Nova Scotia director Jason Buxton’s Sharp Corner led the winners for the 44th edition of the Atlantic International Film Festival (AIFF).

The feature walked away with two wins from the awards ceremony on Sept. 15, earning The Gordon Parsons Award for Best Atlantic Feature and the DGC (Director’s Guild of Canada) Award for Best Atlantic Director for Buxton. Both awards come with a $2,000 cash prize.

The Canada-Ireland coproduction was directed and written by Buxton. Producers on the film are Paul Barkin from Toronto’s Alcina Pictures, Marc Tetreault and Jason Levangie from Halifax-based Shut Up & Colour Pictures, Irish producer Susan Mullen and Buxton.

The film stars Ben Foster (pictured) and Cobie Smulders. In the film, Foster’s character becomes fixated on saving car accident victims after being witness to one at the sharp corner near his home.

Tamara Segura’s Seguridad won the DGC Award for Best Atlantic Documentary which comes with a $2,000 cash prize.

The National Film Board (NFB) documentary from the Newfoundland-based filmmaker explores her father’s connections to the Cuban revolution and is produced by the NFB’s Annette Clarke along with Rohan Fernando.

The award for Best Atlantic Short went to Pearls from Newfoundland-based writer and director Mike Simms. The film was produced by Shaun McCabe and the award comes with $11,500 worth of in-kind services from 902 Post and Sunbelt Rentals.

The Michael Weir Award for Best Atlantic Screenwriter went to Newfoundland-based Melanie Oates for her film Sweet Baby Angel.

The Joan Orenstein Award for Outstanding Performance went to Mary-Colin Chisholm for The Kitchen Sink from P.E.I.-based director Olivia King.

Sean Dalton won The David Renton Award for Outstanding Performance for Skeet from Newfoundland and Labrador director Nik Sexton. Nigel Markham also took home the award for Best Atlantic Cinematographer for his work on Skeet.

Winners were selected through two separate juries. The jury for short films included Claire Peace-McConnell, Stewart Young and Desmond Simon. The jury for feature films was Deanne Foley, Noah Pink and Victoria Dabbs.

Image courtesy of AIFF; photo by Guy Godfree