Vancouver: Appropriately, a feature about downhill skiers won the Audience Award for best feature film at the fourth annual Whistler Film Festival that, after a four-day run in December, handed the prize to Crazy Canucks by Alberta director Randy Bradshaw. The pic, about the successes of the men’s alpine team in the 1970s, played as the opening gala at Whistler and is expected to air on CTV next year.

Pink Ludoos, a comedy set in Victoria’s Little India, won honorable mention for director Gaurav Seth, while the irreverent doc Papal Chase by Toronto filmmaker Kenny Hotz (Kenny vs. Spenny) took the inaugural $10,000 Philip Borsos Award, open to Canadian productions that debut at the festival. The CBC Newsworld Best Documentary Award went to ScaredSacred, director Velcrow Ripper’s pilgrimage to the Ground Zeros around the globe, while the Best Adventure Film Award went to Call It Karma and director Geoff Browne.

Boxing Day Classic by writer Kirby Morrow won the $20,000 Short Scripts contest and two pics tied for the $500 CBC ZeD Audience Award for Best Short – Film: Man Feel Pain by Dylan Akio Smith and A Russian Wave by Becky Bristow.

According to organizers, attendance at Whistler hit 5,000 – with 15 of the 33 screenings sellouts.

-www.whistlerfilmfestival.com