J Stevens’ Really Happy Someday led the winners of this year’s Whistler Film Festival (WFF), taking home the Borsos Award for Best Canadian Feature Film.

The awards were announced as part of a ceremony held on Sunday (Dec. 8) in Whistler, B.C. with $188,500 in cash and production prizes being presented through 15 awards.

The Best Canadian Feature Film award comes with a $15,000 cash prize from the Directors Guild of Canada – British Columbia and a $20,000 production prize from Company 3.

Really Happy Someday is produced by Stevens (pictured) for their prodco Spindle Films and written by Stevens and star Breton Lalama, who also won the award for Best Screenplay of a Borsos Competition Film. The film follows a transmasculine singer who, after a year of taking testosterone, must figure out how to sing in a new register.

The jury consisted of actors Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) and Tantoo Cardinal (Killers of the Flower Moon) along with actor and director Cory Bowles (Trailer Park Boys).

“Through skillful storytelling, Really Happy Someday is an intimate journey through a loving family community that leads us to a deeper understanding and appreciation for the commitment necessary to align the body and soul, finding true peace,” said the jury in a statement.

Best Director of a Borsos Competition Film went to Jonathan Beaulieu Cyr for Phoenixes (Sans Rancoeur Films) while the best performance award went to Salha Nasraoui for Meryam Joobeur’s Who Do I Belong To (Midi la Nuit, Instinct Bleu, Tanit Films). For her performance in Aberdeen (Farpoint Films, Back to Space Productions), Gail Maurice was named as an honourable mention.

Ariane Falardeau St-Amour received Borsos’ cinematography award for Phoenixes while Joobeur and Maxime Mathis also took home the editing award, which comes with a $1,000 cash prize.

Simon Schneider and Sarah Sharkey Pearce won the Best BC Director Award for their documentary Resident Orca (Everyday Films). Amélie Hardy’s Hello Stranger (Colonelle Films) won the $1,000 Canadian ShortWork Award.

Rounding out the Canadian winners is Barefoot Pilot, directed by Leo Hoorn and Steve Henderson, which won Best Mountain Culture Short Film; Clara Chan’s animated short Have I Swallowed Your Dreams won the EDA Award for Best Female Directed Short; and Audrey Kerridge’s Body Varial which won the BC Student ShortWork Award.

For the Talent Program Awards, the Screen BC Short Film Pitch award went to Norman Yi Li for his pitch Adverse Possession. Li will receive a $15,000 cash prize along with up to $100,000 worth of in-kind services for his project.

Milton Ng won WFF’s Power Pitch competition for his zombie thriller New Diamond Restaurant. Ng will receive a $25,000 post-production credit from Company 3 along with a $1,000 cash prize and a $10,000 lighting and grip production credit from William F. White International.

The Northern Star Award, a successor of the former Stars to Watch Program, is presented to a UBCP/ACTRA member for their performance in a film during the festival. The inaugural award went to Fort McMurray, Alta.-born Morgan Taylor Campbell for her performance in Stephanie Izsak’s Queen of The Underworld.

The winners of the WFF’s audience awards will be announced on Dec. 12.

WFF ran from Dec. 4 to 8.

Image courtesy of Whistler Film Festival