Planet In Focus - Our Planet, Your Focus, Our Festival

Film Awards Ceremony
Innis Town Hall

Here is a film awards ceremony that is not exclusive to insiders! Join us in saluting the 2005 award winners of Best Canadian and International Short and Long Form Works. This year we are also launching a new award in honour of Planet in Focus Festival Founder and former Festival Director Mark Haslam. The Mark Haslam Award is awarded to any drama, animation, documentary or experimental work received through our open call for submissions that has been programmed in the festival which embodies the following principles:

Integrity: a work that demonstrates the filmmaker’s integrity in the production process, portrayals, creative treatments, and relationships with the people involved.

Quality: a work that that pushes the boundaries of its genre both in form and content.

Originality: a work that through originality of subject matter or approach casts new light or insight on a given topic or experience.

Perspective: a work that gives voice to individuals, communities, struggles or stories that are underrepresented in the media, and made by a filmmaker who is a member or participant in that community, struggle or story.

Power: a work that has the power to inspire reflection and positive action towards the social and ecological health of the planet.

We have had quite a selection to choose from. Find out who is the first winner of the Mark Haslam Award , presented by the Festival Founder himself.

We are also proud to present at this ceremony, the 2005 Industry Eco Hero Award to outstanding filmmaker Dr. Alanis Obomsawin. This award is given to an individual in the Canadian film and video sector who has made an outstanding contribution to the creation or dissemination of environmental films and videos. Over the course of her remarkable and distinguished film career, Dr. Obomsawin, a member of the Abenaki Nation and the Order of Canada, has been telling the stories of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, with a particular view to the environments, traditions, struggles and determination of Canada’s First Nations People across this vast land. Beginning her career as a singer/songwriter and musician, Dr. Obomsawin has directed over 20 uncompromising documentaries for well over 31 years at the National Film Board, assuring that the voices of her people would be heard and not lost to us. We owe much to this exceptional artist and Planet in Focus is honoured to award her the 2005 Industry Eco Hero Award. *