Writer-director Naomi Jaye’s feature Darkest Miriam has been named the Best Feature at the 2025 Canadian Film Fest (CFF).

The awards were announced at the festival’s closing night on March 29.

Darkest Miriam (pictured), which opened for this year’s CFF, is produced by Toronto’s Julie Baldassi for Younger Daughter Films and Brian Robertson for Low End in association with Singapore’s Through the Lens Entertainment. Toronto’s Game Theory Films is distributing in the U.S. and Canada and is handling world sales.

The film, based on the Martha Baillie novel The Incidence Report, stars Britt Lower (Severance) as a librarian at a Toronto public library who, after developing a relationship with a young artist, begins receiving threatening letters.

Also starring in the film Tom Mercier (We Are Who We Are), Jean Yoon (Kim’s Convenience) and Sook-Yin Lee (Paying For It).

Winning the People’s Pick for Best Flick award is Skeet from writer-director Nik Sexton. The Newfoundland-set film, which made its world premiere at last year’s Atlantic International Film Festival, is produced by Mary Sexton for Sexton & Sons. Skeet tells the story of a man, recently released from prison, who befriends a Syrian refugee in his neighbourhood.

Other CFF winners this year include Sarah Galea-Davis who won Best Director for her feature directorial debut The Players (Hawkeye Pictures). Produced by Sonya Di Rienzo and Aeschylus Poulos, the film follows a young woman who joins an avant-garde theatre cast and becomes trapped in its complicated power dynamics. Star Stefani Kimber was also selected for the Best Acting award.

Best Short Film went to Ethan Godel’s Sleep Talking. The narrative short, produced by Ryan Bobkin and written by Godel along with Filip Lee, explores where our minds go when we cannot fall asleep. Its distribution and international sales are being handled by La Distributrice de films.

Additionally, Amir Zargara and Iman Tahsin won the Best Producer Short Film award for Zargara’s A Good Day Will Come (Zargara Productions, Haurvatat Films, Lenz Films). The film accompanies an Iranian wrestler who is torn between pursuing his wrestling career and standing up to tyranny.

The feature film jury’s Best Documentary selection was Billie Mintz’ Gold Bars: Who the F*ck Is Uncle Ludwig? Produced by Mintz and Danny Webber, the feature examines Montreal lawyer Glenn Joseph Feldman who risks his reputation and faces a multi-million dollar lawsuit after accusing a former business partner of living off Nazi gold stolen from Holocaust victims.

A Special Mention for Originality and Direction was given to François Delisle’s Le temps (Waiting for the Storm, Films 53/12). Written, directed and produced by Delisle, the film explores four characters across time and varied landscapes and examines human resilience in the face of environmental upheaval. H264 is handling its Canadian distribution and world sales.

Other short film winners at this year’s festival include Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers’ Bail Bail for Best Comedy Short Film, Alain Fournier’s Beaupré the Giant and Celia Green for her performance in Sabrina Wey’s Greenhorn.

The CFF’s feature film jury consisted of Whistler Film Festival programmer Paul Gratton and filmmakers Kim Albright (Bring Out Your Dead) and Ian Harnarine (Doubles). The short film award jury comprised Eva Thomas (Aberdeen), Kiarash Dadgar (The Steak), Alice Wang (Don’t Forget Me) and Vanessa Magic (Near or Far) along with actor, writer, director and WebSeries Canada president Katie Uhlmann.

CFF ran from March 24 to 29 at the Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto.

Image courtesy of Game Theory Films