2018 Festival

Award sponsored by Servus Credit Union
Director: Måns Berthas
Nominees: Dem Dem!, The Circle
Jury: Lorna James, Robin Thibodeau, Angel Willmont, Scott Lepp, Matt Watterworth

Director: Aaron Kurmey

Nominees: Lena Strömdahl (Champion), Adam Munro (Thousand Yard Stare)
Jury: Joe-Norman Shaw, Ryan Kennedy

Nominees: Sandro De Frino (Birthday), Christophe Rolin (Dem Dem!)
Jury: Wes Doyle, Doug Munro, Aaron Bernakevitch

Nominees: Jhonathan Mathew (Thousand Yard Stare), K. Spencer Jones (The Human Project)
Jury: Neshe Delici, Sarah Taylor

Nominees: Costantino Ciminiello and Mitchell Slan (Balloon), Nia Fausset (Outside)
Jury: KJ Gallagher, Chantal Beaulne

Director: Seyed M Tabatabaei
Nominees: The Man Who Made the Night Light, Hope
Jury: Chantal Beaulne, Thomas van Kampen, Carol Beecher

Nominees: Rachel Soong, Orthicon and Valerie Siu (The Perfect Man), Shahin Peimani, Alireza Mahmoud Zadeh and Mahboube Karimi Nezhad (Sasism)
Jury: Alex Mitchell, David Heacock

Nominees: Rosario Capozzolo (Peggie), Alfred Thomas Catalfo (Split Ticket)
Jury: Kevin Doree, Mark Haroun

Award sponsored by William F. White
Team: Damfinos

Award sponsored by William F. White
Team: Burning Sneakers

Award sponsored by Rhoda’s Elegance
Team: Damfinos

Award sponsored by Pace Setters
Team: Isometric Films

Award sponsored by The Emporium of Impossible Things
Team: Team Eagle

Director: Sandi Somers

When home-schooled Arielle’s long-estranged mother mysteriously returns to their isolated family farm, it drives a wedge into her seemingly-perfect relationship with her father and reveals a chilling, dark past.

Filmed in Okotoks and the surrounding area this critically acclaimed film is a must-see. Starring Sophia Lauchlin Hirt, Michelle Morgan, Billy MacLellan, and Charlie Kerr. The Film had its world premier to a sold-out audience at the Calgary International Film Festival. Based in small town Alberta, see if you can recognize our very own Elizabeth Street.

Ice Blue and Somers won Best Feature Director at LA Femme Film Festival and has 7 Nominations at this year’s AMPIA Rosie Awards. Sandie Somers has also received the 2018 Doug & Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artists Award.

Director: James Day
Nomination: Best Editing (David Alderson)

James Day spent a year interviewing CHARLES MANSON by phone from his cell in California State Prison. The production tracked down members of the so-called MANSON FAMILY, many who have been in hiding since the early seventies. These compelling new interviews reveal never-before-heard details that unveil the motives behind the murder spree. How could a no-account drifter and ex-con become a charismatic leader of what prosecutors called a diabolical murder cult? Why did the killers target the home of a Hollywood sex symbol? And where did the prosecution come up with the theory that CHARLES MANSON aimed to start a race war called Helter Skelter based on the music of THE BEATLES? Some have proposed that the prosecution made up the race war theory in order to more easily convict CHARLES MANSON through a sensational conspiracy narrative. If the prosecution did construct the Helter Skelter Theory, is convicting a man like CHARLES MANSON so essential that any means of achieving it is acceptable? MANSON: THE FINAL WORDS is an explosive documentary that will change the conversation about CHARLES MANSON and the notorious “MANSON FAMILY” murders.

Director: Aaron Kurmey
Nomination: Best Editing (Jhonathan Mathew), Best Performance (Adam Munro)

During World War II, German forces crush the Americans at the ‘Battle of Kasserine Pass’. A lone Sergeant, Roland Rothach, is separated from his platoon in the North Africa deserts. Captured by German soldiers, he’s forced to face his worst fears. Fears that haunt him long after the war ends. Back home he struggles with flashbacks of the horrors and trauma he experienced, a failing marriage, and the emptiness of isolation.

Edmonton director, Aaron Kurmey, brings us this amazing story shot completely in Alberta. Challenging the abilities of small budget work, the film brings production value and talent in droves. Thousand Yard Stare received 6 nominations at this years AMPIA Rosie Awards.

Director: Rosario Capozzolo
Nomination: Best Screenplay (Rosario Capozzolo)

Inspired by true events, the film addresses the theme of dementia as a way to travel through time.

Director: Javier Badillo

A pizza deliveryman’s quest to win back his ex is thwarted when he’s pulled into the turmoil of two deranged criminals with their own relationship woes.

Director: Junaid Chundrigar

A young hero must embark on an epic quest to save a princess, in an absurdly short amount of time.

Director: Sergey Vlasov
Nomination: Best Performance (Izhak Pekker)

In the near future all actors have become computer generated characters and human actors are unemployed.

Director: Mark O’Brien, Jake Wilkens

A young backpacker slowly makes his way across the desert. He sees an open gate leading to a vacation home.

Director: Ken Williams, Danis Fitzpatrick

A man wakes up with a strange tune in his head. But what is it? And how did it get there?

Director: Justin Cauti

Little Voices is a project focusing on anxieties, insecurities, and the problems that weigh us down.

Director: Dave Elder, Craig Nolin

Cursed to relive the same night over and over, unable to change their fate.

Director: Alfred Thomas Catalfo
Nomination: Best Screenplay (Alfred Thomas Catalfo)

A supernatural drama based on true events.

Director: Ryan Potter
Nomination: Best Animation

A short live action/animation hybrid about the life of a street lamplighter.

Director: Aleksandra Hildebrandt

Trapped, a wooden boy is hopelessly watching and dreaming of the colorful world outside.

Director: Dennis Cahlo

After finding out he is dead, Charlie has a chance to make good on a past regret.

Director: Manuela Rüegg
Nomination: Best Art Direction (Andrea Schmidlin and Katharina Meier)

Maximilian loves daydreaming and escaping into his imaginary world where he goes on adventures.

Director: Normann Bjorvand
Nomination: Best Sound (Henrik Lindström)

Richard Wagner Jr. III is a musician that cannot be contained.

Director: Nathan MacDonald

At the end of the trail, near the edge of the park, there’s a little place they call ‘The Breakup Cafe’.

Director: Hanna Mathis
Nomination: Best Cinematography (Simone Hart)

Young Pol wants to go to the moon and seeks the help of a clever girl named Sophie to build a rocket.

Director: Vicki Van Chau
Nomination: Best Sound (Rachel Soong, Orthicon, Valerie Siu)

A young woman has to figure out the perfect thing to say to a stranger she believes is the perfect man.

Director: Maya Phov

Maya Phov recounts her travel adventures while an exchange student in Switzerland.

Winner of the ZOOOM Youth Film Festival

Director: Derek Selinger

A music video of gratitude afforded to us because of the sacrifices of our Armed Forces Service Members.

Director: Vasni J. Ramos

What sense does it make to be a hero if you cannot save the one you love?

Director: Måns Berthas
Nomination: Best Picture, Best Performance (Lena Strömdahl)

Harsh midwinter. A frozen marriage in a remote cabin. A man from the past returns.

Director: Delphine Delannoy, Lisa Baillon, Tsu-Ning Lai, Atiyyah Lallmahomed, Gwenaël Renaud, Daphné Westelynck

One couple learns how difficult it can be to live this life when confronted with depression.

Director: K. Spencer Jones
Nomination: Best Screenplay (David Beatty), Best Editing (K. Spencer Jones)

In the wake of their father’s death, two estranged siblings begin a journey of self discovery.

Director: David Javid Zaidov
Nomination: Best Art Direction (Nia Fausset)

A short retelling of the final days of the British expedition to the South Pole in 1912.

Director: Jason Karman

Two men dance in an open field, jumping from reality to dream as each follows his own path.

Director: Pepe Bouname Lopy, Marc Recchia, Christophe Rolin
Nomination: Best Picture, Best Cinematography (Christophe Rolin)

Matar, a Senegalese fisherman, finds a Belgian passport on a beach in Dakar.

Director: Colin Williams

Engrossed by his psychological state, a theatre actor blurs the line between reality and performance.

Director: Sheldon Schwartz
Nomination: Best Picture

A father and son travel town to town. The dad sketches portraits for locals to make a meager living.

Director: Michael Scherrer
Nomination: Best Animation

The story of a little boy, who is condemned to spend the time he has left in a prisoners’ camp.

Director: Mat Johns

A father is unexpectedly reunited with his daughter amongst the ruins of the world they once knew.

Director: Fami Kaur Biji

An experimental short film symbolizing the struggle between darkness and light inside one woman’s mind.

Director: Coré Ruiz

Something terrible has happened at his home, and now Álvaro has to help his girlfriend to fix it.

Director: Alberto Viavattene
Nomination: Best Cinematography (Sandro De Frino)

An abusive nurse wanders through the halls of a nursing home. The only thing she hates more than her job is old people.

Director: Ainhoa Menéndez

A dinner with friends. An innocent game. An unexpected end.

Director: Michael Treder

Karine keeps the wolf at the door.

Director: Evan Hughes

A lone survivor in a post-apocalyptic world finds herself trapped in a basement below a zombie infested Inn.

Director: Chris Friesen

Beautiful young serial killer Sam has one agenda: rid the world of really, really annoying people.

Director: Mitchell Slan
Nomination: Best Art Direction (Costantino Ciminiello, Mitchell Slan)

Penny and her therapist battle her phobia of balloons through psychological experimentation.

Director: Tonet Ferrer

It’s Jennifer’s 18th birthday. Menu: an eye soup, fingers in their sauce and fried knuckles. All very normal until … Happy birthday!

Director: Maïté Schmitt

To protect his books, Albert, the young librarian, must put his prejudice aside and make friends with a bat

Director: Justin & Kristin Schaack

Playtime turns into uncontrolled shenanigans when a child discovers rag dolls in an antique chest.

Director: Daniel Foreman

Raven’s new friends invite him to their magical home.

Director: Manon Sailly, Charlotte Sarfati, Christine Jaudoin, Lara Cochetel, Raphaël Hout, Fanny Teisson

Twin Island East and Twin Island West are two twin islands governed by two kings, where everything goes in twos.

Director: Mahboube Karimi Nezhad
Nomination: Best Sound (Shahin Peimani, Alireza Mahmoud Zadeh, and Mahboube Karimi Nezhad)

A bedbug is suffering from sadism and acts viciously regardless of his small body.

Director: Danilo Zambrano

A young boy develops a friendship with his breakfast.

Director: Kailyne R Waters

A lone shopping cart, injured and seized for scrap, breaks free.

Director: Shawna Koski

The Blackfoot story of the Okotoks Erratic.

Director: Manuel Reyes Halaby

A chef that loves his job is preparing a very different menu for a peculiar group of clients.

Director: Seyed M Tabatabaei
Nomination: Best Animation

M.E., the imprisoned character in a room, is attracted to a hanging light and tries to catch it.