Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language has been named the Summit Award winner for best Canadian film at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).
The $15,000 award is the latest honour for the surrealist comedy, which won the Bright Horizons Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Best Canadian Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the first-ever Audience Award at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.
Produced by Metafilm’s Sylvain Corbeil, the film is Canada’s selection for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
The jury for the Summit Award included director Zarrar Kahn, TVO programmer Shane Smith and producer Rebecca Steele.
Other winners at this year’s VIFF include Mongrels (Musubi Arts; pictured) director Jerome Yoo who took the $3,000 Horizon Award for emerging Canadian director. In the surreal drama, a Korean family immigrates to Canada to cull feral dogs.
Sanja Živković was named as a special mention for her Canada/Serbia/Croatia coproduction Cat’s Cry (YN Films, Artizana Film, Nova Film). In the film, a grandfather fights for the custody of his granddaughter after she is rejected by her mother because of the rare genetic disorder cat’s cry syndrome.
The jury for the award consisted of directors Yi-Jung Chen, Chris Chong Chan Fui and Jamila Pomeroy.
Winning the $15,000 Tides Award for best Canadian documentary was Kim O’Bomsawin’s Ninan Auassat: We, the Children (NFB). Over the course of more than six years, The documentary follows three groups of Indigenous children, each from different Indigenous nations, as they move towards adulthood.
Thea Loo’s Inay (Mama) (No More Productions, Knowledge Network, The Cinematheque) was named as a special mention. Producer Ana Belén Asfura Fuentes, director Rachel M’Bon and writer Corey Payette were the jury members.
Inay (Mama) was also selected for the $10,000 Arbutus Award for best B.C. film. The award also comes with $15,000 in post-production service credits from Los Angeles-headquartered Company 3.
The film focuses on Filipino women who left their home country for Canada in order to take part in the Live-In Caregiver Program, enabling them to send money home at the cost of leaving their family behind.
The special mention was Christopher Auchter’s The Stand (NFB). The film tells the story of a 1985 blockade organized by the people of Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the coast of B.C., to stop the logging of old growth forests.
The jury included the Vancouver Public Library’s head of cultural programming Jorge Amigo, documentary filmmaker Joella Cabalu and director Mila Zuo.
The winners of the VIFF Audience Awards will be announced next week, according to a news release.
The 43rd VIFF runs through Sunday (Oct. 6).
Photo by Jaryl Lim