Kaniehtiio Horn’s comedy thriller Seeds (Carpe Dee Yum Productions; pictured) led the feature film winners at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival with two awards.

The awards presentation, which saw $68,000 in cash prizes distributed to its winners, was hosted on June 8 at the TIFF Lightbox by stand-up comedian, content creator and TV personality Janelle Niles (Got Land?).

Horn took home the Outstanding Performance in a Feature award, also winning the After Dark Award in memory of Jeff Barnaby. The latter honour celebrates the Indigenous filmmaker who died in 2022 and his impact on genre-bending films. Both awards come with $2,500 cash prizes.

Tasha Hubbard’s Singing Back the Buffalo, produced by Hubbard, Jason Ryle and George Hupka in association with CBC and APTN, won the $5,000 Documentary Feature Award in honour of Alanis Obomsawin.

Charlene Moore and ODMK won the Innovation in Storytelling Award in honour of Kent Monkman for their short film Confluence. The $7,500 award honours the former imagineNATIVE board member and designer of the organization’s first logo.

Amanda Strong’s Inkwo for When the Starving Return (Spotted Fawn Productions, National Film Board of Canada) won the Animated Short and Sun Jury Awards, both worth $2,500.

Evelyn Pakinewatik’s short film Anywhere (Nooj Goji) (Rot Wood Media) won the $2,500 Moon Jury Award which recognizes an outstanding work.

Lisa Jackson and The Macronauts’ extended reality experience Wilfred Buck’s Star Stories (Door Number 3 Productions) won the $3,000 Digital + Interactive Award while Vanessa Racine won the New Artist in Digital + Interactive Award, worth $2,500, for the interactive project orange pekoe.

Jean Luc Kanapé’s Sous les barrages (Under the Dams): Tshishe Manikuan won the Narrative Audio Award, presented to a podcast, radio play, audio drama or other narrative audio format. Robbie Wings’ ᎭᏫᎾᏗᏢ ᎤᏪᏴᎢ (beneath the stream) was presented the Experimental Audio Award, which recognizes a work that pushes the boundaries of audio formats. Both audio prizes come with $2,500 cash prizes.

Non-Canadian winners include Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s New Zealand feature We Were Dangerous, honoured with the Dramatic Feature Award; Richard J. Curtis’ New Zealand short Rapido, winning the Live Action Short Award; and Aleksei Romanov’s Russian feature The Legends of Eternal Snow (Khaar Kuyaar Nomokhtoro), winning the Indigenous Language Production Award. All three awards have cash prizes of $7,500.

The previously announced $2,500 August Schellenberg Award of Excellence was presented to acclaimed Indigenous actor Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves).

ImagineNATIVE’s in-person festival ran from June 3 to 8 with its online festival running from June 9 to 15.

Image courtesy of levelFILM