{"id":1177115,"date":"2024-11-25T10:48:02","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T18:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1177115"},"modified":"2024-11-25T14:36:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T22:36:01","slug":"chilliwack-independent-film-festival-mongrels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/chilliwack-independent-film-festival-mongrels\/","title":{"rendered":"Mongrels, Universal Language Among Chilliwack Independent Film Festival Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chilliwack Independent Film Festival gave its Best Feature Film award Sunday to the locally shot Mongrels<\/em>, director Jerome Yoo’s film about a family of Korean immigrants enlisted to cull a population of feral dogs in rural Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film was shot partly in the region around Chilliwack, a town of about 100,000, roughly 60 miles inland from Vancouver. Chilliwack, surrounded by snowcapped mountains and hiking trails, sustains a thriving film scene \u2014 as Sunday’s awards demonstrated. The three-day festival, which started with a screening of Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs<\/em> (shot in Vancouver and edited in part by Chilliwack’s Graham Fortin,) included more than 100 feature and short films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday’s awards, hosted by Luchagore Productions<\/a> co-founder Gigi Saul Guerrero, honored filmmakers from Chilliwack and around the world. The Best of Fest award went to Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language<\/em>, Canada’s selection in the race for the Best International Feature Film at the\u202f97th Academy Awards to be held next year. It is an often absurdist vision of a France divided between French and Farsi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mongrels<\/em> producer Nach Dudsdeemaytha, who is based in Vancouver, was thrilled to screen a locally-made film for the Chilliwack community. It premiered earlier this year at the Vancouver International Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mongrels<\/em> was such a labor of love that was homegrown here in the Greater Vancouver area and brought a bunch of independent creators together,” he told MovieMaker <\/em>after accepting Best Feature Film on behalf of the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A lot of us on the team are writers and directors as well. We had such a tiny budget. We had so many challenges. But it was just an amazing experience to work with the community to bring this vision to life.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film reflects a moviemaking tradition of banding together with a group of likeminded collaborators and helping one another complete each other’s films, outside the Hollywood studio system. It continues with Rat King<\/em>, which won Best Fraser Valley Film. The film was made by students at GW Graham Secondary, under the guidance of teacher Michael Florizone, and reflects what students in even a smallish community can accomplish<\/a> when enough people take filmmaking seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The awards were held at the charming Grand Hall in Downtown Chilliwack’s cozy, Christmasy District 1881. Screenings were held at the comfortable, homey four-screen Cottonwoods Cinemas, and panels and talks \u2014 including one where Perkins revealed a devlish secret about Longlegs<\/em><\/a> \u2014 took place at the state-of-the-art entrepreneurial space Cowork Chilliwack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cowork Chilliwack owner Tim McAlpine, whose daughter worked on Rat King<\/em>, joked at the awards ceremony that he was handling out the award for Best Festival Director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There\u2019s one nominee and that\u2019s Taras Groves,” said McAlpine, who noted that Groves, a British-born director who relocated to Chilliwack years ago, approached local business leaders with an idea for the Chilliwack Independent Film Festival a decade ago. It is now thriving, and Sunday’s awards capped its eighth year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the complete list of winners at the 8th Annual Chilliwack Independent Film Festival. (MovieMaker<\/em> lists short films in quotation marks and features in italics.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chilliwack Independent Film Festival Winners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Best Script<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sorry for your Cost,” written and directed by Rosie Choo Pidcock<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Score<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Discoteque,” by Masashi Yamamoto<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Cinematography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Hatch”,” by Mikah Sharkey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Editing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“DTF?,” by Haley Sawatzky <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Animation Short<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Tennis, Oranges,” by Sean Pecknold<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Documentary <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Altona,” by Heath Affolter, Jon Affolter and Nathan Affolter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Student Film<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Team Building Exercise”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Fraser Valley Film<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rat King,” written and directed by Ayush Senanayake. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Actor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Krochmal, “DTF?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Actress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nhi Do, “The Sorrow”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Director<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jess McLeod, “DTF?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Genre Short Film<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Neighbourhood at the End of the World,” by Shane Day<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Live Action Short Film<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One Day This Kid,” by Alexander Farah<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best of BC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Auganic,” by Krit Komkrichwarakool<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Feature Film<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mongrels,” by Jerome Yoo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best of Fest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Universal Language,” by Matthew Rankin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pitch Sessions<\/strong> (winner gets to be Telefilm Canada nominee to win a $250,000 budget for their film)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Wah Lau,” by Tanya Jade<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chilliwack Spirit Award<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Worst Day Ever,” by Keegan Connor Tracy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can learn more about the Chilliwack Independent Film Festival here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main image: <\/em>Mongrels. Game Theory Films<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chilliwack Independent Film Festival gave its Best Feature Film award Sunday to the locally shot Mongrels, director Jerome Yoo’s […]","protected":false},"author":1641,"featured_media":1177130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"disable_comments":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":["post-1177115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"primary_category":{"term_id":11,"name":"Movie News","slug":"news","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/news\/"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mongrels_POFF_JarylLim_FilmStill7-1.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mongrels_POFF_JarylLim_FilmStill7-1.jpg","featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=788,height=444,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mongrels_POFF_JarylLim_FilmStill7-1.jpg","author_name":"Tim Molloy","author_avatar":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=100,height=100,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/IMG_1078.jpg","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/tim-molloy\/","post_categories":["Movie News"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Mongrels, Universal Language Among Chilliwack Independent Film Festival Winners","url":"http:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/chilliwack-independent-film-festival-mongrels\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/chilliwack-independent-film-festival-mongrels\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mongrels_POFF_JarylLim_FilmStill7-1.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=2560,height=1440,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Mongrels_POFF_JarylLim_FilmStill7-1-scaled.jpg"},"articleSection":"Movie News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tim Molloy"}],"creator":["Tim Molloy"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MovieMaker Magazine","logo":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mm_site_logo-2.svg"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2024-11-25T18:48:02Z","datePublished":"2024-11-25T18:48:02Z","dateModified":"2024-11-25T22:36:01Z"},"rendered":"