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AWFJ EDA Awards @ Whistler Film Festival 2023 – Jennifer Merin reports

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The Alliance of Women Film Journalists and Whistler Film Festival are proud to announce the winners of the AWFJ EDA Awards for Best Female-Directed Feature and Best Female-Directed Short at Whistler Film Festival 2023. The winners were announced at the Whistler Film Festival awards ceremony on Sunday, December 3, 2023.

This is the eleventh consecutive year of the partnership between AWFJ and WFF to recognize and honor the work of female filmmakers. WFF nominated four narrative films and six short films for consideration by AWFJ’s member jurors.

BEST FEMALE-DIRECTED FEATURE

This year, the EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Feature goes to Atikamekw Suns, filmmaker Chloe Leriche’s proudly poetic docudrama about the unsolved and suspicious deaths of five Atikamekw people in 1977 in Manawan.

Still from ATKAMEKW SUNS

In the jury statement, the three-member panel said that “Lériche has created a powerful, heartbreaking chronicle that blends documentary footage of interviews with the victims’ families and dramatizations of the lead-up and aftermath of the drowning deaths. The mesmerizing dreamlike quality of the film takes us to a space filled with ghosts and ongoing scars, and reveals oft overlooked systemic racism in Canada. Congrats to Chloe Leriche for her powerful film.”

Upon receiving the award, Chloe Leriche said, “I would like to thank the Alliance of Women Film Journalists for this EDA award. Before our American premiere, I am very proud to receive this important honor. The industry is changing since we women are fighting so hard to tell stories. I had so many wonderful comments on the delicacy of certain scenes, the originality of the “mise-en-scène”, the choice we made in the editing, and these comments perhaps amount to emphasizing the feminine character of my work… We have a unique point of view on the world, and it is important to continue to share it. Thank you for this award.”

The Best Female-Directed Feature jury also awarded a Special Mention to With Love And A Major Organ, directed by Kim Albright from a screenplay by Julia Lederer.

Still from WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN

According to the jury, “This trippy and whimsical sci-fi film is utterly original and highlights outstanding performances and a clever metaphor about love, emotions, and what it means to feel lonely. Kim Albright’s ability to navigate between the absurd and the profound with ease makes With Love and A Major Organ a wonderful piece of independent cinema that keeps its world alive and speaks to what life means and how difficult it can be to navigate, especially if you are sensitive.”

The AWFJ jurors for Best Female-Directed Feature were Sandie Angulo Chen,, Jennifer Merin (Chair), and Nadine Whitney.

BEST FEMALE-DIRECTED SHORT

The 2023 winner of the EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Short is NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind), directed by Lindsay McIntyre.

Still from NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ

According to the jury statement, “The film artfully weaves horror tropes into a captivating narrative of assimilation. Brenda Amaklak Putulik’s outstanding performance drives a powerful story of sacrifice, survival and the injustices faced by women. And the film’s point of view exposes the emotional agony of indigenous women as they strive to impart their culture to their children only to be pressured by the system into confirming to the prevailing white culture, shining a light on the solemn of suffering and indignity. A truly powerful film.”

The Best Female-Directed Short jury also awarded a Special Mention to Healer, directed by Makenzie Leigh.

Still from HEALER

In its statement, the jury said: “With its heartfelt portrayal of a lifetime of trauma and grief, the film delivers an uplifting narrative within a compact timeframe. Enhanced by a memorable Canadian soundtrack, Hidden charmingly explores a young woman’s journey to reconcile with her existence.”

AWFJ members serving on the jury for Best Female-Directed Short were Joan Amenn, Marina Antunes (Chair), and Jennifer Green,

A VERY COOL PARTNERSHIP

Whistler Film Festival, known as ‘Canada’s coolest film fest’, has been championing women in film since its inception in 2001. In addition to programming films directed by women, the festival holds an annual Women on Top event, gathering leading women in film from around the world to meet, greet and network with each other. Additionally, the festival’s annual presentation of Women In the Director’s Chair and Women in Film & Television Vancouver mentorship programs connect up and coming female film directors to industry moguls and the methodology they recommend for success.

For more information on WFF and the nominated films, visit whistlerfilmfestival.com.

For more information on AWFJ’s EDA Awards, 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 AWFJ.org, 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, NY 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 Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and 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).