A documentary profile of a Québécois folk artist and a feature drama about a woman on an unwavering mission for justice resonated the most with viewers at a B.C. film festival this month.

Audiences at this year's Whistler Film Festival voted for their picks for the 2020 Whistler Film Festival audience award. 

The runnerup was Marlene, a historical drama directed by Wendy Hill-Tout. In this true story, Kristin Booth portrays Marlene Truscott, the wife of Steven Truscott who devoted decades of her life to legally proving that her husband was not guilty of a rape and murder he didn’t commit.

The Paper Man (Lafortune en papier), directed and produced by journalist Tanya Lapointe, as the winner of the 2020 Whistler Film Festival audience award. The film had its world premiere at the festival.

This documentary feature, which also received honourable mention in the WFF World Documentary Competition, takes a look at Quebec children’s television host Claude Lafortune, the province’s equivalent of Mr. Rogers who used his creativity and talent to turn paper into sculptures and settings.

Sadly, Lafortune died at the age of 83 in April from COVID-19.

WFF programming director Paul Gratton said in a statement that The Paper Man is a rare example of a documentary striking such a popular note with audiences.

“This loving biodoc on Quebec TV personality Claude Lafortune was a labour of love for director Tanya Lapointe, whose central thesis was that Mr. Lafortune was an authentic and original artist, working in the medium of paper sculptures.”

Previously, 14 awards in seven juried film competitions were announced on December 20.

All films at WFF, which began on December 1, are still available online for viewing until Thursday (December 31), in addition to talks, events, and Content Summit sessions.