The Montreal Independent Film Festival has recently announced the winners of its latest edition and the festival is turning into one of the most important international film organizations in the world.
The festival has become very popular by international filmmakers.
The festival selects, awards, features, and screens international films.
Baraheni, the director of the festival is also the founder of Toronto Short Film Channel in association with LA Independent Film Channel which screens international films every day.
This makes the festival a very unique international film festival and an organization which continually supports independent filmmakers from all over the world.
The festival has a myriad of categories which have recently been expanded to include awards such as Best Female Director and Best First Time Director. The festival is international in nature but it also has added a category to recognize and award the Best Canadian Film of the month.
Even better, all of the winning films from the monthly festivals are nominated for the annual event in Montreal at the Cinema du Parc.
The members of the jury are professional working from Hollywood, Montreal, New York, Toronto and Paris.
Arsalan Baraheni who is an independent filmmaker and producer himself, has created a very exciting program which received films from 52 countries that competed in various sections of the festival. The quality of programming and the screenings have been fascinating with stars such as William Baldwin as the Best Lead Actor of this edition in TALK by Boulanger Romuald. Columbus by Freddie Paull received four awards in best directing, best cinematography, best script and best science fiction.
Here is the full list of the winners from the latest edition of the festival:
Best International Drama: Talk Directed by Boulanger Romuald
Best International Director COLUMBUS Directed by Freddie Paull
Best Actor: William Baldwin for Talk
Best Actress: Brianna Ripkowski for Big Break
Best Experimental: "Na Zare" Directed by Katya Kan
Best Adventure Film: Rise of Odin's 9
Directed by Lance Kawas
Best Script: COLUMBUS Directed by Freddie Paull
Best Science Fiction: COLUMBUS Directed by Freddie Paull
Best Animation: The Cell Directed by Jessy Monbleau-Lefebvre
Best Youth Award: Fish Head Directed by Marcos Durian
Best Canadian Film: Wednesday Directed by Lisa Delhom, Jérémy Paquet
Best Female Filmmaker: Helen Alexis Yonov for The Gesture And The Word
Best Cinematography: COLUMBUS Directed by Freddie Paull