AUDIENCE AWARDS:

The People's Choice Award for Most Popular International Film
 
The People’s Choice Award for Most Popular International Film goes to Rahu Mihaileanu’s LIVE AND BECOME (Va, Vis et deviens) (Israel/France), a heartwarming account of an Ethiopian child’s struggle to escape from famine by being adopted by an Israeli family. 
 
Read Schema's review of Live and Become here.

Runner-up: A/K/A TOMMY CHONG, dir. Josh Gilbert (USA)
 
Federal Express Award for Most Popular Canadian Feature Film
 
This year the Federal Express Award for Most Popular Canadian Feature Film goes to Julia Kwan’s EVE & THE FIRE HORSE (British Columbia), a magical look at the perplexities of family life and the challenges of childhood as seen through the eyes of two young Chinese girls who turn to Catholicism to gain control over their destiny.
Runner-up: Jean-Marc Valleé’s C.R.A.Z.Y. (Quebec).

JURIED  AWARDS:
 
The National Film Board Award for Best Documentary Feature
 
Jurors Kris Anderson, Matt Henderson and Josh Siegel gave the National Film Board Award for Best Documentary Feature to Stefano Rulli’s A PARTICULAR SILENCE  (Italy), an intimate look into the very private and seldom seen world of an autistic child and his parents. The jury stated: It is a truism to say that music, poetry and film have the power to heal, but rarely is this demonstrated with the kind of conviction and love that Italian filmmaker Stefano Rulli expresses in A PARTICULAR SILENCE. Intelligent and restrained, sensitive and often humorous, A PARTICULAR SILENCE brings us one humble step closer to the solitary world of autism.”

The Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema
 
China’s Liu Jiayin won the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema for her film OX HIDE. The award, which includes a $5,000 prize, is sponsored by Brad Birarda. The jury was comprised of: David Bordwell from the USA, Li Cheuk-To from Hong Kong and Gerwin Tamsma from the Netherlands. They issued the following jury statement: “A bold effort that shows astonishing confidence in both dramatic and stylistic choices made by the filmmaker. Ms Liu treats her own family life with insight, humour and clear-sightedness. Amongst other virtues, OX HIDE shows how formal experimentation can coexist with engrossing human drama and powerful emotion.  The film has deservedly already won prizes in festivals elsewhere, but the strength and originality of this young filmmaker compelled the jury to acknowledge her achievement.” 

Read Schema's Ox Hide review here
 
Special mention was also given to: BAMBI © BONE (Shibutani Noriko, Japan), a “playful, impressionistic study that creates an imaginative and honest portrayal of the darkest regions of childhood. Ms. Shibutani is to be congratulated for making a traumatic subject engaging and affirmative”; SHIN SUNG-IL IS LOST (Shin Jane, South Korea), which “creates a vivid alternative world from minimal means. The film carries us into a hallucinatory pseudo-religious atmosphere, mixing comedy and grotesquery in a way reminiscent of Pasolini and Arrabal”; and THE SILENT HOLY STONES (Wanma-caidan, Tibet), “a mature, elegant study of a society which has never before been represented on film by its own inhabitants. Mr. Wanma-caidan treats Tibetan culture with great dignity and a non-judgmental attitude that balances tradition and modernity, religious culture and imported technology.”
 
Citytv Western Canada Feature Film Award
 
Sean Garrity wins the Citytv Western Canada Feature Film Award for his feature LUCID, a tightly wound thriller shot with great style and perfect pacing. Garrity’s film earned praise from jurors Nathaniel Geary, Liam Lacey and Timothy Taylor, as “a work of polish and complexity, exploring the relationship between dream states and reality.” The award, sponsored by Citytv, is accompanied by a cash prize of $12,000.
 
BRAVO!Fact Award for Best Young Western Canadian Director of a Short Film
 
Jamie Travis wins the BRAVO!Fact Award for Best Young Western Canadian Director of a Short Film for PATTERNS, which jurors praised “its satiric use of film language to create an apparently logical universe that is simultaneously absurd.” The award, sponsored by BRAVO!Fact, is accompanied by a $5,000 cash prize.
 
Women in Film & Video Vancouver’s Artistic Merit Award
 
Carly Pope received the Women in Film & Video Vancouver’s Artistic Merit Award for her performance in THE HAMSTER CAGE.  The award is given annually to a B.C. woman filmmaker or performer of distinction. 

Official Vancouver International Film Festival Website