Awards & Prizes

Pierre Beaucage, Nada El Omari, Ellen Gabriel, Jeremiah Hayes, MainFilm, Maya Menchu, Jess Murwin, Donato Santeramo

Awarded to a short film for the quality of its cinematic expression (narrative structure, cinematography, set design, editing, sound design, direction of actors, screenplay, animation techniques, etc.).

To Be Silent – Tace Stevens – Australia

Ex aequo

Gath & K’iyh: Listen to Heal – Princess Daazhraii Johnson – US

Awarded to a short film for the quality of its cinematic expression (narrative structure, cinematography, set design, editing, sound design, direction of actors, screenplay, animation techniques, etc.).

Gath & K’iyh: Listen to Heal – Princess Daazhraii Johnson – US

Ex aequo

To Be Silent – Tace Stevens – Australia

Awarded to a Canadian short film for the quality of its cinematic expression as a whole (narrative structure, photo direction, set design, editing, sound concept, direction of actors, script, animation techniques, etc.). With a $2,500 bursary for the winner.

future ready: cusp – KJ Edwards – Canada

Awarded to an emerging indigenous filmmaker, from Canada or elsewhere, for a film revealing promising talent. With a $1,000 bursary.

Honorable Mention
Headdress – Tai Leclaire – USA

Awarded to an emerging indigenous filmmaker, from Canada or elsewhere, for a film revealing promising talent. With a $1,000 bursary.

Entropy – Inuk Jørgensen – Groenland

For Aboriginal filmmakers based in Canada who have made a film with international distribution potential. Films entered for the APTN award are also eligible for this prize. The winning films will be screened at the Matera International Film Festival in Italy (Nov 2024); the award includes travel both ways Montréal-Matera for the winning filmmakers.

Café Daughter – Shelley Niro – Canada 2023

A $750 bursary awarded to a documentary filmmaker in Canada, with an offer to present his/her film on the FM3.CA VOD platform, to encourage him/her in the production of meaningful works about Aboriginal peoples and cultures.

Amazonia : an Encounter with the Guardians of the Rain forest – Santiago Bertolino – Canada

For the documentary film that succeed, in form and content, in illustrating a factual or intangible Aboriginal reality, by authentically rendering the lives and stories of the protagonists.

Without Arrows – Jonathan Olshefski, Elizabeth Day – USA

Ex æquo
This is Our Everything – Frederik Subei – Germany

For the documentary film that succeed, in form and content, in illustrating a factual or intangible Aboriginal reality, by authentically rendering the lives and stories of the protagonists.

This is Our Everything – Frederik Subei – Germany

Ex æquo
Without Arrows – Jonathan Olshefski, Elizabeth Day – USA

APTN AWARD is dedicated to an aboriginal filmmaker who has distinguished himself/herself during the year. Outstanding Achievement of the Year in Aboriginal Cinema.

Honorable Mention
Gespe’gewa’gi: The Last Land, Season 2 Episode 3 – BEVERLEY: The Captain of a Fishing Boat
Ernest Webb, Greg Lawrence, Courtney Montour

APTN AWARD is dedicated to an aboriginal filmmaker who has distinguished himself/herself during the year. Outstanding Achievement of the Year in Aboriginal Cinema.

Rougemania – Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge – Canada

Prizes awarded by the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation to productions by an indigenous people or community on the theme of “identity, discrimination and intercultural dialogue”, or which respond to a need for community development in terms of speaking out, recording collective memory, preserving cultural heritage, moving towards healing, fighting for rights, popular education or economic leverage. The Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation asks the winners to donate a good video copy of their prize-winning work for non profit use by the Foundation, for dissemination and awareness-raising purposes.

Second Prize
This is our Everything – Frederik Subei – Germany

Prizes awarded by the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation to productions by an indigenous people or community on the theme of “identity, discrimination and intercultural dialogue”, or which respond to a need for community development in terms of speaking out, recording collective memory, preserving cultural heritage, moving towards healing, fighting for rights, popular education or economic leverage. The Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation asks the winners to donate a good video copy of their prize-winning work for non profit use by the Foundation, for dissemination and awareness-raising purposes.

First Prize
Boil Alert – James Burns, Stevie Salas – Canada / USA

Prizes awarded according to artistic merit to films that have shown originality in the subject matter and the mise-en-scène, relevance in their cinematographic approaches and which correspond, in substance and form, to the soul of the first peoples.

Honorable Mention
Eallogierdu – The Tundra Within Me – Sara Margrethe Oskal – Norway

Prizes awarded according to artistic merit to films that have shown originality in the subject matter and the mise-en-scène, relevance in their cinematographic approaches and which correspond, in substance and form, to the soul of the first peoples.

Second Prize
Frybread Face & Me – Billy Luther – USA

Prizes awarded according to artistic merit to films that have shown originality in the subject matter and the mise-en-scène, relevance in their cinematographic approaches and which correspond, in substance and form, to the soul of the first peoples.

First Prize
The New Boy – Warwick Thornton – Australia