2025 DOXA Award Winners
DOXA Documentary Film Festival is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 competitions.
Presented by the Directors Guild of Canada, the recipient of the Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director is Patrick Shannon for Saints and Warriors, DOXA’s Closing Gala presentation.
“For its beautifully layered narrative, its honest and intimate portrayal of contemporary Indigenous life, and a final act that was deeply moving and offered us an inspiring hope for the future, the award for Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director goes to Saints and Warriors, directed by Patrick Shannon,” say jurors Chris Chong, Fabianny Deschamps, and Corey Payette.
The jurors also would like to recognize Lyana Patrick, director of Nechako - It Will Be A Big River Again: “For its urgent depiction of a community’s fifty-year fight to reclaim land, its vision of sovereignty, and the strength of collective action, we’re proud to give an Honourable Mention to Nechako, directed by Lyana Patrick.”
The winner of the DOXA Short Documentary Award is Correct Me if I'm Wrong, directed by Hao Zhou.
Jurors Terra Long, Sasha Bondartchouk and Rami Katz share, “This strikingly contemporary study of filial loyalty offers a complex portrayal of both compliance and resistance to tradition. As the filmmaker's family attempt to exorcise their queerness, speaking up for one's truth proves exceedingly difficult. The jury was moved by the film’s beautiful photography and personal storytelling techniques which, through an intimate and tempered perspective, highlight the painfully volatile tensions between love, care, concern, misunderstanding, and refusal of acceptance. The award goes to Correct Me If I'm Wrong by Hao Zhou.”
“For its compelling personal storytelling techniques, poetic imagery, and meta narrative filmmaking, we would like to give the Honourable Mention to From Paris to Pyongyang, directed by Helen Lee.”
A new award presented by Vancouver Film Studios and Pacific Backlot, the winner of the Vancouver Film Studios Award for Best BC Director is Damien Eagle Bear for #skoden.
“For its clarity of directorial vision, its compassionate depiction of a much-seen but seldom-understood community, we are pleased to award Damien Eagle Bear the Vancouver Film Studios Award for Best BC Director for his film #skoden,” announce jurors and Kris Anderson Connexions Program mentees Rame Ibrahim, Faith Sparrow-Crawford, Morgan Sears-Williams, Mimi Dejene, and Brandon Wint.
“For its ability and willingness to foreground the love, food and generational plant wisdom within Palestinian life, we would also like to give honourable mention to co-directors Elizabeth Vibert and Chen Wang for the film Aisha's Story.”
The winner of the Best Feature Documentary Award for international documentaries is Sudan, Remember Us directed by Hind Meddeb.
Jurors Michael Scoular, Jae Woo Kang and Jamila Pomeroy say, “As an authentic portrait that preserves the vitality of a uniquely youth-led resistance, in which we bear witness to a movement that’s equal parts civil disobedience, art, poetry, and music, Sudan, Remember Us impressed the jury with its cultural authenticity, bravery, and commitment to bringing light to one of the largest and most suppressed human rights crisis of our generation. We are proud to give the DOXA award for Best Feature Documentary to Sudan, Remember Us, directed by Hind Meddeb.”
The jury also gives an honourable mention to two other films: “Out of an entanglement of damage and division—made by policy and media and long neglect—a portrait, advanced through confident graphic design, elegant narrative structure, and community storytelling and memory emerges in Casey Carter's To Use a Mountain. For these qualities the jury is proud to give this film an honourable mention.”
“For its stunning ability to navigate secrets, lies, and documentary form, all while honouring the perspectives of participants who might otherwise have little reason to trust the actions of the people closest to them, we're proud to give an honourable mention to Mistress Dispeller by Elizabeth Lo."
The recipient of the Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming is They Are Sacred directed by Kim O’Bomsawin.
Jurors Darius Darabi, Olivia Moore, Emily Ash Cutajar and Anna Hetherington announce, “We are thrilled to present the Nigel Moore Award in the Rated Y for Youth category to They Are Sacred directed by Kim O'Bomsawin. They Are Sacred is a touching and intimate look at the relationship between a father and son that reframes one’s understanding of neurodiversity through an Indigenous lens. With increasing misinformation and harmful rhetoric centred around neurodiversity, this film powerfully showcases how autism is not a deficit but in fact, a sacred gift, according to Cree traditions. The film additionally highlights the systemic barriers and tradeoffs Indigenous families in Canada face in accessing autism support or care that is culturally resonant. They Are Sacred is a beautiful film that resonates with viewers of all ages. For youth especially, it offers an empowering story of reclamation, acceptance, and community that is vital at this moment.”