DOXA award winners are selected on the basis of three major criteria:
• success and innovation in the realization of the project’s concept
• originality and relevance of subject matter and approach
• overall artistic and technical proficiency

DOXA Feature Documentary Award

Winner: 9 Star Hotel (Ido Haar, Israel)
Award sponsor: Avid Technology Inc.
Prize: Avid Xpress Pro (editing system)

DOXA Short Documentary Award

Winner: Black and White (Zam Salim, UK) (Screened as part of our Lost Worlds program)
Prize: $500 cash

DOXA Spotlight on BC Award

Winner: The Edge of Eden: Living with Grizzlies (Jeff & Sue Turner, Canada)
Juried by the DOXA Programming Committee
Award sponsor: Finalé Editworks
Prize: Post-production services (value: $1000)

DOXA Student Film Award

Juried by the DOXA Programming Committee.

Winner: Os Três de Portugal (Jordan Paterson, Canada) (Screened as part of our Música Inspiração program)
Award sponsor: The Gulf Islands Film and Television School
Prize: Adult Week-long Intensive (full scholarship)

The National Film Board COLIN LOW Award

Juried by representatives of the DOXA Programming Committee and the National Film Board. Named for Colin Low, a tireless innovator and a pioneer of new techniques in filmmaking, who has made extraordinary contributions to cinema in Canada and around the world, this award is presented by the NFB to the most innovative Canadian film.

Winner: No More Hiroshima, No More Nagasaki (Yuki Nakamura, Canada) (Screened as part of our The Art of War program)
Award sponsor: NFB
Prize: Filmmaker Assistance Fund (FAP), technical services (value: $3000)

DOXA FEATURE DOCUMENTARY AWARD JURORS

Bill Evans

Currently Director of Programming at the Whistler Film Festival, Bill is the former Director of Showcases at the National Screen Institute – Canada, where he also worked as the Director of NSI Film Exchange in Winnipeg. A filmmaker in his own right, Bill Evans is also an award-winning events producer and has a broad range of film festival and programming experience including five years as the programmer and Executive Director of Edmonton’s Metro Cinema, and working experience with the Pacific Cinémathèque in Vancouver, Vancouver International Film Festival and the Moving Pictures Travelling Canadian Film Festival. Bill studied Drama and English at the University of Alberta, and Film Production and Film Studies at Simon Fraser University in B.C.

Haida Paul

Haida Paul has worked in film and television for over 30 years. During this time, she has collaborated with filmmakers from Canada, India, Britiain, United States, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. Although known primarily for documentary editing, Haida also earned recognition as a feature film editor when she was awarded a Genie in 1986 for My American Cousin. Her teaching activities include: Apprenticeship trainings for Directors’ Guild of Canada, workshops and seminars with Cineworks Canada, sessional lecturer at Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr School of Art, and the University of British Columbia.

Jim Sinclair

Jim Sinclair is the Executive Director of Vancouver’s Pacific Cinéma-thèque, one of Canada’s oldest and most active film institutes, and has been a curator of Canadian and international films for over 20 years. He has served on film festival, government arts council and film industry awards juries, for, among others, the Vancouver, Whistler, and Bratislava film festivals; the B.C. Arts Council; Manitoba’s Blizzard Awards; and the Toronto International Film Festival Group’s Canada’s Top Ten initiative.

DOXA SHORT DOCUMENTARY AWARD JURORS

Victor Martínez Aja

Victor Martínez Aja was born and raised in Mexico City and has spent the last ten years living in Vancouver. His passion for the arts and experience as a cultural promoter has led Victor to collaborate with different Latin American events, as well as various film festivals in the city. Victor is the co-founder and director of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.

Arlene Nova Ami

Arlene Nova Ami is a documentary filmmaker based in Vancouver. Upon graduating from Concordia University’s Communication Studies program in Montreal, she co-founded Red Storm Productions. Under Red Storm, she wrote, directed and co-produced the one-hour documentary Say I Do (CTV, Vision TV), about Filipino women who came to Canada as part of the global mail-order bride phenomenon. She also co-produced Army of One (CBC, BBC, Best Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs 2004), about young recruits who joined the U.S. military after 9/11. She recently directed Secrets (CBC Passionate Eye), a documentary about teen sexuality for Make Believe Media.

Aerlyn Weissman

Aerlyn Weissman has worked on film projects from Hollywood to the Himalayas. She’s camped with grizzly bears for National Geographic, witnessed the conflicts of the Middle East, and recorded the Toronto Symphony. As a writer/director she has won two Genie awards and created films on a wide range of topics from forensic archaeology and digital technologies, to censorship and social software. Whether she is creating scientifically accurate computer graphics or shooting historical recreations, her signature approach involves a seamless blend of documentary, technical and dramatic elements. Now living on the West Coast of British Columbia, she continues to explore her interest in independent cinema and innovative television.