Universal Language earns top Canadian film award at Vancouver International Film Festival
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The winners of the VIFF Audience Awards will be announced after the festival during the week of October 7.
“VIFF showcased an incredibly high calibre of talent this year, and our juries had the enviable but challenging task of agreeing on which films should receive awards,” said Kyle Fostner, executive director of VIFF in a statement. “Our jury members are fellow artists and industry leaders who weighed each film in competition with great care. And, while there can only be a few outstanding films selected, we want to acknowledge the overwhelming artistry and innovation present in every single official selection. It’s a true privilege to share VIFF’s highest honours with this year’s winning films, which resonated so strongly with our juries and audiences.”
Summit Award (Best Canadian Film)
$15,000 award presented by Directors Guild of Canada
Jury: Zarrar Kahn, Shane Smith, and Rebecca Steele
Winner: Universal Language. Director: Matthew Rankin
Jury statement: “The jury is pleased to recognize the SUMMIT Award to a film that reaches new heights within the landscape of Canadian cinema. It highlights Canadian cinema as a global force, while still championing a local culture that finds itself in transformation. This film was far from the most neutral experience of our lives.
Horizon Award (Emerging Canadian Director)
$3,000 award presented by Directors Guild of Canada
Jury: Yi Jung Chen, Chris Chong Chan Fui, and Jamila Pomeroy
Jury statement: “In their debut feature, this director created a beautiful portrait of a family experiencing grief in a new country and culture. The director has a pointed authorship both aesthetically and emotionally. The tone was both poetic and surreal, speaking to the complexities of familial love and grief.
Special Mention: Director Sanja Živković, Cat’s Cry
Tides Award (Best Canadian Documentary)
$15,000 award presented by ROGERS Group of Funds
Jury: Ana Belén Asfura Fuentes, Rachel M’Bon, and Corey Payette
Winner: Ninan Auassat: We, the Children, Director: Kim O’Bomsawin
Jury statement: “The film we chose for the TIDES Award offers a profound look at life through the eyes of youth, using breathtaking cinematography to reflect the cycles of nature and existence. The unfiltered stories of a new generation, filled with resilience, unfold with striking authenticity. The filmmaker’s approach feels both intimate and universal, capturing the essence of childhood and community in ways that are truly unique. The sound design and music weave through the narrative like a heartbeat. It is a portrait of life, as seen through the eyes of the next generation, where hope is not just a word, but a vision of the future.
Special Mention: Inay (Mama). Director: Thea Loo
Arbutus Award (Best BC Film)
$10,000 award presented by Creative BC
$15,000 in post-production services credit provided by Company 3
Jury: Jorge Amigo, Joella Cabalu, and Mila Zuo
Winner: Inay (Mama). Director: Thea Loo
Jury statement: “Our pick for the Arbutus Award is a bold and brave film that deeply affected our jury. This film offers a refreshing and layered lens on a familiar subject by showing the complexities of how flawed Canadian immigration policies impact families, intimate relationships, and people’s well-being.
Seamlessly weaving home videos, Super 8, and candid conversations, with glimpses of the hazy Philippine landscape, the director shows how memories of our homeland and unresolved trauma due to government enforced family separation are ever present and ongoing. With an uncontrived and restrained approach, this film models a pathway for healing and communication between loved ones across generations.
It left our jury with a sense of hope and excitement for this emerging filmmaker’s future. The jury is pleased to present the Arbutus Award for outstanding feature film produced in BC to Inay (Mama) by Thea Loo.”
Special Mention: The Stand. Director: Christopher Auchter
Short Forum Award
$5,000 award presented by NOVUS
Jury: Chris Hyde, Michael Scoular, and Pegah Tabassinejad
Winner: Strawberry Shortcake. Director: Deborah Devyn Chuang (Taiwan)
Jury statement: “Strawberry Shortcake impressed the jury immediately with its fully realized world, in which production design, performance, and camera direction can quickly pull us into a sense of safety and just as powerfully shatter it. Deborah Devyn Chuang is a director unafraid of taboos, and committed to a vision of cinema that can express the commonly unsayable and unthinkable. We’re pleased to recognize this striking short film and can’t wait to see the work still to come.”
Special Mention: Judas Icarus Twists His Wrist. Director: Kerr Holden (Canada)
Vanguard Award
$5,000 award presented by Lochmaddy Foundation
Jury: Hannah Baek, Miryam Charles, and Noé Rodríguez
Winner: 78 Days, dir. Emilija Gašić (Serbia)
Jury statement: “With striking ability to navigate an intimate family portrait, providing nuanced insights into sisterhood and parenthood, this film captivates from its very first scene. Yet the true accomplishment of this proposal emerges unexpectedly as the film unfolds, revealing a sophisticated understanding of the hybrid nature of film. Its precise editing yields a mesmerizing artifact where absence and presence weave a fractured coming-of-age story amid war.
Special Mention: Hanami. Director: Denise Fernandes (Switzerland, Portugal, Cape Verde)