Fawzia Mirza’s The Queen of My Dreams won Best Feature Film at the 2024 Screen Nova Scotia Awards.

The winners of the 10th edition of the awards were announced on Saturday (May 11) during a gala ceremony at the Bruce Guthro Theatre at Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax.

The Queen of My Dreams is written and directed by Mirza, and produced by Marc Tetreault and Jason Levangie of Halifax-based Shut Up & Colour Pictures and Toronto-based BabyDaal Productions’ Andria Wilson.

Amy Mielke and Brittney Gavin’s Cold Dip (A + B Roll Films) won Best Documentary Film, with the film also earning Mielke and Gavin the Best Nova Scotia Director Award from Women in Film & Television – Atlantic.

The newly introduced Outstanding Achievement in Screenwriting award was won by writer-director Taylor Olson for the 2021 feature Bone Cage (Afro Viking Pictures, Bone Cage Productions), while Toopy and Binoo: The Movie (Huminah Huminah Animation) won Best Animated Production.

On the television side, season three of the Bell Fibe TV1 series Vollies (Canadian Content Studios) won Best Scripted Television Series, as well as the inaugural ACTRA Maritimes Award for Series Ensemble for cast members Jonathan Torrens, Mary Austin, Brian George and James Faulkner.

AMI-TV’s That Sex Show (Ocean Entertainment) took home Best Unscripted Television Series and Mi’kmaw filmmaker Dawn Wells and Jeff Miller’s Songs of Unama’ki (Ruby Tree Films) won Best Short Film.

Winning the ACTRA Maritimes awards for Outstanding Performances were Shelley Thompson for CTV’s Sullivan’s Crossing, an interprovincial co-production with Nova Scotia’s Ann Bernier and Ontario-based producer Mark Gingras in participation with Reel World Management; Kristin Howell for CBC’s Moonshine (Six Eleven Media, Entertainment One); Britt Loder for her role in the Hallmark movie Christmas Island (Picture Plant, Vortex Media); and David Rossetti won for his performance in the short film Remnants, which was made in the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative’s Film5 Program.

In additional honours, drag performer Deva Station won The Groundbreaking Performance Award for Apocalyptic Kitchen (StationDRG), art director and production designer Ewen Dickson earned the Film Crew Excellence Award and the 2024 Community Recognition Award was won by Janet Hawkwood, a former lead instructor of the Screen Arts program at the Nova Scotia Community College.

This year’s Industry Champion Award was awarded posthumously to television producer David MacLeod.

Image courtesy of Screen Nova Scotia Awards