imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
Presenting Sponsor: Bell Media
Announces Air Canada Audience Choice Award
The 16th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival has ended, but one award has yet to be revealed!
imagineNATIVE is pleased to announce that Adam Garnet Jones’ Fire Song is the winner of the 2015 Air Canada Audience Choice Award. Presented by Air Canada, the $1,000 award was created in 2014 to give audiences a chance to vote for their favourite film from the Festival by rating them at each screening in a special balloting system. Over 9,372 votes were cast for 123 eligible films this year.
Eric Lauzon, Manager In-Flight Entertainment for Air Canada congratulates the winner: “Our presentation of the Audience Choice Award is an exciting way for Air Canada to take our partnership with imagineNATIVE and our support to Indigenous Cinema to another level. We have been developing this relationship through our Canadian in-flight entertainment programming and are thrilled to announce that the Audience Choice Award this year is going to the debut film by Adam Garnet Jones.”
One of the first feature films by a First Nations director to deal with two-spirited people, Fire Song focuses on a young Anishinaabe man who is forced to choose between staying in his community, and exploring the expanded possibilities of the world outside. Screened as the Closing Night Gala for the Festival on October 18, 2015, the film is a breathtaking and powerful story of identity and strength and features impressive performances by the cast, including screen legend Jennifer Podemski. With sensitivity and intelligence, Fire Song confronts some of the most pressing questions facing First Nations communities and announces the arrival of a powerful new voice in Canadian cinema.
Adam Garnet Jones’ work has been broadcast on television, screened widely at film festivals and earned him recognition internationally. His previous short films include Cloudbreaker, A Small Thing, and LIAR. Fire Song is his first feature-length film.
Those who may have missed the sold-out screening of Fire Song at imagineNATIVE are in for a real treat – the film plays as part of the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival on November 20, 2015.
“The Air Canada Audience Choice Award recognizes the film that captured the hearts and minds of our audiences in a meaningful way,” said Jason Ryle, imagineNATIVE’s Executive Director. “We are absolutely thrilled with the response we’ve received for the Award from our audiences and congratulate Adam and the entire Fire Song film team.”
imagineNATIVE takes to the skies with Air Canada!
Presented by Vtape and Microclimat Films in partnership with imagineNATIVE and Nunavut Tourism, the imagineNATIVE programme runs from September to December on all Air Canada in-flight entertainment systems worldwide! This year we invite you to watch the award-winning 15th anniversary commission-turned-feature film, The Embargo Project.
The programme features the five short films created by five Canadian Indigenous women filmmakers from across Canada, who challenged one another to make a film under a set of restrictions tailored to each artist. imagineNATIVE Presents: The Embargo Project program can be screened on Air Canada flights under the Canadian movies category on the Air Canada enRoute in-flight entertainment system. Over 5 million people each month worldwide will have access to these incredible films!
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world’s largest Indigenous festival showcasing innovation in film, video, radio and new media. The Festival presents the most compelling and distinctive works from Canada and around the globe, reflecting the diversity of the world’s Indigenous nations and illustrating the vitality and excellence of Native art and culture in contemporary media.
The 16th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival was held in Toronto from October 14-18, 2015.
For more information please visit www.imagineNATIVE.org / facebook/imagineNATIVE / @imagineNATIVE