Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country, the story of an Aboriginal stockman in Australia’s fleeing the law after the murder of a white station owner, won the Best Dramatic Feature Award at the 17th imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.
The Alanis Obomsawin Award for Best Documentary Work went to Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier directed by Shane Belcourt & Lisa Jackson. The documentary looks at the riveting true story about the crimes of Shelly Chartier, a reclusive young woman from a small Manitoba First Nation who engineered the high profile catfishing case involving an NBA superstar and an aspiring model.
2017 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Award Winners
The Ellen Monague Award for Best Youth Work
RAE by Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs
$500 cash award presented by imagineNATIVE
Best Audio Work
Elcrys by Michael Wilson
$500 cash award presented imagineNATIVE
Best Dramatic Feature
Sweet Country by Warwick Thornton
$2,000 cash award presented by Bell Media
Jane Glassco Award for Emerging Talent
Morit Elena Morit by Inga-Wiktoria Påve & Anders Sunna
$2,000 cash award presented by The CJ Foundation
Cynthia Lickers-Sage Award for Short Work
I Will Always Love You Kingen by Amanda Kernell
$500 cash award presented by V-Tape
The Alanis Obomsawin Award for Best Documentary Work (Long-Form)
Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier by Shane Belcourt & Lisa Jackson
$2,000 cash award presented by TVO
Best Documentary Short
Lelum’ by Asia Youngman
$1,000 cash award by CBC Docs
The Kent Monkman Award for Best Experimental Work
Three Thousand by Asinnajaq
$1,000 cash award presented by imagineNATIVE & Kent Monkman
Best Digital Media Work
Thunderbird Strike by Elizabeth LaPensée
$500 cash award presented imagineNATIVE
Best Indigenous Language Work
Bowhead Whale Hunting With My Ancestors by Carol Kunnuk and Zacharias Kunuk
$1,000 cash award presented by Indigenous Media Initiatives
The August Schellenberg Award of Excellence
Tina Keeper
$1,500 cash award presented by ACTRA National, ACTRA Performers’ Rights Society, and generous individual donations
Special Jury Prize – Sun Jury
Sunday Fun Day by Dianna Fuemana
Special Jury Prize – Moon Jury
Birth of a Family by Tasha Hubbard
The Web Series Live Pitch Competition
Spectrum by Darcy Waite and Madison Thomas
$30,000 in cash and in kind prizes presented by APTN