Two filmmakers with Ontario roots are sharing a prestigious prize from their peers. The Queen of My Dreams director Fawzia Mirza and We Forgot to Break Up director Karen Knox tied for the DGC’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award.
Both of them centred queer issues in their films. The Queen of My Dreams stars Amrit Kaur as a Pakistani Canadian woman, Azra, who has come out as a lesbian in rural Canada. This creates stress in the family. Mirza’s movie emerged from her short film more than a decade earlier, which re-imagined a Bollywood classic, Aradhana, with a queer twist.
“At the time, I wasn’t calling myself a filmmaker. I wasn’t making films,” Mirza told the Toronto Spark earlier this year. “I was really just an actor trying to make some art about my struggle of trying to figure out if I could be queer and Muslim and love Bollywood romance at the same time.”
Mirza was born in London, Ontario, and was raised in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
We Forgot to Break Up is about a trans man singer (played by Lane Webber) in a love triangle with members of his band, The New Normals. Knoxx adapted it from Kayt Burgess’s novel Heidegger Stairwell and its Canadian premiere came at the Inside Out Film and Video Festival.
“The beating heart of this film is a very sexy queer love triangle—and morality aside, the clandestine transgressive love scenes are so electric and tragic,” Knox told Diva magazine this year.
Knox was born in Orangeville, Ontario. She developed an acting career in Toronto and now describes herself as a director/actor/writer based out of North America on her IMDb profile.
DGC’s other awards
DGC IMPACT AWARD
Nicole Close
ALLAN KING AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN DOCUMENTARY
Chelsea McMullan – Swan Song
JEAN-MARC VALLÉE DGC DISCOVERY AWARD
Kaniehtiio Horn – Seeds
BEST SHORT FILM
Alyson Richards – “I Was Here”
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FILM (LIMITED BUDGET) (TIE)
Joel Richardson – Kipkemboi
Michael Pierson – The Queen of My Dreams
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FILM
Tamara Deverell – Priscilla
BEST PICTURE EDITING – FEATURE FILM
Matt Lyon – Code 8 Part II
BEST PICTURE EDITING – DOCUMENTARY
Peter Denes & Steve Taylor – The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal
BEST SOUND EDITING – FEATURE FILM
Dashen Naidoo, Jill Purdy, Jack Madigan – Trap
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMATIC SERIES
Amanda Tapping – Dead Boy Detectives
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY SERIES
Tig Fong – What We Do in The Shadows
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FAMILY SERIES
Winnifred Jong – Jane
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES FOR TELEVISION & MINI-SERIES
Marie Clements – Bones of Crows
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – DRAMATIC SERIES & MINI-SERIES
James Philpott – Bones of Crows
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – COMEDY OR FAMILY SERIES & MINI-SERIES
Shayne Fox – What We Do in the Shadows
BEST PICTURE EDITING – DRAMATIC SERIES
Nicholas Wong – Halo
BEST PICTURE EDITING – MOVIES FOR TELEVISION & MINI-SERIES
Lara Johnston – Fellow Travelers
BEST PICTURE EDITING – COMEDY OR FAMILY SERIES
Gloria Tong – Bria Mack Gets a Life
BEST SOUND EDITING – DRAMATIC SERIES
Adam Stein, Dale Sheldrake, Brennan Mercer, Dave Caporale, Nadya Hanlon, Claire Dobson, James Bastable, Andrew Wright, Alex Bullick, Jean Bot, Joe Mancuso – Halo
BEST SOUND EDITING – MOVIES FOR TELEVISION & MINI-SERIES
Danielle McBride, Ed Douglas, Éve Corrêa-Guedes, Craig MacLellan, Scott Hitchon, Joe Mancuso – Fellow Travelers
BEST SOUND EDITING – COMEDY OR FAMILY SERIES
Janice Ierulli, Mark Shnuriwsky, Matthew Hussey, Sue Fawcett, Michael Legedza, Joe Wazana, Simon Miminis – The Hardy Boys
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