Milton Film Festival Announces Allegra Audience Choice Award Winners

The Milton Film Festival has announced the Best Short Film and Best Canadian Feature from their 2024 Festival, which was held January 26th-28th at the FirstOntario Arts Centre Milton.

The Best Short Film Award winner was ONE MORE TIME WITH FEELING, written and directed by filmmaker and Toronto Metropolitan University graduate Marissa Bondi. The film takes a comedic look at church group politics and social ostracism through the story of Cecillia who, when faced with her own mortality, must take down her arch-nemesis, Lucy-Anne.

Bondi was thrilled to hear that her film had won the award, and thanked the Festival audience and her own team. “I am so proud and lucky to have had such a hardworking, talented, and kind crew behind this project. The heart that went into making this film shines through every time I watch it. This story is very personal to me and there is a sense of peace that comes with knowing the message of the film resonates with others.”

The winner of the Best Canadian Feature Award was RICHELIEU, the debut feature of Montreal-based director and MFF alum Pier-Philippe Chevigny. The film explores the world of temporary foreign workers through the eyes of Ariane – a young woman newly recruited as a French-to-Spanish translator in a factory that employs temporary laborers from Guatemala, who takes a stand against the director to defend the workers from the abuse they suffer.

Pier-Philippe Chevigny’s films explore social justice issues with suspenseful storytelling and anxiety-inducing camerawork. In 2019, his short film Rebel was a big success: over 150 international festivals including Toronto, Busan, Namur, Stockholm, Vladivostok, Seattle – and the Milton Film Festival. His debut feature RICHELIEU had its world premiere at Tribeca, quickly followed by European and National Premieres in Karlovy Vary and Fantasia respectively.

Chevigny, who travelled from Montreal to attend the screening, was pleased and honoured by the audience’s embrace of the film. “It was wonderful to meet the thoughtful and passionate audience of the Milton Film Festival during our Q&A session after the screening of RICHELIEU. Obviously, it is a very political film, and now to see it receive the audience award is a very encouraging acknowledgment that things need to change.”

The Milton Film Festival congratulates both winners and their filmmaking teams, and all the other talented local and Canadian filmmakers who participated in this year’s event.

The Allegra Audience Choice Awards are generously sponsored by the Anders family of Allegra Marketing.Print.Mail. Audience members are able to rate the qualifying films from one to five stars on a ballot, and winners are presented with a cash prize.