We are proud to announce the 2007 winners of the yearly Vancity enviro Visa People’s Choice Award for Best Feature and of the Gerry Brunet Memorial Award.

U.S. writer/director Jonah Markowitz won the People’s Choice Award for Best Feature for his film Shelter, the story of a young gay surfer's coming of age, which had its Canadian premiere at the festival. Vancity Visa provides the $1500 prize to the audience favourite for best feature film.

Trans Neptune, by Matthew Long, which screened as part of the annual The Coast is Queer series, is the winner of the Gerry Brunet Memorial Award. The juried award, worth a total of $1500 ($500 cash and $1000 in production services courtesy of Technicolor) for the best short film or video by a British Columbian director, is given in recognition of Gerry Brunet, a lifelong contributor to arts organizations and an early Board member of Out On Screen. Jury members Billeh Nickerson, Meghna Haldar and Helen Leung, all local artists and educators, chose the film for its "transplanatary imagination and ambition."

The Gerry Brunet Award jury also selected two runners-up for "Cinematic Achievement," local filmmakers Claudia Medina for Finding Llorona, and Alex Mah for Checkpoint. Medina's film screened as part of The Coast is Queer series and Mah's film, noted as a "thoughtful and remarkable debut," was one of the shorts in the FirstOUT youth series. Warm congratulations to all the winners!