Our inaugural Festival was a great success, showcasing over 50 films from around the world, including some great local talent, 3 film-making workshops, and parties to open and close the festivities.
Award Winners

Best Picture
A Whole World for a Little World
Award sponsored by Sprung Structures
Nominees: How Hipolito Vaszquez Found Magic Where He Never Expected, Cuerdas
Jury: Allan Boss, Cheryl Taylor, Lorna James, Joanne Klein, Scott Lepp

Audience Choice
Taking the Plunge
Award sponsored by the Okotoks Arts Council

Best Cinematography
Alexandru Pavel (Dreams on Sale)
Nominees: Douglas Munro csc (The Caravan Film), Hampus Linden (Memory of You)
Jury: Chase Gardiner, Nick Thomas, Craig Wrobleski

Best Overall Sound
Cristina Amore (Mr. Dentonn)
Nominees: Geoff Manchester (I Phub You), Beau Shiminsky (It’s All In Your Head)
Jury: Frank Laratta, Mitch Lee, James Fonnyadt

Best Editing
James Gilmore (The Barber’s Cut)
Nominees: Tomas Esteras (Mr. Dennton), Nicolas Manfredi (Taking the Plunge)
Jury: Ken Filewych, Neshe Delici

Best Art Direction
Chantal Beaulne (Mongoose)
Nominees: Elisabeth Mainy, Lina D. Mena, Vegard Holter, Andrea Sorestrand (Hope), Michael Chen (LOST)
Jury: Kjirsten Gallagher, Trevor Smith

Best Screenplay
Matthieu Boivineau (The Cherry Tree)
Nominees: Lidia Milette and Ramon Lazaro (Director’s Cut), Sergi Marti (Blue Division)
Jury: Christopher Craddock, Jason Long, Kevin Doree

Best Performer
Emil Jonsson (Memory of You)
Nominees: Hannah Jane Zirke (LOST), Henry Douthwaite (CATCH)
Jury: Gigi Saul Guerrero, Rhonda Fisekci
48-Hour Challenge Winners
Best Picture
Dr. Schemely
Award sponsored by Dawgs Baseball
Team: Damfinos
Audience Choice
Dr. Schemely
Team: Damfinos
Best Use of Prop
C.A.T.
Team: Black Diamond Crew
Best Use of Line
A.R.I.
Team: A Second Sun
Best Use of Genre
Dr. Schemely
Team: Damfinos
GeneralReels

The Caravan Film
Millarville
This year’s feature film offered an inside look aboard The Caravan where adventurers young and old grapple with route-finding, mother nature and group dynamics in an epic horse-drawn experience across America.
The Caravan film follows the exploits of an eclectic group of international carriage drivers and horse riders as they journey across the American south from California to Florida over 5 months and 2,500 miles.
Leading this group of relative strangers is Gerard Paagman with his team of elegant Friesian horses fresh off filming The Hunger Games – Catching Fire. Challenging the limits of disability is Michael Muir, Great Grandson of the visionary John Muir, Father of the National Parks and co-founder the Sierra Club, a conservation movement in the U.S..
This epic journey weaves it’s way through iconic landscapes, up and over mountains, through vast deserts, under tall pine forests, to bayous and down the backroads of America. The film explores the complexities of group dynamics, the relationship we share with our horses in this modern world and the surprising connections made along the route.
Everyone came to The Caravan laden with their individual expectations but united by their love of the horse, what happened on the journey was something they will never forget.

My Father Says the Stupidest Things
France
The supermarket is about to close. As Adrien, a young cashier, sees different generations of love as the shoppers pass, he cannot take his eyes off the beautiful blue-eyed brunette standing at the end of the line. Maybe a chance to follow his heart..

How Hipolito Vaszquez Found Magic Where He Never Expected
Argentina
Director: Matias Rubio
Nomination: Best Picture
Hipólito Vázquez is an old talent’s scout, that, among his loyal partner Cholo, is looking for a little child whose supposed to “do magic with the football”.

One, One Thousand
Alberta
Director: Justin Brunelle
In the 1890’s, a photographer and his assistant scaled one of the Canadian Rockies most daunting mountains to take one of the regions first summit photographs in history.

The Cherry Tree
France
Director: Matthieu Boivineau
Nomination: Best Screenplay – Matthieu Boivineau
A large cherry tree in a garden. A family, memories, moments of life and time passes, tirelessly. Through the four seasons, the cherry tree evolves and this family also. Like a poem about passing time and an ode to nature.

Blue Division
Spain
Director: Sergi Marti
Nomination: Best Screenplay – Sergi Marti
Leningrad, summer 1943. German attempts to conquer the strategic location of Leningrad have failed miserably. Hitler, desperate, will need his best men… He will need the Spanish soldiers of the… BLUE DIVISION.

Wild Man
Israel
Director: Hila Mutayn
Little and helpless man facing giant animal, in its most wild and threatening figure.

The United Guys Network
Vancouver
Director: Tabatha Golat
Loving newlywed husband Paul Seger is making the other guys in the neighbourhood look bad. Time for The United Guys Network to step in and teach him how to be a ‘real’ husband.
Fearless Norman
Black Diamond
Director: Zoe Slusar
This uniquely animated short film captures a fantastic character and reveals his words of wisdom through moving pictures and words.

Memory of You
Sweden
Director: Nils Janlert
Nominations: Best Cinematography – Hampus Linden
Winner: Best Performance – Emil Jonsson
Adam is going to dinner with his wife, when he is disrupted by something from his past. A story about a love that never was, shot in one single take.

Stephan Hair in Passion
Calgary
Director: Justin Krul
This film is a look into the mind of Stephen Hair as he describes his love for his career of acting and why this is so important to him.

Catch
United Kingdom
Director: Paul Cooke and Dominic Rees-Roberts
Nomination: Best Performer – Henry Douthwaite
In a near future where all antibiotics have failed, Tom and his young daughter, Amy, are quarantined in their home during a lethal pandemic.

Dreams on Sale
Romania
Director: Vlad Buzaianu
Winner: Best Cinematography – Alexandru Pavel
In a world where people are able to record, buy and sell dreams, many are starting to lose the ability of dreaming.

LOST
Nanaimo
Director: Michael Chen
Nomination: Best Performer – Hannah Jane Zirke, and Best Art Direction
A little girl finds a stuffed rabbit and tries to reunite it with it’s owner.

Ant Apartment
Iraq
Director: Tofigh Amani
This story is about a threesome family that live in the ant’s apartment in one of the deserts of Iraq after the war. One day a strange thing happens that changes their…

Unseen
Netherlands
Director: Justin Krul
A young ballet dancer is struggling with here choices about her future as a dancer.

Wolves
Andorra
Director: Alvaro Rodriguez Areny
World War II. Arthur, British Royal Air Force pilot, flees cross-country after his plain crashes. He begins a fight for survival in which he will encounter more than German enemies.

Shadowbox
Okotoks
Director: Shawna Koski
A journey through a world of shadows and music.

A Whole World for a Little World
France
Director: Fabrice Bracq
Winner: Best Picture
A woman tells a great story to her baby. In a tale with princes and princesses, she passes her story on her daughter.
KinderReels

Love Song of the Drone
United States
Director: Brian J. Larson
An animated music video about the life (and love) cycles of a drone bee

I Phub You
Edmonton
Director: Shannon Hunt
Nomination: Best Sound Design – Geoff Manchester
After an incident that leaves the world around him silent, Kurtis discovers what it means to communicate in a technologically consumed society.

About Want and Need
Germany
Director: Sarah Heinrich
Will projects his fears onto the helpless bird that just doesn’t seem to be open for this kind of mental training.

Raven Steals the Light
Edmonton
Director: Daniel Foreman
Raven is the craftiest of all creatures. Be transported into a magical animated world where Raven is flying blindly in the endless night. The story is adapted from an ancient Haida (North Pacific Coast First Nations) myth.

The Tea Party
Calgary
Director: Nolan Briggs
A young girl takes matters into her own hands when her tea party is disrupted.

Charlie's Buck Teeth
France
Director: Esther Lalanne, Xing Yao, Valentin Sabin, Camille Verninas, and Chao-Hao Yang
Charlie, a little boy with ridiculous big teeth, always hides behind his scarf to avoid the teasing from his classmates.
Change
Edmonton
Director: Tom Robinson
An animated change purse separated from its lady at the laundromat must find a way back to her.

I Want It!
Argentina
Director: Nicolás Conte
On his usual way back from school Juancito, a lonely country boy, meets a little horse which seems to be abandoned.

Walk Don't Wait
Edmonton
Director: John Osborne
A short animated film in which a crosswalk sign comes to life.

Save the Earth
Ukraine
Director: Ruslan Bokach
Shadow Dancers show the actions of humans have consequences.

Taking the Plunge
United States
Director: Nicholas Manfredi, Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, Thaddaeus Andreades, and Marie Raoult
Winner: Audience Choice
When a young mans marriage proposal is put in jeopardy he is forced to dive into unknown waters to salvage his plans.

Booba. Biology Class
Russia
Director: Leonid Rakhmanin
He is only 70 cm tall, he is naughty and curious as a child. We don’t know where he comes from, but his clumsy movements and his desire to explore the world sometimes lead to real chaos!
Slipping Away
Okotoks
Director: Brooklyn Reiter and Sierra Slough
Sometimes it is hard being a girl and no one should be bullies. Zooom 2016 festival Winner!!

It's All in Your Head
Calgary
Director: Greg Jeffs
Nomination: Best Sound Design – Beau Shiminsky
A bedtime story about the monster in the closet

Mongoose
Vancouver
Director: Chantal Beaulne
Winner: Best Art Direction
An old woman confronts her childhood imaginary friend, who has taken up residence in the walls of her home.

1-0
Iran
Director: Saman Hosseinuor
The barber started cutting the boys hair while watching a football game on Tv.

Hoblio: The Path to Freedom
Italy
Director: Piero Tonin
A pilgrim carrying a heavy burden travels through a dark forest to a radiant valley.

Surf Anywhere
Calgary
Director: Desiree Bilton
You can surf anywhere – even 1500m above sea level and 1000km away from the nearest ocean, on the Kananaskis River.

The Double Cross
United Kingdom
Director: Mark Brocking
Our hero is a young waiter for hire who gets caught up in a murder plot during a party and eventually rescues the damsel in distress.
Evil Teddy Bear
Okotoks
Director: Chantal Kapiniak
A girl accidentally brings her teddy bear to life not knowing it would become evil.

Cuerdas
Spain
Director: Pedro Solís García
Nomination: Best Picture
María’s routine at school is altered by the arrival of a very special child. Soon, they become close friends.
TwistedReels

Director’s Cut
Spain
Director: Pol Diggler
Nomination: Best Writing – Lidia Milette and Ramon Lazaro
An indie filmmaking crew shoots the first snuff movie with a plot.

Anxiety #5
Okotoks
Director: Jesse Foster
Within the confines of a Brooklyn tenement-housing bathroom, a man’s fate is sealed.

Flies
Greece
Director: Nadia Zygouri and Aris Pavlidis
Two people are feasting. They are discommoded by flies. Time draws to a close. The rude awakening occurs when they realize where they are currently standing.

Drunk Zombies
United States
Director: Alex Napiwocki
Two recovering alcoholics, escaping zombie apocalypse, find refuge in a bar. They soon learn zombies don’t attack the drunk.

Like
Italy
Director: Giulio Manicardi
A mysterious serial killer hosts a macabre show, where he tries and executes his victims in live streaming., leaving the final verdict in the hands of the Net public, which can decide to kill or spare the victim with simples ” Like “.

Bedlamite
United Kingdom
Director: Jamie Cooper
A brother and sister looking to recapture their youth, decide to explore an abandoned WW1 bunker deep in the heart of the British countryside. The pair stumble across a girl nailed to a chair, beaten, gagged and barely alive. When the captor returns to finish the job the three must frantically try to navigate the many bunker tunnels to escape.

Patata Day
Germany
Director: Peter Böving
Five people in a diner who spin a yarn about potato dishes.

Skinner
Calgary
Director: Rob Jacobsen
Every year a small town sends to people to the abandoned factory to see if The Skinner has returned to demand the sacrifice of a mother.

Hungry Hippos Trailer
Okotoks
Director: Chris Friesen
A fake movie trailer for a childhood game in the style of Michael Bay.

Mr. Dentonn
Spain
Director: Ivan Villamel Sanchez
Winner: Best Overall Sound
On a cold winter night, Laura reads herbrother David the story of a strange creature that attacks children. Suddenly, a shiver runs Laura’s body, feeling a strange presence in the house. It’s him.

The Barber's Cut
United Kingdom
Director: Mark Brocking
Winner: Best Editing – James Gilmore
Two cut off but living heads wake up in a fridge and manage to escape while trying to avoid a psycho barber.

Echo
Vancouver
Director: Oliver Robertson
When two naive film students go deep into the forest to record sound effects, they overhear someone getting murdered.

Black Reflection
Iran
Director: Soudabeh Kamrani
The young man was pouring coffee for himself, he see’ s himself in the coffee, Drinks the whole cup, puts it on the saucer upside down & starts to turn the pages of a book that suddenly the cup starts to tremble ….

Dark Dreamer
Germany
Director: Max Ponischowski
Marcus wakes up in the middle of the night and gets a visit from a strange creature with unnatural powers. The man calls himself a Nighthob and opens up about the fact, that Marcus doesn’t know what life he has lived so far in secret . The adventure begins.

Werewolf's Greated Hit
Australia
Director: Jim and Nick Zounis
A brief tale of a werewolf and his strong obsession with the full moon.

Hope
Norway
Director: Adam A. Losurdo
Nomination: Best Art Direction
A senseless wandering ghoul roaming through a world of the hunger-less undead and accepting yet resentful humans will soon discover a craving that leaves him completely and utterly without hope.

Plight: A Comic Book Rock Opera
Edmonton
Director: Randy Brososky
Daniel Plight, a security guard, develops superpowers after he is wounded with a mystical knife. Along with Michelle Striker, a scientist with enhanced fighting abilities, Daniel must discover the secret behind his new powers, and learn the difference between feeling special and being special.

Bitch, Popcorn and Blood
France
Director: Fabio Soares
At Salt’ n Sugar, a popcorn bar in the middle of nowhere, LILY a bored waitress, is going to turn her life around when two fishy strangers show up in the bar.