Montreal International First Peoples Festival Unveils its Film Awards

T. Lands InSights announces that the recipients of the Montreal International First Peoples Festival Film Awards will be announced online on Tuesday, December 15th at noon on www.presenceautochtone.ca or on the Facebook page of Land InSights https://fb.me/e/XMURJOLN.

The winners of the Teueikan (Best Film), Rigoberta-Menchu (Social Award), and APTN (Aboriginal Achievement in Film released during the year) awards will be announced. First prize winners will receive a Matusie, the now familiar statuette, created for the festival by Matusie Iyaituk, a great Inuit sculptor.

The 2020 International Jury is composed of eight people:
Debora Walker-Morrisson, Māorie from Aotearoa (New Zealand);
Amalia Cordova, a specialist in indigenous cinema of the Americas (USA);
Maya Pérez Menchú of the Rigoberta-Menchu Foundation (Guatemala);
Roxanne Whitebean, Mohawk filmmaker (Kahnawake).

And the other members of the jury, based in Tiohtià:ke Montreal :
Lesvia Vela, representative of the Rigoberta-Menchu Foundation in Canada;
Craig Commanda, anicinape artist;
Sophie-Claude Miller, Cree communicator;
Luc Chaput, eminent film critic.

Other awards to be presented on that day are the prizes for :
Best Documentary, Aboriginal Mainfilm Emerging Talent ($1,000 grant)
Best Canadian Native Court, awarded by Espaces autochtones Radio-Canada ($1000 grant)
Best International Short Film
Best Animated Film Best Cinematography.

In this particular year, the many activities that usually take place in August in the usual niche of the Montreal International First Peoples Festival take place according to a very free calendar. "The current situation forces us to be acrobatic: the festival proudly stands while spreading out," says André Dudemaine, Director of Cultural Activities for Land InSights.

A program of online screenings of films from the 2020 selection will be announced shortly.