DOXA Documentary Film Festival names 2025 award winners

Saints and Warriors, #skoden, and Sudan, Remember Us are among the titles that secured wins

DOXA DOCUMENTARY FILM Festival wrapped up its 2025 edition yesterday, and the winners of its annual awards have now been announced.

Among them Patrick Shannon’s Saints and Warriors, the fest’s Closing Gala screening, received the Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director (presented by the Directors Guild of Canada). In the announcement today, jurors Chris Chong, Fabianny Deschamps, and Corey Payette said that Saints and Warriors earned the prize for “its beautifully layered narrative, its honest and intimate portrayal of contemporary Indigenous life, and a final act that was deeply moving and offered us an inspiring hope for the future”. An honourable mention went to Lyana Patrick’s Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again.

The Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming went to Kim O’Bomsawin’s They Are Sacred, which screened as part of the Rated Y for Youth program. They Are Sacred takes an intimate look at a father-son relationship while showing neurodiversity through an Indigenous lens. Jurors Olivia Moore, Darius Darabi, Emily Ash Cutajar, and Anna Hetherington shared that they chose the film because it “offers an empowering story of reclamation, acceptance, and community that is vital at this moment”.

The Vancouver Film Studios Award for Best BC Director, a new award presented by VFS and Pacific Backlot, went to Damien Eagle Bear for #skoden. An honourable mention in that category went to codirectors Elizabeth Vibert and Chen Wang for Aisha’s Story.

The DOXA Short Documentary Award went to “Correct Me If I’m Wrong 如你所愿” by director Hao Zhou, with an honourable mention for Helen Lee’s “Paris to Pyongyang”.

Sudan, Remember Us, directed by Hind Meddeb, won Best Feature Documentary Award for international documentaries. And two honourable mentions, Casey Carter’s To Use a Mountain and Elizabeth Lo’s Mistress Dispeller, were also named.

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Emily Lyth

Emily Lyth is a Vancouver-based writer and editor who graduated from Langara College’s Journalism program. Her decade of dance training and passion for all things food-related are the foundation of her love for telling arts, culture, and community stories.

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