Whistler Film Festival ShortWork Awards explained

The ShortWork Awards are annual film awards, presented by the Whistler Film Festival to honour the best short films screened at the festival.

Prior to 2012, a single award was presented inclusive of both Canadian and international short films; in that year, separate awards were created for Canadian and international films. In 2010, a category was also introduced for the best short film by British Columbia film students.

On two occasions in 2015 and 2016, an award was also presented for best screenplay in a Canadian short film, but this has not been presented since 2016.

Best ShortWork

Year	Film	Filmmaker(s)	Ref
2002	Death's Dream	David Massar	^[1]
2003	The Watchers	Kevin Shortt	^[2]
2004	A Russian Wave	Becky Bristow	^[3]
	Man. Feel. Pain.	Dylan Akio Smith
2005	Noise	Greg Spottiswood	^[4]
2006	Love Seat	Kris Elgstrand	^[5]
2007	The Colony	Jeff Barnaby	^[6]
2008	Next Floor	Denis Villeneuve	^[7]
2009	Life Begins (La Vie commence)	Émile Proulx-Cloutier	^[8]
2010	Via Gori	George Barbakadze	^[9]
2011	The Paris Quintet in Practice Makes Perfect	Benny Schuetze	^[10]

Best Canadian ShortWork

Year	Film	Filmmaker(s)	Ref
2012	Requiem for Romance	Jonathan Ng	^[11]
2013	Anxious Oswald Greene	Marshall Axani	^[12]
2014	Running Season	Grayson Moore	^[13]
2015	Withheld	Jonathan Sousa	^[14]
2016	Mutants	Alexandre Dostie	^[15]
2017	We Forgot to Break Up	Chandler Levack	^[16]
2018	Brotherhood (Ikhwène)	Meryam Joobeur	^[17]
2019	My Favourite Food Is Indian Tacos, My Favourite Drink Is Iced Tea and My Favourite Thing Is Drumming	Derius Matchewan	^[18]
2020	Shooting Star (Comme une comète)	Ariane Louis-Seize	^[19]
2021		Zacharias Kunuk	^[20]
	Fufu	Omolola Ajao
2022	Tongue	Kaho Yoshida	^[21]
2023	Atlantis	Zoé Pelchat, Jean-François Sauvé	^[22]
	Motherland	Jasmin Mozaffari
	Soap	Lulu Wei
	Zip	Ava Safai

Best Screenplay

Year	Film	Filmmaker(s)	Ref
2015	The Wolf Who Came to Dinner	Jem Garrard
2016	The Head Vanishes	Franck Dion

Best International ShortWork

Year	Film	Filmmaker(s)	Ref
2012	Drawn from Memory	Marcin Bortkiewicz
2013	A Grand Canal	Johnny Ma
2014	The Tide Keeper	Alyx Duncan
2015	Dissonance	Till Nowak
2016	Timecode	Juanjo Giménez
2017	Fear Us Women	David Darg
2018	Miss World	Georgia Fu
2019	Daughter	Daria Kashcheeva
2020	Ashmina	Dekel Berenson	^[23]
2021	Isole Ciclope	Ryan De Franco, Matthew Mendelson
2022	Warsha	Dania Bdeir
	Ice Merchants	João Gonzalez
2023	I Promise You Paradise	Morad Mostafa
	Fish Bowl	Rachel Sweeney

Best British Columbia Student ShortWork

Year	Film	Filmmaker(s)	Ref
2010	Irradiate	Julia Hutchings
2011	No Words Came Down	Ryan Flowers, Lisa Pham
2012	Plating	Jon Thomas
2013	Backward Fall	Andrew Pollins
2014	Godhead	Connor Gaston
2015	The Blue Jet	Lawrence Lam
2016	Bombing	Gloria Mercer
2017	Floating Light	Natalie Murao
2018	The Bus Stop	Kama Sood
2019	New Washing Machine	Mitch Huttema
2020	Rollerbladies	Rowan Landaiche, Amber Nordstrand
2021	A Family Act	Ashley Yeung
2022	Omukama	Zane Klassen
2023	Black & Blue	Emma Eng
	Gerald	Kasha Rae Malinowski
	Like the Wind	Hugh Saint-Jacques, Ethan Shandro

Notes and References

1. Dana Michell, "Film fest favourites announced". Pique Newsmagazine, December 19, 2002.
2. David Spaner, "On the Corner wins prize: Vancouver film tops in Canada at Whistler fest". The Province, December 10, 2003.
3. Ian Edwards, "Crazy Canucks wins at Whistler". Playback, January 3, 2005.
4. "I'd like to thank the lifties..." Vancouver Courier, December 7, 2005.
5. Glen Schaefer, "Happy People wins prize". The Province, December 4, 2006.
6. Marsha Lederman, "Whistler festival ends with awards ceremony". The Globe and Mail, December 4, 2007.
7. Michael Kissinger, "Snowless Whistler Film Festival wraps up; Too many oysters, Tom Green haunt eighth annual schmooze-fest". Vancouver Courier, December 10, 2008.
8. Fred Lee, "B.C. lights up both stage and screen". National Post, December 12, 2009.
9. Graeme McRanor, "It's a wrap for 10th anniversary of Whistler Film Festival; Highlights included a chat with filmmakers Monte Hellman, Bruce McDonald and Atom Egoyan and a new home for the film fest". Vancouver Sun, December 6, 2010.
10. Maggie Langrick, "Winnipeg filmmaker's Keyhole named best Canadian feature". Winnipeg Free Press, December 5, 2011.
11. [Mark Leiren-Young]
12. Fred Lee, "Snow business". The Province, December 15, 2013.
13. Cathryn Atkinson, "Quebec drama Félix et Meira sweeps Borsos Awards at WFF 2014". Pique Newsmagazine, December 10, 2014.
14. Craig Takeuchi, "WFF 2015: River and Last Harvest lead award winners". The Georgia Straight, December 6, 2015.
15. Cathryn Atkinson, "Quebec's Before the Streets wins Borsos Best Film Award at Whistler Film Festival". Pique Newsmagazine, December 7, 2016.
16. Craig Takeuchi, "It's a tie for best Canadian feature at the 2017 Whistler Film Festival". The Georgia Straight, December 4, 2017.
17. Adrian Mack, "Québécois film A Colony sweeps Whistler Film Fest awards". The Georgia Straight, December 3, 2018.
18. Alyssa Noel, "Whistler Film Festival hands out awards". Pique Newsmagazine, December 14, 2019.
19. Cédric Bélanger, "Festival de film: plusieurs Québécois primés à Whistler". Le Journal de Québec, December 21, 2020.
20. Charlie Smith, "Cinema of Sleep wins Borsos award for best Canadian feature at Whistler Film Festival". The Georgia Straight, December 20, 2021.
21. Pat Mullen, "River, Coyote Top Whistler Film Festival Awards Winners". Point of View, December 4, 2022.
22. Taimur Sikander Mirza, "Atikamekw Suns wins best Canadian feature at WFF". Playback, December 5, 2023.
23. Craig Takeuchi, "Whistler Film Festival 2020 award winners: From B.C.'s Indian Road Trip to Newfoundland's Little Orphans". The Georgia Straight, December 21, 2020.