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AWFJ EDA Awards @ DOXA 2017: The Winners!

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As DOXA 2017 draws to a close, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists is delighted to announce the winners of this year’s EDA Awards for Best Female-Directed Feature and Best Female-Directed Short’ both presented at the festival’s awards ceremony on Saturday, May 13 in Vancouver. Continue reading…

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The winner for Best Female Directed Feature is Yan Chun Su’s DROKPA, an exquisitely filmed chronicle of the lives of nomads in the remote highlands of Tibet, where arable pastures are rapidly turning into deserts due to climate change.

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Jury Statement: Rarely is an audience privy to the intimate struggles of modern nomads, in this case the drokpa’s of the Tibetan Plateau. Yan Chun Su’s unprecedented access paints a fascinating picture of a people caught between tradition and modernization, all set to the backdrop of a lifestyle that is quickly becoming impossible to maintain due to the effects of climate change. Gorgeous cinematography.

Jury Members: Marina Antunes, Jennifer Merin, Stephanie Merry, Janice Page

The winner of the Best Female-directed Short is LIFE AT A SNAIL’S PACE, Alexandra Gaulupeau’s thoroughly engaging look at the surprisingly intricate relationship between malacologist artist Marla Coppolino and the land snails at the core of her work.

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Jury Statement: Documentarian Alexandra Gaulupeau shows a fine eye in this 22-minute production about an unusual subject. Emphasizing colors, textures, and detail, she uses wonderful imagery to reflect on unlikely connections between overlooked worlds and our own. Quirky and sweet, this film urges viewers to slow down and appreciate all of life’s details. It also celebrates girls who love bugs and science and shows how you can turn your passions into fulfilling work.

Jury Members: Betsy Bozdech, Lexi Feinberg, Cynthia Fuchs, Karen Martin

Congrats to the AWFJ EDA Award winners, and to DOXA for such a fine 16th annual festival program. And, thanks to the jury members for a job well done. For a full list of nominated films click here.

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Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for Women on Film, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and (currently) Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and, currently, for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).