Awards 2026

RBC
Best Canadian Feature Film

All Canadian feature films are eligible for this prize.

$2,000 cash prize

An Incomplete Calendar, Sanaz Sohrabi

Jury Statement
An Incomplete Calendar is a fascinating and absorbing chronicle of the collective movement among impoverished oil-bearing countries to wrest power and profits from Western corporations that led to OPEC’s formation in 1960. Through inventive and poetic means, the film documents a process of rapid decolonization and modernization as reflected in the cultural production of the era, and conveys a sense of the ideals and ambitions for sovereignty which gave rise to profound economic and geopolitical change.

Honourable Mention

Sunburn

Serville Poblete

Jury Statement

The jury would like to include an Honourable Mention for the whimsical and soulful Sunburn, which captures a hot summer’s day in the life of an urban neighbourhood whose young inhabitants ruminate on the pleasure of melting popsicles, the preciousness of friendship, love’s disappointments, and surviving tragedy. With the film’s light touch, assured tone and authentic aura, the mystery of what lies ahead for each of its winsome characters lingers meaningfully.

Dipchand LLP
Best Feature Film

All feature films are eligible for this prize.

$2,000 cash prize

Hearing, Bảo Lê

Jury Statement

Bảo Lê creates a mysterious, ethereal, and slow-moving world with his slice-of-life film Hearing. Aptly titled, it follows the life of a decibel meter installer. With beautifully crafted visual and sound design, his story unfolds like artwork for the senses while exploring themes of unexpressed emotions and familial estrangement.

Reel Asian – DOC Institute
Best Documentary

All documentary feature films are eligible for this $1,500
cash prize, donated by Diang Iu and Victoria Shen and
the DOC Institute.

$1,500 cash prize

Pinball, Naveen Chaubal

Jury Statement

Pinball is a searing portrait of a life trying to break out of the parameters historical circumstance has set. With psychological depth and emotional resonance, Naveen Chaubal has crafted a gripping coming-of-age that reveals the lived contradictions of migrant settlement and the pursuit of the American “good life.” An unforgettable film filled with melancholic tension and poignant striving.

Michael Fukushima
AnimAsian Award

All animated works are eligible for this award. With support from Sheridan College.

$1,000 cash prize

Nanu!, Ansh Sirohi

Jury Statement

Ansh Sirohi artfully combines together palimpsest animation techniques and kinetic typography into a sweet remembrance of her grandparents. We’re pleased to invite generations of audiences to share in the laughter, and to present Sirohi with the Michael Fukushima AnimAsian Award.

SAMANSA
Short Film Award

All short films are eligible for this prize. The winner will also receive a distribution offer to be featured on the SAMANSA platform.

$1,000 cash prize

One Last Walk, Andrea Bang, Diana Bang

Jury Statement

This year’s SAMANSA Short Film Award recognizes One Last Walk (dirs. Diana Bang, Andrea Bang) as the winner for its warm yet wistful portrait of loneliness in later life; the simple premise of two Asian grandmothers sharing a neighborhood walk, with no common language between them, yet sustaining a lighthearted relationship, is a moving testament to how connection needs no words to bridge culture and distance.

DGC Ontario and WIFT+ Toronto
Film Award

All films made by women or non-binary Ontario-based artists are eligible for this award.

$1,000 cash prize, $250 in programming gift certificates and a one-year membership to WIFT+ Toronto

Landlines, Miru Yogarajah, Jay Aramboo

Jury Statement

We are pleased to grant the Directors Guild of Canada Ontario & WIFT+ Toronto Film Award to filmmakers Miru Yogarajah and Jay Aramboo. Their brilliant collaborative work Landlines is a timely film that uncovers the exploitative labour conditions that migrant truck drivers across the GTA must complexly contend with. At a political moment where anti-South Asian vitriol continues to spread insidiously, Landlines braids together both animation and footage of workers to offer tender portraits of these subjects, as they negotiate their desires and constraints on a brutal, late-capitalist terrain. With deep care and craft, Yogarajah and Aramboo’s film opens a portal for the crisis of these marginalized workers’ frustrations and hopes to be caught, felt, and urgently responded to.

Canadian Society of Cinematographers
Best Cinematography

One Last Walk, Rachel Chen

Jury Statement

Awarded by Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC) | Jurors:

• Zoe Dirse csc, President of the CSC (Full member, CSC)
• Jessica De Los Santos, Cinematographer (Associate Member, CSC)
• Carolyn Wong, Instagram co-ordinator/curator, CSC (Associate Member, CSC)

The jury is pleased to present Rachel Chen of One Last Walk with the Best Cinematography Award. The decisions made in lenses, colours, and textures shows a great attention to detail and caused for a beautiful visual rhythm, in cohesion with the story and film as a whole. Although the characters were lost in translation, its juxtaposition with the carefully thought out and precise compositions of this film was a perfect guide for our engagement with their emotions.

Honourable Mention

The Children Trap

Andrew Lee

Jury Statement
The jury would like to extend an honourable mention to Andrew Lee for his cinematography on the short film The Children Trap, which seamlessly supported the narrative through lighting and framing perspective, deeply drawing the viewer into this emotionally touching story.

Armstrong Acting Studios Outstanding Performer in a Canadian Short Film

The award recipient will receive full tuition coverage for
a class at Armstrong Acting Studios. Recipient must be
an Ontario resident.

Full class tuition ($1,129 value)

One Last Walk, Cai (June) Wu

Jury Statement

The jury is pleased to present the Armstrong Acting Studios Outstanding Performer in a Canadian Short Film to Cai (June) Wu for her portrayal of Mei in One Last Walk. In a film about two grandmothers who forge an endearing friendship while each speaking their own language, Wu brings a beguiling naturalness to her performance. At times, we forget we are watching a dramatic film and find ourselves simply captivated by the tenderness and realism she conveys. Beneath the seemingly ordinary conversations lie palpable loneliness and profound kindness about her character that Wu so subtly delivers.

Seneca Polytechnic Best Short Film

All short films are eligible for this prize.

$1,000 cash prize

Unbound Zine: Xiaomei Going Overseas, Oyester

Jury Statement

This film finds inventive new ways to engage with notions of counter-archival practice on-screen, through a strange, unfolding relationship between drag performance and queer, underground zine-making. The film illuminates the fleshier qualities of zines, the weird, punky ways in which Asian queer histories circulate outside the fold of the mainstream, and the talismanic power these resistant objects take on when we share them with each other. We proudly present the Seneca Polytechnic Best Short Film Award to director Oyester’s film, Unbound Zine: Xiaomei Going Overseas (不可装订：小美要出海).