There will be a new Golden Sheaf award next year. The Yorkton Film Festival has opened its call for submissions for the 2020 festival, and in the process has launched its newest award, the Mental Health Award.
Randy Goulden, executive director of the Yorkton Film Festival, said that the festival now has a total of 29 awards, consisting of 18 main categories, 6 accompanying categories, 3 craft categories and 2 special categories.
The new category, Mental Health, is a response to trends that the festival has seen over the past several years, and a desire to reflect that trend.
“In the past, we’ve noticed that we have been receiving films that speak to issues that might relate to mental health.”
The new category is sponsored by the Mental Health Drop-in Centre for three years. Darlene Stakiw, board member, said that after the operation of the Drop-in Centre was transferred over to SaskAbilities, they wanted to use their remaining funds to do something relevant to education around mental health, and they will sponsor this award for three years.
This award makes the Yorkton Film Festival the first to have mental health reflected in an award in Canada.
“We have been groundbreaking in many things in the Yorkton Film Festival. For example, we are one of the only film festivals to have a category for research, which feel is very important. Now, with mental health, we’re really pleased to do that,” said Goulden.
The films in the Yorkton Film Festival are used for more than the weekend in May when the awards ceremony takes place, but also for outreach programs, regular screenings through the year and other programs.
“We know that we can use the films to really bring the issue of mental health to audiences across Canada.”
The submission deadline for entries to the 2020 Golden Sheaf Awards is January 31.
