In its 20th year, 200 community members and film lovers celebrated cinema in-person at Paradise Theatre on October 24, 2022 with CineSiege 2022. The event featured a juried selection of shorts chosen by program alumni and leading practitioners in film and media culture.
Professors’ shortlist nominated films from all 170 films produced by students from all levels of the program in 2021. The nominated films include fiction, documentary and alternative works. Those chosen for CineSiege are honoured for their exceptional achievement in the art and craft of cinema.
MEET THE JURORS
Jay Ferguson is an Emmy Award-winning Writer, Director, Producer, and Cinematographer who has garnered acclaim across the world. His series Guidestones won an International Emmy, one of 77 major awards and nominations with which Jay’s been honoured, including the triple crown of Canadian accolades; The Rockie, The Digi and the Canadian Academy Award. In 2015 Jay directed and short The Nations! (2016), a digital series starring Sean Cullen for CBC.
Shasha Nakai is a storyteller whose work has taken her to the Hawaiian coastline, the ski slopes of Davos, the Nevada desert, a Cold War bunker, the engine room of a decaying ship, Philippine sugar mills and the front lines of Nigeria’s energy crisis. Her work has aired on the BBC, CBC, ZDF, and Arte; screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); been nominated for 16 Canadian Screen Awards; named TIFF’s Top 10; and shortlisted for an Oscar.
Jennifer Dysart is an archive enthusiast with a deep love of found footage, archives and experimental filmmaking. She was Artist-In-Residence for Archive/Counter-Archive at the Library and Archives Canada (2019) and will be present-ing Revisiting Keewatin at the AGYU’s Nuit Blanche pre-sentation on the York University campus in 2022. Her films Caribou in the Archive (2019), Kewekapawetan: Return After the Flood (2014) and Moss Origins (2011) have screened around the world.
John Price is a Canadian cinematographer based in Toronto. His work has screened at TIFF, IFFR, IDFA, SXSW, the Berlinale, CPH:DOX, NYFF, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Venice Biennale and many others festivals. He has created visuals for dance, opera, and symphonic performances as well as a wide range of documentary, dramatic and fine art installation projects.
Nominees & Winners
Year I & Year II
Year I and Year II films will compete within their year and category, with outstanding features selected by film production faculty.
Year I
CYCLE by Sylvia Mok, Caleb Lai, Heather Hedley - Honorable Mention
Exodus by Charlotte Theraud, Chifundo Thangata, Nick Pilgrim - WINNER (BEST YEAR I FILM)
Lao Qian by Zhuoxin Guo
Play One on T.V. by Michelle Lemay
The Day-Fighter by Sam Hubbard
Year II
Category: Documentary
Falling Upward by Francis Brooks - WINNER (BEST YEAR II DOCUMENTARY FILM)
Mortified by Austin Lindsay
Til Death Do Us Part by Abraham David
Category: Fiction
Andre & the Kid by Austin Lindsay
Just Sign Here by Abraham David - WINNER (BEST YEAR IIFICTION FILM)
Love Bites by Devki Patel
Category: Alternative
Edging by Ranvir "Rarara" Singh Sanwal
Vitruvian by Luke Sobota - WINNER (BEST YEAR II ALTERNATIVE FILM)
Watching the Clock by Blake Elvin
Year III & Year IV
An external jury of filmmakers, producers, critics, programmers and alumni will select the winners in the following categories amongst all year III and year IV films – the best fiction film, alternative project and documentary, as well as outstanding director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, sound designer and production designer.
Category: Documentary
A Part of Me by Rachelle Au
Andi, Andrea and the Alps by Nicolas Flood - WINNER (BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM, BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY )
Camp Richard by Brooke Walker
Living Raw by Leon Gritsyuk
Nanay ("Mother") by Katrina Peralta
Category: Alternative
Deliverance by Ayah Chaaban
Gelato Tom Ford by Brian Alonso Ojeda
Let There Be No Light by Siyao Guo - WINNER (BEST FILM SOUND)
Rinascita: Or the Rebirth From One Realm to Another by Laur Brewin
Why Do Ants Go Back to Their Nest? by Alex Lo - WINNER (BEST ALTERNATIVE FILM)
Category: Fiction
Daring Girls by Rebecca Fadoju
Forwards by Sebastian Eguiarte - WINNER (BEST FILM EDITING)
Lion by Ryan Bellaire
Phoenix by Stella Racca - WINNER (BEST SCREENWRITING)
Sam & Dennis by Brayden McQueen
SKIP CREDITS? by Ben Shane
Swimming in the Dark by Samuel Forsyth - WINNER (BEST NARRATIVE FILM)
Tracks by Shamus Quinn - WINNER (BEST FILM DIRECTOR)
Venus as a Boy by Shaun Soutar
Yearbook Girls by Angie (AJ) Lawrence
Yvette: A Portrait Through Secondhand Transmission by Jacob Sauvé
Venus as a Boy by Shaun Soutar
To view last year's nominees and winners, as well as other student films, check out AMPD's YorkFlix - a hub of student creativity.
CineSiege is made possible through the generous support of: