor), Alexa Perez (story editor/ additional editing) and Aidan Mitchell-Boudreau (composer). Closing Prayer with Rowan Smith followed by Eagle Women Singerz.
Proceeds from this screening will be donated to the Mohawk Village Memorial Park, located on five acres adjacent to the Mohawk Institute, in commemoration of all the children taken and institutionalized over the course of more than 160 years.
Na-mi-quai-ni-mak Community Support Fund - NCTR
...if you are fortunate enough to have some of the people from the film attend and have a Q and A, drop everything and attend...At the Arizona International Film Festival... This film is not to be missed! The Arizona Film Festival. Winner, Special Jury Award for Bridging Cultures THE NATURE OF HEALING, Canada
BEST FEATURE FILMS 2023
BEST DEBUT CANADIAN FEATURE
MONTRÉAL GIRLS
directed by Patricia Chica
A Middle-Eastern medical school student, new to Montreal, puts his relationship with his father at risk when he forfeits his education after being forever changed by two young women who help him see his destiny. Montréal Girls follows a young man’s journey and his quest for love, enlightenment, and his true calling.
BEST DEBUT FOREIGN FEATURE
GREY MATTER
directed by Arabella Burfitt-Dons
When a family’s matriarch gets diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she must move into the family home, and Chloe is forced to become a stay-at-home teenager overnight.
BEST NORTH AMERICAN FEATURE
MY HOME UNKNOWN
directed by Yaz Canli
After “Mina” (Yaz Canli), a gifted artist experiencing homelessness, loses the last thing she loves, her adorable dog “Burrito,” she is forced to battle through the downward spiraling journey of a mental health crisis to find HOME. Lost between fragments of her Muslim past and harsh realities of her present—from substance abuse and the loss of faith to abusive voices in her head—Mina must find a way to reconcile with deep grief and accept the kindness of others so she can start life anew. A raw and unflinching story of mental illness, life on the streets and the courage it takes to find a way home.
BEST OF SHOW
STELLA
directed by Jessica Fox
It is 1937, Scotland. Stella, a 20-year-old German Jewish student, finds work on a large country estate owned by the fascist Earl of Rig. With war looming and desperate to find her missing parents, Stella is quickly accepted as one of the family and must hide her true identity to survive. While there she falls in love, with life-changing consequences. Based on the folktale of Cinderella, championing the struggle for identity, home, and love, Stella is the tale of a refugee.
Writer, director, and producer Jessica Fox is the co-founder of Innerwell Media and the film-sector specialist for XpoNorth Digital in Scotland. She has more than 15 years of directing experience in film, theatre, and TV. She directed her first feature documentary, The First Last Tour, for The Dresden Dolls. Her memoir, Three Things You Need to Know about Rockets, is in development with Endeavor Content. Stella won Best Drama at the Melech Tel Aviv International Film Festival (2023) and Best First-Time Filmmaker at the Montreal Independent Film Festival (2022). Fox was the resident storyteller at NASA and co-hosts Fourth Wall, a podcast with NASA’s former chief knowledge officer.
BEST LATE NIGHT THRILLS & CHILLS SHORT
KICKSTART MY HEART
directed by Kelsey Bollig
After a brutal car accident, a young woman fights her mind’s three levels of hell to wake up again.
SPECIAL JURY PRICE
LATE NIGHT THRILLS & CHILLS FEATURE
SPOONFUL OF SUGAR
directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan
A disturbed babysitter experiences a sexual awakening while using LSD to alternatively treat a seemingly “sick” child from a family with dark secrets of their own. Mercedes Bryce Morgan is an award-winning queer Latina director and screenwriter. Her feature debut (Fixation) premiered at TIFF. Morgan has directed a variety of episodic series for different studios. Her script B1 made Tracking Board/Launch Pad’s 2017 Hit List and was runner-up at the 2018 Script Pipeline competition and BET’s Project Create. Her script ESC was a 2022 Script Pipeline finalist and a Nichols finalist. Her narrative music video “Happier” (Bastille and Marshmello) was nominated in 2019 for a Video Music Award and was #1 trending on YouTube globally the day of its release. Her work collectively has more than 1.5 billion views.
