As Canada’s first LGBTQ+ film festival, Montreal’s image+nation festival was held in theatres from November 20 to 30, 2025, and continues online until December 10, offering the public a rich selection of features, documentaries, and short films. Last Saturday, the jury announced its awards during the closing screening, which featured Jimpa by Sophie Hyde.

2025 Winners

• Best Feature: Bearcave, Krysianna Papadakis
• Special Mention: Julian, Cato Kusters

---

• Best Documentary: Queer As Punk, Yihwen Chen
• Special Mention: Rising Through the Fray, Courtney Montour

---

• Best Performance: Lac Novosel for Sandbag Dam (Zečji nasip), Čejen Černić Čanak

---

• Best Screenplay: Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day (Lijepa večer, lijep dan), Ivona Juka

---

• Best Cinematography: Queerpanorama, Jun Li

---

• Best Short Film: Inkwo for When the Starving return, Amanda Strong

---

• Special Mention – Live-Action: Le huard (The Loon), Paula Bourgie
• Special Mention – Animation: Dare to Fabulous, Zhen Zhou, Xinxin Qin, Carla Sampaio da Silva, Adam Meziane Philipps, Yangjia Chen, João Buosi

---

In addition, a final award was presented by the jury:

• Emerging Voices Award in partnership with Fierté Montréal (Programming Team Award):
  • Itty Bitty Betty, Laura Buchanan (Quebec)