GFF is thrilled to announce the GFF 2020 Award Winners for the film’s taking part in the 20th annual edition of the Festival! Thanks to Joy Wood and Gled Vid Investment for their generous sponsorship of GFF’s Awards Presentations for 2020!
Top winners included the Manitoba film Ruthless Souls, which picked up an ACTRA Best Actor Award for lead actor Mary Galloway and the Best Manitoba Director Award for MB-based filmmaker Madison Thomas, sponsored by the Directors Guild of Canada! Standout Canadian feature film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open picked up APTN’s Indigenous Spirit Award and also the top GFF Grand Jury Prize!
Ex-pat Manitoba Filmmaker Matthew Rankin won IATSE 856’s new On the Rise Award for his mind-blowing first feature film The Twentieth Century, as the most promising Canadian director to watch. And the film most highly ranked by this year’s GFF Audience and thus the winner of the Best of Fest Audience Choice Award – sponsored by Recycle Everywhere – was Driveways by Andrew Ahn. For a full list of the winners, please see below!
Congratulations to all of our incredibly deserving GFF 2020 Award Winners. Thank you to all our nominees, who are all truly winners! You have all made GFF’s 20th anniversary a standout year.
AWARD WINNERS | GFF 2020
Best Manitoba Director Award, sponsored by the Directors Guild of Canada
Winner: Madison Thomas (Ruthless Souls)
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On the Rise Award: Best Canadian Director to Watch, sponsored by IATSE 856
Winner: Matthew Rankin (The Twentieth Century)
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Indigenous Spirit Award, sponsored by APTN
Winner: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open by 
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn
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Achievement in Acting Awards, sponsored by ACTRA Manitoba
Winner: Mary Galloway (Ruthless Souls)
Winner: Milos Mitrovic (Tapeworm)
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Best MB Short Film Jury Prize
Winner: Northstarling by Daniel Gerson & Trevor Mowchun
Best MB Short Film Audience Choice Award, sponsored by Manitoba Film & Music
Winner: Portage Place by Tiff Bartel
Best Canadian Short Film Jury Prize
Winner: Now is the Time by Christopher Auchter
Best International Short Film Jury Prize
Winner: Mthunzi by Tebogo Malebogo
Grand Jury Prize, sponsored by Al Shell
Winner: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn
Honourable Mention: Echo by Rúnar Rúnarsson
Honourable Mention: The Wolf House by Joaquin Cociña & Cristóbal León
GFF is also excited to announce the Pitch Competition winner AND the Best of Fest Audience Choice Award winner!
RBC $10,000 Emerging Filmmaker Pitch Competition
Winner: Joanne Roberts – Anak
Audience Choice Award: Quan Luong and Erin Hembrador – Roadie
Best of Fest Audience Choice Award, sponsored by Recycle Everywhere
Winner: Driveways by Andrew Ahn
Runner-Up: Kuessipan by Myriam Verreault