The Okotoks Film Festival announced several of its winners

The Okotoks Film Festival had their opening night this past Wednesday.

At the opening night, they screened the documentary Thrown Into Canada, which was about the refugee movement from Uganda in the 1970s.

"It went so well," says Film Festival Director Katie Fournell. "We had a wonderful size of audience, and it just really was a great first film to show. It was really educational. It had a lot of conversation after. We actually had people in the lobby for up to forty minutes chatting with each other after the film, just talking about what they learned watching it. It was really great."

Fournell was happy with the turnout for the opening night, which filled up about half the theatre.

"A lot of the audience that came for that film really remembered what the film was about. The film was talking about the Ugandan-Asian Refugee Crisis and many of the audience were those Ugandan-Asian refugees. Which was spectacular to have them coming out and seeing their own story portrayed in such depth on the big screen, which was really great," Fournell says.

Afterwards, they made their way to Hub Town Brewing for the after-party.

"Kelsey Raine was our musician and it was such a great night. We had glow sticks, we were eating food, we were dancing and singing to the music. It was a really fun night. I'm going to say the festival opening was a success and a lot of fun," says Fournell.

At the after-party, they announced the recipients of almost all of their awards for the festival.

"We had winners from all over. It was a really cool lineup this year."

The full list of awards handed out at the Opening Night after-party is:

Best cinematography - Once You Pop - Sara Gallego
Best editing- Once You Pop - Miquel Bixquert
Best Art Direction- Wireless- Vincente Andreu
Best Overall sound - Solo Un Ensayo - Daniel Gracia and Sergio López Eraña
Best special and visual effects - The Lovers - Bernat Fontanals Seguro
Best Documentary- Little Sahara - Emilio Martí Lopez
Best Animation- MANGA Girls - Yuki Kedoin and Takashi Okado
Best Screenplay - The Voices of Others- Fatima Kaci and Pablo Laridon
Best Performance- The Voices of Others- Amira Chebli
Best Picture- Wireless- Jose Puchades (Putax), Julieta Gasroc and David Maqueda

The Okotoks Film Festival runs until Sunday, June 9, and to see about tickets, click here.