Vancouver-based filmmaker Jason Karman’s feature directorial debut Golden Delicious and Toronto-based Cazhhmere Downey’s short I Remember Footprints in the Snow took top honours at the 2022 Reelworld Film Festival.

Karman won the festival’s $25,000 Outstanding Feature Film Award for Golden Delicious (pictured), which was written by Gorrman Lee and produced by Kristyn Stilling, while Downey landed the $10,000 Outstanding Short Film Award for writing and directing I Remember Footprints in the Snow.

Golden Delicious also won several other trophies: Karman took the $1,000 Outstanding Director for a Feature Film prize, Lee won the $1,000 Outstanding Writer for a Feature Film honour, and Cardi Wong got the $1,000 Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film award.

I Remember Footprints in the Snow also got another honour — for Nicole Nwokolo, who won Outstanding Actress in a Short Film, which comes with $750 cash and a one-year membership to WIFT-Toronto.

Golden Delicious was the opening night title for this year’s Reelworld Film Festival, which ran Oct. 12 to 18 and featured Canadian filmmakers who are Black, Indigenous, Asian, South Asian, and people of colour.

The festival also offered 13 additional cash and in-kind awards, which were juried by filmmaker TJ Cuthand; David Cormican, co-founder and president of Don Carmody Television, and head of production at Mogul Productions; filmmaker and VFX artist Phil Planta; director Pedro Díaz; and Nicole Mendes, VP of scripted development at Lark Productions.

Other winners announced during the festival awards show on Reelworld’s YouTube channel on Tuesday (Oct. 18) included Toronto-based Ivan Madeira, who nabbed the $1,000 Outstanding Producer for a Feature Film prize for Pattern. The award also comes with a free day of studio space with all-inclusive gear package from AstroLab Studios.

Ottawa-based Amir Zargara was named Outstanding Producer for a Short Film for More Than Hair. The prize comes with $750 cash and a one-year subscription of Movie Magic Scheduling from Entertainment Partners Canada.

Outstanding Writer for a Short Film went to Vancouver’s Tesh Guttikonda for Mom vs Machine. The honour also comes with $750 cash and a one-year subscription of Movie Magic Budgeting from Entertainment Partners Canada.

Landing the Outstanding Director for a Short Film prize, which comes with $750 cash and a free movie poster design consultation from Chargefield, was Vancouver’s Alireza Kazemipour for Split Ends.

Bite of a Mango won two prizes: the Audience Choice Award, which comes with $1,000 cash and a day of studio space at Asian Television Network Studios, and the Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film award for Jayne Kamara, which comes with $1,000 cash and a one-year membership to WIFT-Toronto.

Gitz Crazyboy received the $750 Outstanding Actor in a Short Film prize for Peace Pipeline.

Cinematography awards went to Kaveh Nabatian for the feature Kite Zo A (a $1,000 cash prize) and Gabriela Osio Vanden for the short Saturday Fuego Diablo (a $750 cash prize).

The Reelworld Screen Institute also honoured outstanding individuals in the Canadian screen industry. They included Nick Davis, executive director of equity and inclusion at CBC, who took the Visionary Award, and producer and actor Jennifer Podemski, who got the Award of Excellence.

Trailblazer Awards went to Barbara Lee, filmmaker and founder of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival; actor Joel Oulette; director and screenwriter Kelly Fyffe-Marshall; producer Shant Joshi; animator Sonya Carey; and photographer and filmmaker Jorge Camarotti.