Toronto director Laurie Townshend’s feature documentary, A Mother Apart, was the big winner at the 2024 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival in Toronto, picking up three top awards.

The winners for the 34th edition of the festival were announced on Monday (June 3), with $22,500 handed out in prizes. The festival took place in-person at the TIFF Lightbox from May 24 to June 1 and ends today with its virtual section.

A Mother Apart (Oya Media Group, NFB) won the international-juried Best First Feature and the Canadian-juried Best Canadian Feature awards as well as the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Writer-director Susie Yankou’s Sisters, which made its world premiere at the festival, won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.

The Best First Feature and the Best Canadian Feature awards each come with a $3,000 cash prize. The Audience Award has a cash prize of $2,500.

Canadian juried award winners also include Hayley Morin, who won the Emerging Canadian Artist award with a $5,000 cash prize for the short, I’ll Tell You When I’m Ready, and Simon Gualtieri’s Friend of a Friend (Ami d’ami), which won Best Canadian Short and a $2,000 cash prize.

Canadian jury members included Syriah Bailey, Beth Warrian, and Jay Wu. Loveleen Kaur, V.T. Nayani, and Alex Schmider made up the international jury.

Gianna Mazzeo’s The History of the Carabiner won the Audience Award honour for Best Short, along with a $1,000 cash prize.

Andrew Chappelle’s project I’m Gonna Kill You won the Pitch, Please! competition and a $5,000 cash production grant, while Lou Goossens took home the Leadership Circle Prize for Outstanding Performance for the feature Young Hearts, along with a $1,000 cash prize.

The 34th edition festival showcased 106 films from 25 countries, including 30 feature films and five world premieres.

Image courtesy of Inside Out