2025 awards

We are thrilled to share the winners and honourable mentions of our FORM awards, recognizing films that impacted juries and audiences alike! Congrats and thank you to our audiences and committees for your contributions in selecting awards.

Learn more about all FORM 2025 films HERE

Youth Impact Award

🏆 WINNER: The Steppers Visit South Africa
By Hugh Durnford-Dionne & the Montreal Steppers (Canada)

The SFU Youth Jury is proud to present FORM's Youth Impact Award to The Steppers Visit South Africa. The jury was composed of SFU Dance, Music, and SIAT students who held different perspectives while in deliberation with one another. This film wowed the jury through its masterful, heartfelt storytelling which contextualized the links between Gumboots, Pantsula, and Stepping. Each creative choice coalesced to create something greater than the sum of its parts. LIVE at the Court also left a lasting impression on the jury through its dynamic, transcendental marrying of basketball and jazz.

⭐️ HONOURABLE MENTION: LIVE at the Court
By: Ben Mouland (Canada) 

Selected by the 2025 Youth Jury: Vivien Dang, Adelya Mullasheva, Clara Xu

SFU students gather to make up our 2025 Youth Jury, and focus their attention towards celebrating the dynamic perspectives of their peers. Guided by their lively, fearless voices, they’ll award a film that left a lasting impression beyond the cinema. 

Artistic Committee Award 

🏆 WINNER: All It Gives
By: Talia Woodland (Canada)

The FORM 2025 Artistic Committee would like to recognize 2 incredible films that brought layers of thoughtfulness and innovation to the genre of recorded movement.

All It Gives resonated deeply with the committee for its distinct cinematic storytelling. Through literal and metaphorical spotlights, this documentary celebrates the vulnerability and bravery that comes with pursuing one’s artistic passion. Tracing relationships between artists and mentors in Toronto’s street dance community, the film seamlessly connected these perspectives together, while highlighting the power of sharing dance in social spaces. 

The committee would also like to recognize the inventive approach Les Chaussures Rouges (The Red Shoes) brought by marrying physical movement, monologue, and images to share a compelling journey. The clarity of artistic direction and unpredictability in narrative caught the Committee’s attention.

⭐️ HONOURABLE MENTION: Les Chaussures Rouges (The Red Shoes)
By: Maylis Arrabit (France)

Selected by 2025 Commissioning Fund Program Artistic Committee: Clarence Tang, Kira Doxtator, Tanisha Kumar 

Audience Choice Award

🏆 WINNER: The Steppers Visit South Africa
By: Hugh Durnford-Dionne & the Montreal Steppers (Canada) 

The Steppers Visit South Africa is the film that left a lasting impression on YOU, the audience! Audiences were deeply moved by the joy radiating from the Gumboots, Pansula, and Step dancers in the film. The cultural exchange showcased reminded audiences of the core purpose of art and dance—for sharing, expression, and liberation. Audiences were also in awe of the tender portrayal of mahjong and friendship in chattering of sparrows.

⭐️ HONOURABLE MENTION:
chattering of sparrows
By: Ronnie Cheng 鄭芷路, Andie Lloyd, Amélia Simard (Canada)

Thanks to all the audience members who casted their vote — we love hearing which films resonated with you!

Expanding the Form: BC-Based Film Award

🏆 WINNER: Her Stories Have Always Been A Part of Me
By: Naomi Watkins (Canada) 

To honour the ways in which FORM continues to evolve and be inspired by the works that we screen, this award recognizes films made by BC-based filmmakers who challenge the boundaries and capacities of what movement-on-screen can be. 

Her Stories Have Always Been A Part of Me offers a beautiful reflection on the multitudes of movement that exist in a seemingly static moment, highlighted by the movement of a car and its surrounding landscape. The film quietly poses larger questions, asking us to consider the greater movements that exist outside of our bodies of land sovereignty.

⭐️ HONOURABLE MENTION: Resistance Meditation
By: Sara Wylie (Canada) 

FORM celebrates the work of Resistance Meditation for its ability to expand the notion of movement with a story that largely omits physical movement on screen. We also want to recognize MOOSE JAW FUNERAL HOME for its entertaining portrayal of death rituals which forces us beyond typical conventions of movement, accentuated by a uniquely bold youth perspective. 

⭐️ HONOURABLE MENTION: MOOSE JAW FUNERAL HOME
By: Speaker 66 & Tamara Khoury (Canada)

Selected by FORM Co-Artistic Directors: Erin Lum and danielle Mackenzie Long

From the Cypher to the Screen: Film Award 

🏆 WINNER: For On the Floor (An Ode to the Cyclical)
By: Joshua Cameron (Canada)

Specific to From the Cypher to the Screen, this award celebrates a film that centers street dance culture. Bryce and Diana were charmed by how For On the Floor creatively captures the unspoken ritual of preparing for a battle or session. This film’s clever combination of humour, camera angles, and editing highlight how fashion is an indispensable element of the culture while taking the audience on a journey into Jammin’ Cameron’s brain. 

This award was selected by Bryce Koebel and Diana Xu, the event’s Guests of Honour, who have both contributed greatly to documenting and archiving the Vancouver street dance scene through video.

From the Cypher to the Screen: Cypher Royalty 

🏆 WINNERS: Joanne Park and Senyo Akakpo 

Congratulations to Joanne and Senyo, our Cypher Royalty at From the Cypher to the Screen! They wowed the Secret Judges with their generous exchanges in the cypher, never taking it for granted.

FILM AWARD SPONSORS