Toronto’s Images Festival celebrated their 26th year back on April 11-20 and handed out several awards to experimental media makers and installation artists.

The grand prize of the fest is called the Images Prize and recognizes the Best Canadian Media Artwork. This year the Images Prize went to Adele Horne‘s meditation on home cleaning, Maintenance, which you can now watch online.

Other media work winners include animator Jodie Mack taking home the Marian McMahon Award for her auto/biographical rock opera Dusty Stacks of Mom; Dan Browne won the Deluxe Cinematic Vision Award for his multitudinous image collage memento mori; and Jane Gillooly won the On Screen Award for Suitcase of Love and Shame.

Artists who won for their installation work include the OCADU Off Screen Award going to Andrea Geyer’s Sound Giving Will Feeling (an insistent entity reached) and the Overkill Award going to Kuai Shen’s 0h!m1gas: biomimetic stridulation environment.

The full list of winners is below. You can also check out the full Images Festival lineup on the Underground Film Journal.

Images Prize
Maintenance, dir. Adele Horne (Watch online)
(Sponsored by student lawyer and filmmaker Jason Sacha, this is the grand prize of the festival, awarded in recognition of the Best Canadian Media Artwork. The recipient receives a $1,000 cash prize.)

Deluxe Cinematic Vision Award
memento mori, dir. Dan Browne (Watch online)
(This prize is sponsored by Deluxe and honours excellence and innovation in the visual realization of a work by a Canadian film or video artist. The recipient receives $2,500 worth of production services in the Toronto office generously donated by Deluxe.)

On Screen Award
Suitcase of Love and Shame, dir. Jane Gillooly
(Sponsored by festival supporter Paul Bain, this award honours the strongest new international film or video in the festival. The recipient receives a $1,000 cash prize.)

OCADU Off Screen Award
Sound Giving Will Feeling (an insistent entity reached), installation by Andrea Geyer
(Sponsored by the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU), this award honours the strongest new Canadian or international installation or new media work in the festival. The recipient receives a $500 cash prize.)

Steam Whistle Homebrew Award
The Timeslide, dir. Ariana Andrei
(Presented by Steam Whistle Brewing, this award honours excellence and promise in a local artist. The recipient receives a $500 cash prize and Steam Whistle prize pack.)

Overkill Award
0h!m1gas: biomimetic stridulation environment, installation by Kuai Shen
(This award was established by the Images Festival in 2000 to honour former Executive Director Deirdre Logue, (1996 through 1999 festivals) and is presented annually to a film, video or installation artist whose work approaches extremes of incorrigibility through form and/or content and challenges our notions of edgy, experimental practice. Sponsored by an anonymous donor, the recipient receives a $500 cash prize.)

Marian McMahon Award
Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project, dir. Jodie Mack
(Sponsored by Akimbo Art Promotions with film stock support from Kodak Canada, this award is given to a woman filmmaker each year to honour strong work in autobiography, the complexity of “subject” and the spirit of Marian McMahon. The recipient is invited to attend the Independent Imaging filmmaking retreat, held every each June in Mount Forest, Ontario facilitated by Philip Hoffman.)

York University Award for Best Student Film
Poppy Fields Forever, dir. John Warren
(Presented and sponsored by York University’s Department of Film, the recipient receives a $500 cash award generously donated by the York University Department of Film and $250 worth of Super-8 to video transfer services from Frame Discreet. The recipient is determined by audience vote.)

Vtape Award for Best Student Video
Heart of Durham, dir. Joel Wanek
(This longstanding award is presented by Vtape, Toronto’s video art distributor and includes a $500 cash prize generously donated by Vtape and $250 worth of transfer servies from Frame Discreet. The recipient is determined by an audience vote.)

Tom Berner Award
Deirdre Logue
(This award, sponsored by LIFT, (The Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto) commemorates the late Tom Berner, who for many years supported and nurtured Canadian filmmakers. The award is presented annually to an individual who has provided extraordinary support to the cause of independent filmmaking in Toronto.)