R un Woman Run, the sophomore feature from Six Nations, Ontario-based filmmaker Zoe Leigh Hopkins, took top honours at the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival (VIWFF) over the weekend.

The “magical dramedy” about a single mom won Best Feature, Best Screenplay for Hopkins and Best Performance for Dakota Ray Hebert in a virtual ceremony for the 17th annual VIWFF.

Produced by Laura Milliken, Paula Devonshire and Peter James Thornton, the feature previously won awards including Audience Choice at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

Other homegrown VIWFF winners included opening-night film Donkeyhead, which won Best Direction for Calgary-raised Agam Darshi, who also wrote and stars in the dramedy-comedy about an Indian-Canadian family. Darshi also produced, alongside Anand Ramayya and Kelly Balon of Canadian prodco KarmaFilm.

The feature film Impact Award went to Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ documentary Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, which also won Best Musical Score. Tailfeathers wrote, directed and produced the look at harm-reduction strategies in her southern Alberta community of Kainai First Nation.

Taking the Impact Award in the short film section was the German project I am Leo (Cangerfilms) from Tajo Hurrle, which also won Best Short and was produced by Patrick Büchting.

Switzerland’s Do You Remember Me? (20 Minuten) won Best Documentary and Best Cinematography for Helena Müller & Murat Temel. Best Documentary Honorable Mention went to the Korean Broadcasting System’s Granni-E-minem.

Other winners included Chen-Ching Lei for Best Editing on the Taiwanese film Mickey on the Road; Hanael Allam for Best Direction on the French short Mazel Brouk; Amélie Onzon for Best Performance in the short Clinch from the Netherlands, which also won Best Editing for Ellemieke Middelhoff; and Ai Chung for Best Cinematography on the U.S./China copro Wild Seed.

The Screenplay Competition winner was The Professor by Sandra Fox-Sohner and Maria Sigrist.

The festival, which took place from March 8 to 13, is produced by Women In Film and Television Vancouver (WIFTV).

“We are really proud of how well the awards reflect our intentions for the festival this year,” said Eli Morris, executive director of WIFTV, in a statement. “Our focus was on content that was ‘by and for,’ meaning the films are made by the communities they represent. The quality of all the films this year was exceptional.”

Image courtesy of VIWFF