Orange-shirt origin story wins Chilliwack film festival’s top prize

The Chilliwack Independent Film Festival celebrated its fifth year over the weekend, with its Saturday evening showing sold out and 13 prizes awarded. The festival had initially been scheduled for November, but was postponed because of the flooding disaster. Half of its proceeds went to flood relief.

(Last year we spoke to co-founder Taras Groves about how he built the festival from scratch just years after immigrating to Canada.)

On Sunday, the festival hosted a panel on diversity in the film industry that you can watch here. It also anointed winners in 13 categories. You can find the full list here. The Best of Fest award went to Returning Home, a documentary that explores the story of Phylis Webstad, the residential school survivor who founded Orange Shirt Day. All films can be watched online until the end of the month. Find the other winners, and trailers for those that are available, below.

Winners:

Best of Fest – Returning Home

Best Actor – Peter Hoskins (Mr. James Is Dead)

Best Actress – Keara Barnes (A Midwinter Nightmare)

Best Director – Josh Aries & Daniel Irving (Mr. James Is Dead)

Best Short Film – August Sky

Best Documentary – Hart Breaker: Loss, Legacy & Lunacy

Best of BC – Cuello

Chilliwack Spirit Award – Esther & Sai

Best 48 Hour Film – The Box

Best Student Film – Moth Music

Best Score – Dave Chick (Itsy Bitsy Spider)

Best Script – Gloria Mercer (Hekademia)

Best Cinematography – Diego Lozano (Cuello)