2020 Award Winners
MINT Spirit Award | Feature Film
REZ DOGS
Directed by Steven Tallas
A group of Native American young adults living in a small town on the Navajo Reservation try to escape and find a better life, but it’s not as easy as it seems.
MINT Spirit Award | Short Film
Bernadette
Directed by Zoe Mitchell
A young girl questions what it means to be an adult after an incident with a local store clerk.
Best Narrative | Feature Film
Women of the Photographs
Directed by Takeshi Kushida
A misogynistic photographer begins a twisted romance with a woman suffering from body dysmorphia.
Best Narrative | Short Film
My Hero
Directed by Logan Jackson
As last-minute plans for a babysitter fall apart, eight-year-old Brandon is left alone to oversee his younger brother Mason.
Best Indigenous Voices | Documentary Film
Return to Foretop’s Father
Directed by Preston Randolph
A Native American elder travels to a sacred landmark to conduct a pipe ceremony to bring awareness to negative impacts resulting from the disconnect between nature and modern culture.
Best Indigenous Voices | Narrative Film
Totems
Directed by Justin Deegan
A post-apocalyptic film about two indigenous men existing in the aftermath of colonial America. TOTEMS, represents a slice of the sub-conscience mind of the modern day indigenous man. After 528 years, The Id (Ben Dupris) and the Ego (Ajuawak Kapashesit), must find a new way of existing in their colonized Turtle Island, territory of Seattle.
Best Made-In-Montana Film
Crow Country
Directed by Tsanavi Spoonhunter
On the Crow Reservation, where food sources are already scarce, the one affordable grocery store has burned down and tribal members are restricted from their traditional hunting grounds. Crow Country: Our Right to Food Sovereignty follows several tribal members who are fighting for better food and a better future for their community.
Best Female Director
How Is This The World
Directed by Sadie Rogers
A mother recruits a burned-out hacker to help search for her son in a virtual world.
Best Documentary | Feature Film
“TRUST ME”
Directed by Roko Belic
TRUST ME is a feature-length documentary exploring human nature, information technology, and the need for media literacy to help people trust one another, bring them together and create a more resilient population.
Best Documentary | Short Film
Call Center Blues
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir
Call Center Blues is a lyrical portrait of an unlikely community of US deportees and their loved ones struggling to rebuild their lives in Tijuana, Mexico.
Best International Documentary | Short Film
Teranga
Directed by Daisy Squires, Lou Marillier, Sophia Seymour
Teranga is an observational short documentary about youth, music and collective trauma. Set in Naples and filmed over two years, it seeks to humanise West-African migrants living in Europe.
Best International Narrative | Short Film
Lake of Happiness
Directed by Aleksi Paluyan
In a small Belarusian village where time seems to stand still, Jasja, a nine-year-old girl, has to deal with her mother’s death. Her farther decides to send her to an orphanage. But one day she decides to run away and go back home.
Audience Choice Award
Bittersweet
Directed by Max Mir
A hopeless baker’s attempt at taking his own life is interrupted by a persistent child in need of a birthday cake.
Audience Choice Award Runner Up
“TRUST ME”
Directed by Roko Belic
TRUST ME is a feature-length documentary exploring human nature, information technology, and the need for media literacy to help people trust one another, bring them together and create a more resilient population.
SPECIAL JURY AWARDS
Honorable Mention for
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast
Small Town Wisconsin
Directed by Niels Mueller
Honorable MentionFor Narrative Feature Film
The Silent Party
Directed by Diego Fried
Honorable MentionFor Documentary Feature Film
Warrior Women
Directed by Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle
Honorable Mention for Made-In-Montana Short Film
The Perfect Candidate
Directed by Niels Mueller
Honorable Mention for Narrative Short Film
Tinderbox
Directed by Rickey Larke
Honorable Mention for International Documentary Short Film
A Syrian Woman
Directed by Khawla Al Hammouri, Louis Karim Sayad DeCaprio