Quebec drama Félix et Meira has won the Borsos Award for Best Canadian Feature at the 2014 Whistler Film Festival.
The film swept the Borsos category, taking home four Talking Stick prizes overall.
The prizes were handed out at the awards breakfast at the Whistler Conference Centre on the final morning of the festival, Sunday, Dec. 7.
The man behind Félix et Meira, Maxime Giroux, won Best Borsos Screenplay and Best Borsos Director.
Hadas Yaron won Best Performance in a Borsos Film for her portrayal of Meira, a young Orthodox Jewish woman who finds freedom from her restrictions of her faith and marriage through a relationship with a young man in mourning.
There were six feature films in the Borsos category overall.
The winners were selected by a judging panel of three: actress-producer Kim Cattrall, actor-director Jason Priestley and Michael Hirsh of The Entertainment and Media Finance Group Inc.
And Whistler filmmaker Mike Douglas, along with his co-producer Anthony Bonello, was on hand as they won Best Mountain Culture Film for their documentary Snowman.
Snowman closed the festival with two sold-out screenings later Sunday.
Other awards included:
The Backwards Class – which took five years to make – won best documentary at the festival.
It also tied for the EDA Award from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists for best female-directed film.
Its director Madeleine Grant shared the honours with director Anne Fontaine, who took the EDA Award for her narrative feature Gemma Bovery.
Best Canadian ShortWork Award went to The Tide Keeper.
Best Student ShortWork Award went to Godhead.
And the MPPIA Short Film Award went to Vehicular Romanticide.
For more on the Whistler Film Festival, pick up Pique Newsmagazine on Thursday, Dec. 11 or visit www.piquenewsmagazine.com.
