One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk by Zacharias Kunuk will open the 20th imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival on Tuesday, October 22 at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in in Toronto, Ontario. Rich in Kunuk’s distinct visual language, One Day tells the true story of Noah Piugattuk’s community in Kapuivik, north Baffin Island, 1961. They live and hunt by dogteam, just as Noah’s ancestors did when he was born in 1900. When a European settler, known as Boss, arrives in camp, what appears as a chance meeting soon opens up the prospect of momentous change.
Toyon Kyyl (The Lord Eagle)[/caption]
At the 19th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival’s Awards Presentation, the esteemed Sun Jury and Moon Jury selected the winners, awarding the top prizes – Best Dramatic Feature to Toyon Kyyl (The Lord Eagle) by Eduard Novikov, and Best Indigenous Language Production to 
Nêhiyaw actor, choreographer, director and educator Michael Greyeyes will receive the 2018 August Schellenberg Award of Excellence at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.
The August Schellenberg Award of Excellence (the “Augie”) is an annual prize that recognizes significant professional and personal achievement by an Indigenous actor, of any gender, from Turtle Island (North America). Michael Greyeyes will receive his award at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival’s Awards Presentation on Sunday, October 21 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
“August ‘Augie’ Schellenberg is an icon, but to me he is much more than this,” says Michael Greyeyes. “Augie was my friend and mentor. In his work, and the way he lived his life. I learned from him in countless ways. This award is a profound honor and affirms that Augie’s commitment to excellence and his spirit of generosity remain with me.”
In a career spanning 31 years, Michael Greyeyes has moved fluidly between stage and screen, from his work as a dancer with The National Ballet of Canada to diverse performances in Bruce McDonald’s Dance Me Outside, to his title role in Crazy Horse (TNT), and for acclaimed directors such as John Sayles, Chris Eyre, and Terrence Malick.
His selected directing credits include: Pimooteewin (The Journey), the first Cree language opera with libretto by Tomson Highway, Almighty Voice and his Wife (Native Earth Performing Arts) and Seven Seconds (2010 imagineNATIVE). In 2010, Greyeyes founded Signal Theatre and has created a number of full-length theatre works, including from thine eyes, Nôhkom, and A Soldier’s Tale for the National Arts Centre, and Bearing, a searing exploration of Canada’s Indian residential school legacy for the 2017 Luminato Festival. He is an Associate Professor in the Theatre department at York University, where he teaches devised theatre and screen performance. Professor Greyeyes is published in the Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Research in Canada, and Performing Indigeneity: New Essays on Canadian Theatre, Vol. 5.
Most recently, he has appeared in AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead and in an acclaimed performance as legendary Hunkpapa leader Sitting Bull, in 
Tantoo Cardinal in Falls Around Her[/caption]
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival selected two Canadian features as the Opening and Closing Night Galas for the 19th Annual Festival, running October 17 to 21, 2018 in Toronto. imagineNATIVE’s Opening Night Gala on Wednesday, October 17 will be Darlene Naponse’s 
Sweet Country by Warwick Thornton[/caption]
Warwick Thornton’s 
Out of State (d. Ciara Lacy)[/caption]
The 2017 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival will present over 100 feature films, documentaries, shorts, and music videos created by Indigenous filmmakers with almost three quarters of the films (72%) made by Indigenous female directors.
The festival will include Our People Will Be Healed, the 50th documentary in 50 years from revered filmmaker, Alanis Obomsawin, keeping on the subject of her last four films: children’s rights. Our People Will Be Healed focuses on the Cree community of Norway House, Manitoba, and their innovative approach to educating First Nations students.
Documentary features receiving their world premieres at imagineNATIVE include Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier (d. Shane Belcourt, Lisa Jackson) that peels back the layers of the truecrime story revolving around a captivating reclusive woman from a small northern Manitoba reserve whose catfishing of an NBA superstar made international headlines; and Glwa: Resurgence of the Ocean-Going Canoe (d. Hillary Beattie, Vina Brown) that tells the story of Tribal Canoe Journeys – a decades old gathering on the Northwest Pacific coast.
imagineNATIVE will present additional feature length documentaries including the Canadian premiere of 
Waru[/caption]
