The National Screen Institute (NSI) has announced the winners of its Online Short Film Festival, including a prize for director Ashley McKenzie who won the Shaw Media Fearless Female Directors Award for her short Stray.

Stray tells the story of a nine-year old girl who struggles to find an object for her tenderness inside the confines of a tough domestic environment. The Shaw Media Fearless Female Directors Award includes a $1,000 cash prize.

The A&E Short Filmmakers Award and its $1,250 cash prize went to director Andrew Moir for his short film Just As I Remember, about two fathers living with ALS who must make choices that will change their children’s lives. The short also won the $1,500 Blue Ant Media Documentary Award for best doc.

Finally, the Brian Linehan Actors Award went to Kwak Ji-Min for her role in And the Sun, a teen love story set in Korea, which is both written and directed by Samuel Kiehoon Lee.  The award includes a $1,000 cash prize.

The awards selection jury consisted of filmmaker and programmer Shannon Hanmer, programmer and industry professional Joy Loewen and filmmaker Aidan Shipley, who won the A&E Short Filmmakers Award for Dorsal in the October round of prize-giving for the NSI Online Short Film Festival.

The NSI Online Short Film Festival prizes are presented four times a year. Other winners from the October round were Hannah Yohannes for Home Away, Joe Pingue for Chili & Cheese: A Condimental Rift and Tyler Parr for his performance in Ironied.