2023 Awards

We are thrilled to share the winners and honourable mentions of our F-O-R-M awards, recognizing films that impacted juries and audiences alike! These awards came with a cash prize for the filmmakers. Congrats and thank you to our audiences and committees for your contributions in selecting awards.

Learn more about all F-O-R-M 2023 films here.

About TELL THE TRUTH (BUT TELL IT SLANT)
In an attempt to move forward, to move on, Joanne internally dissects her memories, feelings, self, until there is nothing left. All to look back and see that she has not taken a single step from where she was. It may not be something that one can do alone.

Creative Director, Assistant Editor: Joanne Park // Mentors: Nancy Lee and Eric Cheung // Makeup: Xander Terrin Chen
Videography: Cameron Anderson // Videography and Assistant Editor: JaeHee Kim // Colourist: Patrick Gong // VFX: Dallas McKinnon
Dancers: Juan Imperial, Erin Lum // The Man: Dorian Issa

HONOURABLE MENTION

About FANTASMA NEON
A delivery man dreams of having a motorcycle. He was told that everything would be like a musical film.

Director, Writer: Leonardo Martinelli // Producer: Ayssa Yamaguti Norek, Leonardo Martinelli, Rafael Teixeira // Starring: Dennis Pinheiro, Silvero Pereira
Cinematographer: Felipe Quintelas // Editor: Lobo Mauro // Music: Ayssa Yamaguti Norek, Carol Maia, José Miguel Brasil, Leonardo Martinelli
Choreographer: Soraya Bastos

Audience Choice Award presented by F-O-R-M and voted on by 2023 audiences  

WINNER: LOST PARADISE by Satya Mari, Canada (Commissioned Artist)
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: RELINQ by Adam Smith + Colby McLean, Canada (Commissioned Artists) + PAPAYA by Dédé Chen, Canada (Frames in Motion Screening)

Lost Paradise (Satya Mari) is the film that left a lasting impression on YOU, the audience! A wild and thought-provoking ride, audiences were captivated by the film’s striking use of movement and visual effects. The atmospheric nature of Lost Paradise brought a poetic, palpable sense of discomfort. Audiences were also in awe of the innovative combination of sound, movement, and film in Relinq (Adam Smith + Colby McLean) and greatly moved by the gripping storytelling in Papaya (Dédé Chen). 

Thanks to all the audience members who casted their vote — we love hearing which films resonated with you!

About LOST PARADISE
LOST PARADISE is at home and out of time. It explores the dynamics of three different maternal relationships through familiar, unusual, and sticky states.

Director: Satya Mari // Music Score: Satya Mari, Where Did You Sleep Last Night by Lead Belly, Call Me When You Can by Chris Petra //
Editor: Satya Mari // Cinematographer: dani Mackenzie Long // Sound: Ethan Volberg // Lighting and extra help on set: Kaya Tsurumi, Audrey Sides Performers: Allie Shiff, Satya Mari, Ryan Jackson, Kate Franklin, Carla Van Messel, Susan the cat // Post Production Mentors: Santi Henderson, Joshua Lam

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

About RELINQ
RELINQ inverses the relationship between dance and music. Sounds created by dancers have been warped and molded to produce a piece of music led by dancers, rather than a dance piece led by music. Through this mixture of movement and sound, RELINQ captures the unfiltered energy of the Session and offers it to the viewer without external interference. Through the viewfinder of a camera, the audience is invited to experience the session as a dancer, a spectator, and a fly on the wall.

Directors: Colby McLean, Adam Smith // Assistant Director: J. L. McLean // Producer: Justin Larioza // Music Score: Adam Smith
Editors: Colby McLean, Justin Larioza // Cinematographers: Benjamin San Martin, Nick Alford // Dancers: Colby McLean, Eunice Faye Dionisio, Adam Smith, Skargfy, Samantha Lindo, Justin Larioza Mentors: Sophia Mai Wolfe, Eric Cheung

About PAPAYA
A Sino-Canadian adoptee breaks the silence of incest by responding to her family archives through dance. In the ritual sacrifice of a papaya, she reenacts her traumatic past to emancipate her adult self.

Director: Dédé Chen // Producer: Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival // Dancer: Meihan Carrier-Brisson // Director of Photography: Laurence Ly
Director of Animation: Fanny Lord-Bourcier // Director of Sound: Chittakone Baccam Thirakul // Set Designer: Gong Li //
Art Designer: Emmanuelle GP // Cinematography collaborator: Corinne Jiao-Yuntao Beaumier // Voice collaborator: Cynthia Wu-Maheux
Photographer: Ange Guo

Artistic Committee Award presented by F-O-R-M and selected by our 2023 Artistic Committee  

WINNER: 4, 6, 2, 0, by Aerial Sunday-Cardinal, Canada (Commissioned Artist)
HONOURABLE MENTIONs: opaqueREFUSALS by danielle Mackenzie Long, Canada (Public Screens and Frames in Motion Screenings) + My Body is a Poem/The World Makes with Me by Brandon Wint, Canada (Embodied Extensions Screening)

The F-O-R-M 2023 Artistic Committee would like to recognize 3 incredible films that thoughtfully contextualize recorded movement in relation to time, community, and culture.

4, 6, 2, 0, (Aerial Sunday-Cardinal) is a film that deeply moved the committee through its grounding cinematic approach. Scenes revealed themselves through lingering and restraint, breathing life onto the screen in ways we have never experienced before. Through contextualizing dance within a broader framework of meaning and culture, 4, 6, 2, 0, reminds us of how gathering together in community is a radical act. The Artistic Committee would also like to recognize the lush and euphoric My Body is a Poem/The World Makes With Me (Brandon Wint) for its craft in integrating animation, live action, and poetry, and opaqueREFUSALS (danielle Mackenzie Long) for its intelligent material interrogation of digitality and the body.

Thanks to the 2023 Artistic Committee: Ashvini Sundaram, Juan Imperial, Eryn Tempest

About 4, 6, 2, 0,
A short film documentary that takes place on Whitefish Lake First Nation #128 and Saddle Lake Cree Nation, offering an insight into and a reminder of Nehiyawak traditions and values.

Director: Aerial Sunday // Cinematographer: Andriy Lyskov // Sound design: Matt Leibowitz // Editors: Joshua Lam, Aerial Sunday //
Mentor: Joshua Lam

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

About opaqueREFUSALS
A ribcage embodies a dance, refusing to allow its movement to be constrained by a diaphragm made of bubble wrap. Using animation software and motion capture data from a non-binary dance artist’s movement a dance is presented through non-gendered means of performance. opaqueREFUSALS is the first volume of a work-in-progress interdisciplinary project combining movement, digital media, installation, online game design and live performance. The work aims to empower genderqueer dance artists to exist in a world where gender is neither binary, nor defined.

Director, Animator, Dancer, Editor: danielle Mackenzie Long // Sound Designer: Miya Kosowick Mawatari //
New Media Support: Freya Björg Olafson, Casey Koyczan

About MY BODY IS A POEM/THE WORLD MAKES WITH ME
MY BODY IS A POEM/THE WORLD MAKES WITH ME is a personal documentary about belonging, familial love and Canadian colonial histories by director and poet Brandon Wint. At the intersection of Blackness and disability, the film is an artistic kaleidoscope composed of animation,illustration, poetry, and photography bending genres and flirting with experimentalism. With a colourful soundscape and cinematography to match, Wint’s directorial debut floats off the screen and echos as a defiant, assured visual language. The film also depicts some of the beauty and difficulty of life in the Canadian prairies, as histories of racism and ableism mix with the beauty of the land, and the resolve of racialized communities to create a life that is at once brutal and beautiful, joyful and rugged for Black Canadians.

Director, Writer, Performer: Brandon Wint // Editor, Motion Designer: Noah Lefevre //
Music production, Mixing, Mastering and Arrangement: Brian Raine // Cinematography: Caelin Moore, Brian Raine //
Special Thanks: Titilope Sonuga, Matthew James Weigel, Edmonton Heritage Council

Explore the 2023 films here, and see F-O-R-M 2022 winners here.