Faran Moradi’s Tehranto and Ryan Bruce Levey’s Out in the Ring have both been lauded at this year’s Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.

The festival, which took place in San Jose and Campbell, Calif., from Aug. 19 to 29, announced 15 winners for its Jury Film Awards, which included Tehranto (pictured) and Out in the Ring.

Written and directed by Moradi (Odd Squad), Tehranto took home Best Feature Narrative: Drama. The film is the recipient of Telefilm’s Talent To Watch program funding, with small funding also coming from Indiegogo crowdfunding toward a budget of under $150,000. Tehranto is produced by Jacqueline De Niverville (Chesterfield), with Andrew McCann Smith (Warigami), Mariah Owen (Pamela & Ivy), and Wendy Donnan serving as executive producers.

Vortex Media handles Canadian distribution, with a national theatrical release set for Nov. 4. There is currently no U.S. or international distributor attached to the film, according to Moradi.

Tehranto features two young adults who accidentally fall in love. The feature will be screened at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California this October, as well as a number of festivals in the U.S. and Canada that have yet to be announced. Earlier this year, the film had its world premiere at the Canadian Film Fest.

Meanwhile, Out in the Ring, directed and coproduced by Levey alongside producers Darren Dean (The Florida Project) and Brad Webb, secured the Best Feature Documentary. Cassandra Levey, Kris Levey, and Scooter McCrae serve as executive producers.

Out in the Ring explores the history of LGBTQ+ professional wrestlers. It stars professional wrestlers Reiza Clarke, Kaitlin Diemond, Effy, Susan Green, Bertrand Hebert, Sonny Kiss, Pat Laprade, AC Mack, Mike Parrow, Paul Pratt, and Dark Sheik.

In June, the doc also won Best Canadian Feature at the 2022 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival in Toronto, and had its Quebec premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival.

Michelle Kranot and Uri Kranot’s The Hangman at Home was also honoured with Best Animated Short Film. It is coproduced by Marc Bertrand and Julie Roy of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB); Lana Tankosa Nikolic of Denmark’s Late Love Production; Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron of France’s Miyu Productions; and Katayoun Dibamehr and Avi Amar of France’s Floréal Films. The short received financing from the NFB, the Danish Film Institute, the West Danish Film Fund, the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), and the Animation Workshop.

The Family, directed, coproduced and co-written by Dan Slater alongside Adam Booth under their Toronto-based banner West Film, received the Special Jury Mention for Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy.

Image courtesy of Nova 9 Pictures/Lucent