Special Thanks to our JURY selecting the 2022 Best Canadian Feature and Short Awards.
Anne Koizumi is an independent filmmaker and media arts educator based in Montreal, Quebec. Her films have screened nationally and internationally at Hot Docs, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Annecy, SFFIM, Slamdance, Norwich Film Festival and the RIDM. Her most recent film, In the Shadow of the Pines, won best short animation at SFFILM and best narrative short at the 2020 Ottawa International Animation Festival. She has taught stop-motion animation workshops at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Hospitals and Community Centres throughout Toronto, and at Quickdraw Animation Society in Calgary, Alberta.
Ben Lu is a Producer for scripted TV drama and feature films; winner of 18 Canadian national advertising creative awards. I strategize, conceptualize, produce and direct creative works that are engaging, effective and cost-efficient. I work fluently in multiple cultures and languages, both as a team leader or a team player. I’ve worked with many national and prominent local brands and strongly believe in an enduser-centric approach, covering from the market-facing front end to the behind-the-scene back end.
Emily Weldon is currently as Marketing Specialist – Local Content at Telus, Support events, initiatives, and projects across the Local Content portfolio through the STORYHIVE and Community Content programs. She is also co-Festival Director at Vancouver Short Film Festival.
Vicki Van Chau is a Chinese-Vietnamese Canadian filmmaker based in Calgary, Alberta. After 12 years of working as an arts administrator, she left in 2020 to focus on her own film practice. She has produced and directed several award-winning short films that have screened across Canada and internationally and received the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award in 2022. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Calgary Underground Film Festival.
Alex Sangha is an award-winning social worker, counsellor, and documentary film producer. His short documentary, My Name Was January, and his debut feature film, Emergence: Out of the Shadows, both qualified to enter the Canadian Screen Awards and were broadcast on OUTtv. Emergence: Out of the Shadows was an official selection at nearly 50 film festivals including an Academy Award, BAFTA, and five Canadian Screen Award qualifying festivals including VAFF, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, and the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival. Emergence was also broadcast on Knowledge Network and TVO.
The multidisciplinary artist, Khosro Berahmandi, of Iranian origin, arrived in Canada in 1983 at the age of twenty-two. Khosro lives and works in Tiohtia’ke – Montreal. Khosro studied Visual Arts at the University of Concordia in Montreal and the University of Paris VIII. He is a distinguished and prolific artist accomplishing over fifty group and solo exhibitions throughout the past three decades. He is equally the Artistic Director of the Festival Accès Asie, a Montreal-based initiative which honors the Asian Heritage Month in Canada and celebrates the contribution of diverse Asian communities and their artists within the cultural milieux of Montreal.
Xiaodan He, a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal, has studied film production at the Beijing Film Academy in China from 1993 to 1997. In 2002, Xiaodan immigrated to Montreal of Canada. In 2003, she made her first independent feature film, The Dance of the Star. In 2005, her short film on the life of the immigrants: Cairo Calling, has received a resounding success, with screenings in over 50 festivals around the world and 2 audience awards. In 2009, Xiaodan finished her documentary, The Fall of Womenland, with screenings in All Road Film Festival of National Geographic, Montreal International Film Festival, Barcelona International Women Film Festival, etc. In 2018, with her first feature fiction, A Touch of Spring, Xiaodan became the first Chinese immigrant filmmaker in Canada who received the Canadian main film grants for a feature fiction production. In 2022, her documentary My Father’s Journey has screenings in FIFA, RVCQ and The International Festival of Ethnological film in Belgrade etc. and was well received by the Chinese community in Montreal.
Karen Liu and Richard Purves
Special thanks to our generous awards sponsors:
For more ticket information, please email boxoffice@vaff.org.
Share it @VAFFVANCOUVER
#VAFF | #VAFF26 | #VAFFVIRTUAL | #RepresentationMatters | #VAFFINDUSTRY | #DIVERSITYINFILM
ADDITIONAL INFO:
ALL DETAILS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. PLEASE CHECK OUR WEBSITE AT VAFF.ORG FOR THE LATEST DETAILS.