30 Sep New Waterford filmmakers cop Best Canadian Film – updated

And in Cape Breton news…

New Waterford filmmakers Nelson MacDonald (producer) and Ashley McKenzie (director) took top honors – Best Canadian Film – at the YoungCuts Film Festival in Montreal last weekend for their short film Rhonda’s Party, the story of a birthday party for a nursing home resident played by the ineffable Marguerite McNeil of Glace Bay. Rhonda’s Party has also played to enthusiastic audiences at the Montreal Film Festival and the Atlantic Film Festival, where it earned a rave review from The Coast. It plays the International Women’s Festival in St. John’s next month, and the greatest little film series of them all, in Sydney, November 18.

Nelson and Ashley are the moving forces behind New Waterford’s Coastal Arts Initiative. They also provide invaluable film selection advice and legwork for the Cape Breton Island Film Series. They are wonderful, and their success fills us with pride.

Update: Jesse Harley, not a Cape Bretoner but a man who can trace his lineage directly to Gen. John. Cabot Trail, won best picture and best cinematographer in the Five Minute Film category at the Atlantic Film Festival for his film Like Father. Hmmm. Wonder who that could be about? Congrats all around.