Hey, Viktor! and Bones of Crows led the winners of the Weengushk International Film Festival (WIFF)’s annual gala on Manitoulin Island.

The annual northern Ontario festival celebrates domestic and international Indigenous talent, taking place from July 11 to 14.

Hey, Viktor! (North Country Cinema) won Best Narrative Feature Film and Best Actor during the WIFF Gala Awards on July 14, with both awards going to writer, director and star Cody Lightning. The mockumentary follows an aged child actor attempting to revive his career.

Bones of Crows (Marie Clements Media, Screen Siren Pictures, Grana Productions) won Best Director and Best Screenplay for Marie Clements. Produced as both a feature film and a limited series for CBC, Bones of Crows shows the intergenerational effects and traumas caused by residential schools in Canada.

Best Documentary Feature Film went to Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie’s Sugarcane (Kassie Films, Hedgehog Films). The doc examines an investigation into abuses at a residential school in Canada, and won a directing prize during its run at the Sundance Film Festival.

Additional winners include the U.S. documentary Lakota Nation vs The United States, with directors Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli earning the Special Jury Prize, and Australian short film The Alexander Ball for Best Short Documentary Film.

A number of individuals were honoured at the WIFF Gala Awards, including actor Tom Jackson with the Culture Enrichment Award; actor Lorne Cardinal and musician Tom Wilson with the Icon Award; former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine with the Award of Excellence; actor and activist Mark Ruffalo with the Humanitarian Award; and actor Lily Gladstone with the Special Jury Distinction Award.

Image courtesy of the Weengushk International Film Festival