ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN – BEFORE TOMORROW

Making clothes has been the life of costume design nominee Atuat Akkitirq, who hails from Igloolik, an Inuit community on a small island near Baffin Island. She owes her prowess to her mother, having helped her with sewing since the age of eight. As a member of Arnait Video Productions (Women’s Video Workshop of Igloolik), Akkitirq has been filling a number of roles, including cultural advisor, script consultant and actor.

‘Some of the clothing that we designed has been used by Inuit for thousands of years,’ says Akkitirq, who adds that most of what’s seen in Before Tomorrow is everyday wear as opposed to the traditional costumes. Speaking through an Inuktitut translator, she mentions that some of the costumes were also used in The Fast Runner and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, for which she also scored her first Genie costume design nomination.