By RICHELLE CHARKOT
The Calgary Underground Film Festival just wrapped its 22nd year on April 27 and has shared this year’s jury and audience prize winners exclusively with RUE MORGUE. “With a diverse slate that included everything from sexually frustrated housewives in suburban Quebec to indescribable desert art-comedy, CUFF 2025 impressed our jurors by displaying the depth and breadth of progressive, transgressive underground filmmaking,” this year’s jury declares. CUFF celebrated a record-breaking year for attendance, with 12,465 attendees taking part in the twelve-day event that kicked off with its annual National Canadian Film Day celebration.
The Black Hole by Moonika Siimets takes home the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature. This Estonian genre film follows the poor, disenchanted residents of an apartment block who must contend with aliens, a giant spider and an “Austrian in breeches” after a black hole opens in a nearby lilac bush. According to the jurors, “[The film] combines not only the realistic and the fantastic but also the culturally specific and the globally relevant.”
TINSMAN ROAD
This year’s runner-up is Tinsman Road from filmmaker Robbie Banfitch, a haunting found footage film about a man who tries to find out what happened to his missing sister. The jurors said of the film, “[It] takes a subgenre that is often overlooked in terms of artistic impact and uses it to tell a story about grief and family that both scares and emotionally connects with its audience.”
The Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature went to No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story by Pat Taggart, chronicling Philadelphia’s notorious Wing Bowl eating contest that reached untethered levels of debauchery over its tenure. The Honourable Mention goes to Endless Cookie by Seth and Peter Scriver, an animated feature documentary about the bond between two half brothers: one Indigenous and one white.
The Jury Award for Best Canadian Short is Gender Reveal by Mo Matton about a trans throuple who find themselves at one partner’s boss’ gender reveal party. The Jury’s Honourable Mention goes to Bidet by James Brylowski, which the jurors called “a wickedly fun mix of comedy and horror.” Finally, Taking the Piss by Christina Dovolis and Tavis Putnam. which celebrates the public bathroom in all its glory, receives the Special Mention Jury Prize.
CUFF also highlights a robust selection of Audience Award winners. The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature goes to This Too Shall Pass by Rob Grant, a coming-of-age film about a kid trying to break away from his strict Mormon upbringing. No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story also secures the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.
THE SACRIFICE
Alongside being chosen as the Jury Award for Best Canadian Short, Gender Reveal also takes home the Audience Award for Best Canadian Short. The Audience Award for Best International Short goes to The Sacrifice by Christopher Werner, the story of a suburban husband who tries to hide the fact that his new friends coming over for a BBQ are all members of the Church of Baphomet.
