2024 CUFF.Docs Awards

The following awards are presented as part of the 2024 CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival.

Audience Awards

Best Documentary Feature - DEVO (Director Chris Smith)
Runner-Up - EVERY LITTLE THING (Director Sally Aitken)
Best Documentary Short - DELTA DAWN (Director Asia Youngman)

Jury Awards

Best Documentary Feature - EVERY LITTLE THING (Director Sally Aitken)
Honourable Mention - MISTRESS DISPELLER (Director Elizabeth Lo)

"On TV and the internet, animal rescue videos have become a cottage industry. How EVERY LITTLE THING stands out is not just a testament to the exquisite cinematography and fascinating evolutionary marvel of hummingbirds, but to the delicate portrayal of the star of the show: self-taught hummingbird rehabilitator Terry Maeser. Her complex backstory, unique sense of focused purpose and her loving vision of a small slice of an ephemeral world that few of us would ever even think to look at, make this film a must-see for everyone hoping for a better way to be in the world." – Jury Statement

2024 Jurors 

Lisa Gallagher
Lisa is the founder and festival director of the Toronto True Crime Film Festival as well as a feature film programmer for the Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival. Previously, she spent three years running The MUFF Society, a Toronto-based monthly screening series celebrating women in film. She is a lover of carbs, cats, and Keanu Reeves.

Mercy Lam
Mercy Lam handles Acquisitions, Marketing and Publicity at Films We Like, a boutique distributor of documentary, independent, and international films in Canada. She holds a Masters of Arts in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto, where she studied Hong Kong narrative cinema, nostalgia and identity.

Patrick McLaughlin 
Patrick McLaughlin is an award winning cinematographer, camera operator/ field director and writer based in Calgary, Alberta. For the past few decades, he has worked professionally as a cinematographer on features, shorts, commercials, documentaries, music videos, reality shows, concerts, and corporate videos for a wide variety of broadcast and corporate clients. His client list includes CBC, CTV, NFB, Discovery, PBS, YTV, Odeon, E-One, Movie Central, Documentary Channel, A-Channel, Animal Planet, Omni, City TV, Slice, Global, The Cave, Bravo!, Much Music, SCN, Superchannel, VisionTV, Yes TV, Book TV, Moviola, APTN, CMT, SportsNet, A&E and W.