Sask. books and film celebrated in two livestreamed ceremonies
Call 2020 the latest example of the Yorkton Film Festival changing with the times.
For the first time in its 73-year history, the annual event in a little east-central Saskatchewan city is happening totally online.
The Golden Sheaf Awards will be given in a livestreamed and televised ceremony on Thursday, and nominated films will screen online throughout the week, due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions.
The festival has adapted throughout its seven decades, YFF executive director Randy Goulden said.
“It’s really worked hard at being relevant to the day and the needs,” she said, “and that’s why we have a category for digital, that’s why for the first time this year we now have a category for mental health.”
Her organization isn’t the only one adapting — actually, it’s not even the only one that night: The Saskatchewan Book Awards (SBA) also are being celebrated on Thursday evening.
Goulden plans to watch the ceremony in her office with the YFF’S two other staff members, in a more relaxed experience than usual: “I’ve always had to get everybody on stage and make sure the presenters are all there.”
Unlike Goulden, who has spent a decade at YFF, the SBA’S executive director Kam Teo is in his first year on the job.
“I’ve got nothing to compare it to,” Teo said.
The SBAS will be announced Thursday, after being postponed twice — first due to gathering bans, then due to technical difficulties. (An online presentation had been scheduled for May 28.)
The SBAS will occur via a low-key 35-minute Powerpoint presentation through Facebook Live; it won’t be interactive, and winners will only be able to engage through the comments.
“Certainly I’ve had to do less planning as such, which is a disappointment,” Teo said, “because with an actual ceremony, you want to build up momentum for a buzz for an event. And after you have that event, you want to be able to ride the crest of that event, that buzz, to promote Saskatchewan authors and publishers throughout the rest of the summer.”
He pointed to notable nominees, including the U of R Press for its anthology Black Writers Matter and Paul Seeseequasis, whose book Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun is shortlisted in four categories.
“It’s good that the Saskatchewan Book Awards can actually notice and pay attention to the diversity that we must observe, now that we’ve entered the third decade of the 21st century,” Teo said. “That diversity is what it’s about because our societies are diverse and we have to recognize it.”
In Yorkton, it has been “devastating” that the festival couldn’t happen. Each year, film industry people descend upon the city for networking, professional development and social events, in addition to screenings and awards.
With teams from Access 7 and Java Post Productions, the YFF awards show promises to be as slick as ever — “the difference will be that we don’t have winner responses this year,” Goulden said.
Each year, the Best of Festival award is determined through a conference call among jury heads — for all other awards, jury members convene in person and watch the films together. Since the closing deadline was Jan. 31, they were able to meet and adjudicate this year’s selections in person, shortlisting 92 nominees in 29 categories.
Goulden is optimistic that next year’s festival could happen as usual; it’s currently scheduled for May 27 to 30, 2021.
“What we’re hearing from (Saskatchewan chief medical officer) Dr. Shahab is large events, they’re looking at June 2021. That’s pretty close to June, isn’t it?” Goulden said with a laugh.
Yorkton Film Festival nominees are streaming this week at yorktonfilm.com/2020-screenings/. The awards will stream Thursday, June 18, 7 p.m. at yorktonfilm.com.
The Saskatchewan Book Awards will take place Thursday at 7 p.m. at facebook.com/saskatchewanbookawards.