The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) revealed the award winners of its 26th edition on Saturday (Nov. 25), ahead of the 2023 festival’s closing day on Nov. 26.

Acclaimed filmmaker Peter Mettler’s latest, While the Green Grass Grows (Canada/Switzerland; pictured), took the Grand Prize in the National Feature Competition, adding another trophy to its awards tally after taking top prize at DOK Leipzig in October.

The Special Jury Prize in the category went to Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon), filmmaker Khoa Lê’s exploration of the queer community in Vietnam’s capital. The latter film also received this year’s Women Inmate Jury Award, which is presented by a jury composed of six inmates from Quebec’s Joliette federal women’s penitentiary.

In the festival’s New Visions Competition, which highlights notable first features, the top prize went to Meezan (Canada/Iran), director Shahab Mihandoust’s study of manual laborers in southwestern Iran. The Magnus-Isaacson Award, which recognizes socially conscious filmmaking, was presented to La Guardia Blanca (Canada) from director Julien Elie, which spotlights Mexican farmers’ resistance to the neocolonial appropriation of their land and resources.

The Grand Prize in RIDM’s International Feature Competition went to Knit’s Island (France), from co-directors Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier and Quentin L’helgoualc’h. Premiered earlier this year at Visions du Reél in Switzerland, the film explores an online survivalist game where players from all over the world have formed their own virtual communities, and who gradually reveal their real-life fears and fantasies to the filmmaking team via their avatars. Vienna-based sales company Square Eyes is handling international distribution for the doc.

The Special Jury Prize in the International Feature Competition was awarded to João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora’s Crowrã (Brazil/Portugal), an embedded documentary on the Indigenous Krahô people of Brazil. A special mention was also accorded to This Woman (China/Malaysia), by director Alan Zhang.

The full list of award winners for RIDM 2023 can be found at the festival’s website.

This story originally appeared in Realscreen