Montreal Independent Film Festival: Winners of Fall Season 2021
According to a press release, the online seasonal festival brings together emerging and established names in the film industry to compete in various categories and be promoted and screened online. The award winners of the season and the official selections can request to promote and screen films on Montreal Independent Film Channel throughout the season.
Finally, the winners and finalists have been announced and we’re excited to share them with you.
Best Narratives
Krisztian Kery’s Native American period piece SOOYII took home the prize for Best Narrative Feature. Translated as “mysterious being” in Blackfoot, SOOYII follows the story of a young Pikuni Man as he struggles to survive in the face of disease, the loss of his family, old enemies, new discoveries and a rapidly changing world.
Eyal Kantor’s short film Georgian Love Story won Best Narrative Short for depicting 1930’s Georgia when it was under Soviet rule. The film follows Georgie as she navigates forbidden love that forces her to harbor a dark secret.
The winner of Best Short Documentary went to Michael Morash for his gripping documentation of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth First Nations tribe fight to decolonize their indigenous education. In New-Chah-Nulth: Reclaiming Tradition, the tribe integrates language, tradition, and land-based skills into their school curriculum, in order to save their culture from the brink of extinction.
Best of the best
For the horror category, Stan Papulkas’ Highway 13 came out on top. It’s the fall of 1962, Alex and Glenda have been travelling a long time, totally unaware of the road they are on is referred to as “The Bermuda Triangle of the North“. For the last 100 years, people have been disappearing along Highway 13 in Alberta. What awaits Alex and Glenda may not necessarily be from this dimension.
Best Comedy honors quickly went to Vincent Orst’s rolicking Our Last Summer which follows six guy friends in their thirties who leave their women and children for a week to relive their first holidays. They soon realize that they are not as young as they thought they were or fully mature to claim the rank of adult.
The world wide web was also grounds for award-winning filmmaking as Lauren McCann’s’s Girl Boxer took the top prize for Best Web and TV Pilot. In the realm of science fiction, Kairos, Qualitative Time brought won for Carlos Scasso’s exhilarating chronicle of Isacaar racing to protecting something greater than his ideals.
Strong ideals
Other awards focused on topics with much more weight. When it came to the environment, Oscar Corral’s The Fellowship of the Springs captured Florida’s artesian springs in trying times despite being one of the world’s natural wonders. The state contains the largest and highest concentration of fresh water springs on earth. But today, the future of Florida’s springs is uncertain.
As for human rights, director Teresa Turiera-Puigbò accepted the award for her arresting There’s Still Someone in the Woods. During the Balkan wars, between 25,000 and 50,000 women were victims of sexual violence. Lejla, Alen, Ajna are children born as a result of rape. 25 years later, they join survivors in their struggle to break the silence and overcome stigma.
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Which of these films do you think will make it all the way to Oscar season? Let us know in the comments!
