Short Film News- The Canadian Film Centre's Worldwide Short Film Festival presented 10 awards and over $125, 000 in cash and prizes to this year's top filmmakers at its 2006 edition. 

Offering one of the largest prize packages for short films in the world, the WSFF honoured this year's exceptional creators in the presence of over 300 industry delegates and filmmakers from around the globe.

As one of only three festivals in Canada accredited by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the WSFF's Canadian award winners are eligible for the Genie Awards, and winners of the Best Live-Action Short and
Best Animated Short are eligible for the Academy Awards.

WSFF Director, Shane Smith, enthused, "The quality and originality of short films continue to inspire and amaze audiences and industry alike. With a record number of international industry delegates attending this festival in 2006, the WSFF is the premier venue for the exhibition and promotion of short films in
North America."

The WSFF jury, including last year's winner for Best Emerging Filmmaker,
Jeffrey St. Jules, had the painstaking task of selecting the following films from a superb collection of more than 250 shorts, hailing from over 30 countries around the world.

The highly anticipated Award for Best Canadian Short Film, presented by
Bravo!FACT, was awarded to Greg Spottiswood (Ontario) with a $5000 cash prize, for the expertly crafted and increasingly tense battle of wills, Noise.

A first in WSFF history, directors Maxime Giroux (Quebec) and Chris Nash
(Ontario) shared the Jackson-Triggs Award for Best Emerging Canadian Filmmaker. Unable to choose one outstanding piece over the other, the jury insisted that Red by Giroux and Day of John by Nash tie for this prestigious honor.

The C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures Award for Best Animated Short went to
Torill Kove (Canada/Norway) for the hilarious and touching story The Danish Poet, garnering him $5000 in cash and eligibility for the 2007 Academy Awards.

The award for Best Live-Action Short was captured by director Hisham Zaman (Norway), for the touching refugee tale, Bawke. An honourable mention for this award was handed out to director Charles Williams (Australia), for the darkly funny and thoroughly original, The Cow Thief. In addition to his Sony digital camcorder,
Zaman also earned Academy Award eligibility for this honour.

The $5000 Kodak Award for Best Cinematography in a Canadian Short was presented to director and cinematographer Tess Girard (Ontario), for the visually stunning Benediction.

The Best Documentary Short title and a Sony digital video camcorder were awarded to director Maciej Adamek (Poland), for his heartbreaking and poignant story of a homeless couple, On The Road.

The Best Experimental Short honour, along with a Sony digital video camcorder went to Osbert Parker (UK) for the striking animated adventure Film Noir.

Announced at the packed Awards Screening on Sunday evening, this year's
Festival-goers voted for Marco Besas' The Legend of The Scarecrow (Spain) to win the popular Audience Choice Award. Chosen out of all 250 films in the festival, the audience award is the only prize in which all films, in both competition and non-competition screenings, are eligible to win.

Rogers OMNI Television presented Ron Vida with the first place prize of
$3,000 for his project, Under This Roof, and runner-up Sarah Armenia with $2000 for her project, New Beginnings; as winners of the OMNI Pitchin' contest. The pitch competition was held as part of the WSFF Symposium and granted the top two projects cash prizes in order to shoot a third language, ethno-cultural short documentary.

And finally, the Screenplay Giveaway Award was presented to Michael Shultz for his script Funky Prairie Boy. The award garners Michael a whopping package of goods and services worth over $100,000 in order to make his script a reality. The prize includes: tape to film transfer at Cinebyte Digital Imaging, post production services at Deluxe Laboratories and studio rental from at Wallace Studios. The package also includes film stock from Kodak, and camera rental from Panavision.