Director Bobbi Jo Hart’s music documentary Fanny: The Right To Rock has claimed the best Canadian feature prize at the 2021 Inside Out film festival.
The film, which tells the story of the first all-female band to land a record deal and tour the world, was among the titles honoured when the 31st annual Toronto-based 2SLGBTQ+ film event wrapped up over the weekend.
Other big winners include Marley Morrison’s Sweetheart, which won the best first feature award. The British film is a comedic coming-of-age tale about an awkward girl who reluctantly goes on a family vacation and strikes up a relationship with a lifeguard.
The Audience Award prize for best narrative feature went to Ümit Ünal’s Love, Spells And All That, about two women reunited after apparently being separated by a spell. Other audience prizes went to Alexander Liu’s A Sexplanation, which picked up documentary honours, and Fawzia Mirza’s Noor And Layla, which was voted best short film.
Other Canadian prize-winners are Jos-Onimskiw Ottawa-Dubé and Gerry Ottawa, who picked up the best emerging artist award for Pitoc e icinakosian, a short film about the first person from the Atikamekw community of Manawan to undergo gender reassignment; and Michael Hanley, who won best Canadian short for You Will Still Be Here Tomorrow, about a gay man who must continuously come out to a father who has late-stage Alzheimer’s.
Check out the full list of winners below:
Audience Awards
Best Narrative Feature
Love, Spells And All That (D: Ümit Ünal)
Best Documentary Feature
A Sexplanation (D: Alexander Liu)
Best Short Film
Noor And Layla (D: Fawzia Mirza)
Canadian Juried Awards
Emerging Canadian Artist
Pitoc e icinakosian (D: Jos-Onimskiw Ottawa-Dubé and Gerry Ottawa)
Best Canadian Short
You Will Still Be Here Tomorrow (D: Michael Hanley)
Best Canadian Feature
Fanny: The Right To Rock (Bobbi Jo Hart)
International Juried Awards
Best First Feature
Sweetheart (D: Marley Morrison)
