Hospice of Waterloo Region (HWR) is proud to announce the winners of the 4th annual short film competition — You Only Die Once: #YODOContest.
The winning films will be screened at the Grand River Film Festival (GRFF) starting the week of May 7th.
You Only Die Once: #YODOContest calls on filmmakers and storytellers to focus on death as a part of living. The short films aims to get community members talking about what it means to live well until you die.
The call for film submissions went out in September, with final films due in February, and judging in March.
Congrats to the Winning Filmmakers!
1st Prize
Mridul Pahwa & Madhav Kapoor
Wedesi Entertainment
Daisy
About the Filmmakers. Hi, I’m Madhav and I’m a film studies graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University where I met Mridul. It was Mridul who convinced me to take part in this competition last year and it was my first time directing and Mridul’s first production.
Hi, I’m Mridul and I studied economics and film studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, as soon as I read the script, I told him we have to have that movie, extremely proud of him to deliver and make our first movie special.
The pre-production taught us many lessons, the biggest one being – assembling your team, and that is where we stand the proudest for being able to have such an amazing cast and crew. We might be newcomers but we have big dreams and even bigger goals!
Daisy talks about a topic most people can deeply relate to but struggle to talk about. Winning the YODO Contest makes our team very proud and confident that our message will reach the people it needs to reach and help destigmatize the conversation around death.
2nd Prize
Houssen Salih
Salih Studios Production
Live After
About the Filmmaker. Houssen Salih is a passionate filmmaker dedicated to capturing the essence of human experience. Drawing inspiration from real people and their lived experiences, Houssen crafts work on screen that is both meaningful and impactful. She translates these stories in an authentic manner to highlight essential topics in today’s society, and is committed to making a positive impact through her work.
What does it mean to you to win the YODO Contest? Why was it important to make this film? It truly has been an honour to have won the YODO contest as Live After represents the experience of many first generation Canadians whose families have come for a better quality of life.
Live After humanizes the immigrant experience as it emphasizes the topic of loss and grief, but moving forward in memory of what may have been lost, but never forgotten.
Honourable Mention
Madison Carver
Love Fully
About the Filmmaker. We are an all female and all student team and I am so incredibly proud to say that! We all attend or just recently graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University. When we began this project we all had just freshly become friends but this film has bonded us together and I could not have asked for a better group of women to work with and call my friends. I am so incredibly proud of this team and what we have made!
What does it mean to you to win the YODO Contest? Why was it important to make this film? My team and I were absolutely thrilled to hear we were awarded the honourable mention at the YODO Contest! We believed this film was important to make because grief is one of the hardest experiences a person can go through, and we wanted to use our creative talents to help people along those journeys.
We wanted to help open up the conversation of grief and hopefully when people watch our film they look at grief as not only loss but as love.
How to Watch the Winning #YODOContest Films
The winning films will be featured at The Grand River Film Festival, running from May 7-12, 2024.
You have two opportunities to watch our #YODOContest films at GRFF:
Wednesday May 8, 6:30pm-8:30pm at Kitchener Public Library Theatre, Queen St, Kitchener
The winning YODO films will be shown, alongside other local Kitchener Waterloo filmmakers showing “Local Shorts.” A special panel discussion will follow with some of those filmmakers.
Admission is free but tickets are available to reserve seating in the theatre.
Saturday May 11, 6:45pm-8:30pm at the School of Architecture, 7 Melville St S, Cambridge
The winning YODO films will be shown before the screening of “Starring Jerry as Himself” a 2022 Docufiction film.
Tickets are $12 each.
Hospice of Waterloo Region – Vision/Philosophy of Care
- Hospice of Waterloo Region strives to create and support a community where no one experiences an end of life journey alone.
- Our goal is to engage the community to inspire, nurture, and comfort the human spirit in life, death, and bereavement
- Our philosophy is to provide comfort and care, to neither hasten or prolong life and to allow a natural death.