YORKTON - The 77th edition of the Yorkton Film Festival wrapped up Saturday evening with the presentation of the various Golden Sheaf Awards.
The most-coveted of the awards – Best of Festival – went to the film Evelyn.
“Evelyn, a short documentary, enters the world of the wise and wry human that is Evelyn Christopher and offers a little window into what we have lost with all our rushing around,” detailed a YFF release.
“Evelyn looks at the life of Evelyn Christopher a 94-year-old woman who still grows enough food to give away to her neighbours. She is one of the last of her kind, and with her goes a way of being in the world: dirt under your fingernails, chores every morning at dawn, knowing just how to grow a turnip, stacking every stitch of firewood for the lean winter months.”
Evelyn was directed by Millefiore Clarkes and Davy Weale.
In a video message played at the gala Clarkes thanked the festival “for the incredible honour” of winning Best of Festival.
“. . . I do wish I could be there. “I’m overwhelmed by this honour.”
The film also won in the Short Subject Non-Fiction category, taking a total of two of the prestigious Golden Sheaf Awards.
The Ruth Shaw Best of Saskatchewan award was presented to Flickering Away, a film about the Regina IMAX Theatre and the fated changes about film processes as technology advances.
It was directed by Kodiak Reinson, an up-and-coming filmmaker pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Regina.
“It is such an honour being the recipient of the Ruth Shaw Award - Best of Saskatchewan 2024,” he told Yorkton This Week.
“I am proud to be in this category with so many talented artists. Saskatchewan is home for me, and I hope to do more projects that will reflect the culture of Saskatchewan.”
Reinson also shared the honour.
“I would like to thank my crew and my Professor Kyath Battie, Trevor Ewen and Ryan Holota for their support in this project, and everyone at the Yorkton Film Festival who made this event possible,” he said.
A total of thirty Golden Sheaf awards were presented in twenty-nine categories.
A few films collected multiple Golden Sheaf Awards.
Searching for Satoshi: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Bitcoin Creator took home the Documentary History & Biography Award presented by Bailey's Funeral and Cremation Care, and Research – Presented by Yorkton Business Improvement District
Hubris took the Director – Fiction Award, presented by Norman & Margaret Jewison Charitable Foundation and Performing Arts & Entertainment, presented by Government of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport.
The Animation Golden Sheaf presented by Telefilm Canada went to Aphasia which also took the Emerging Filmmaker Award presented by the RBC Foundation.
