Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards announce winners

Honouring those in the industry

The sixth Annual Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards were held on Nov. 22 in Saskatoon. The event honoured some of the best and brightest that Saskatchewan had to offer Winners in seven specific accounts were announced: “Best Short Film,” “Best Student Film,” “Best Acting,” “Best Feature Film,” “Best Technical Achievement,” “Best Web Series,” and last but not least, “Audience Choice.”

We’ll start things off with “Best Student Film,”. The award this year was given to the film My World is No Longer the World I Knew by Weiye Su. Other nominees included: A Man Replaced by Joel Tabak, Follow Leader by Scott Johnson, Prairie Dreams by DJ Carnegie, and To Call My Own by Morgan Jones.

Next up we have “Best Web Series.” Rick Anthony, director of the 2016 local film Patient 62 was named the winner. Pieces: Camp by Sophie Kokott was also nominated. Anthony said the award meant a lot to him as a local artist.

“My team and I were really excited to be nominated for the SIFA for ‘Best Web Series’ this year, and to win is really amazing! It is great to have such strong support and enthusiasm from our home base and to be in such talented company as we were with this festival. Rock Bottom was so much fun to work on that it has been fantastic to see it appreciated in such a way. Between the SIFA Award and the love this project was given at Just For Laughs this summer, I feel like there is a good possibility we’ll see season two in the works shortly!”

Moving away from films and heading into the more technical specs of the industry, former Carillon employee Elian Mikkola found success at the SIFA’s with an award for “Best Technical Achievement” for Sound Design in Magdaleena. Other nominees for this category were: Gavin Baird, Cinematography in Begonia, Dylan Crosby & Kyler Wilton, Editing in GOOD MORNING, Morgan Jones, Creative Use of Imaging in To Call My Own, Ava Wild, and Score in The Acreage & The Ambush

Although Mikkola wasn’t able to comment on their win, they were able to comment on how it felt to be nominated overall:

“I feel very grateful to be nominated this year, specifically with this film. It was my graduation film from the MFA program at the U of R and a lot of hard work went into it. It’s truly a local film. There’s a lot of community and local talent involvement that went into making this film what it is today and that’s why it feels so great to screen the film in Saskatoon and be a part of this years SIFA’s.”

Moving right along we find ourselves at “Best Short Film” and “Best Feature Film”, which were won for ahkâmêyimo nitânis (Keep Going My Daughter) by Candy Fox and Begonia by Gavin Baird, respectively. Other categories included:

Best Short Film: The Diggers by George Hupka, Magdaleena by Elian Mikkola, and Unfold by John Graham

Best Feature Film: Audacity by Jeremy Cole Bastion, and Run Wolf, Run by Carli Robertson