CUFF (Calgary Underground Film Festival) 2025 Award Winners

CUFF 2025 wrapped up on April 27, 2025, at the Globe Cinema in Calgary, showcasing 41 feature films, 45 shorts, and eight special events — from live script readings and retro cartoon parties to found-footage screenings and a 007 GoldenEye tournament. The festival’s eclectic programming blended horror, documentary, indie drama, and surreal comedy into another brilliant festival.

Check out my Top 10 of the 2025 Calgary Underground Film Festival

Below are the award winners from CUFF 2025, courtesy of the Calgary Underground Film Festival:

Audience Awards

• Audience Award Best Narrative Feature – THIS TOO SHALL PASS, Director Rob Grant

• Audience Award Best Documentary Feature – NO ONE DIED: THE WING BOWL STORY, Director Pat Taggart

• Audience Award Best Canadian Short – GENDER REVEAL, Director Mo Matton

• Audience Award Best International Short – THE SACRIFICE, Director Christopher Werner

Jury Awards

Best Narrative Feature

• • Winner – THE BLACK HOLE, Director Moonika Siimets

“With a diverse slate that included everything from sexually frustrated housewives in suburban Quebec to indescribable desert art-comedy, CUFF 2025 impressed our jurors by displaying the depth and breadth of progressive, transgressive underground filmmaking. Congratulations to the filmmakers and programming team for their outstanding work. The jury award goes to THE BLACK HOLE, which combines not only the realistic and the fantastic, but also the culturally specific and the globally relevant.”

• • Honourable Mention – TINSMAN ROAD, Director Robbie Banfitch

“This year’s runner-up is TINSMAN ROAD, which takes a subgenre that is often overlooked in terms of artistic impact and uses it to tell a story about grief and family that both scares and emotionally connects with its audience.”

Best Documentary Feature

• • Winner – NO ONE DIED: THE WING BOWL STORY, Director Pat Taggart

“After consuming these ten delicious, fascinating, harrowing and scrumptious documentary features, we the documentary juror of the 2025 Calgary Underground Film Festival award this year’s winning film to NO ONE DIED: THE WING BOWL STORY, a story about an out of control annual chicken wings eating competition. We found this documentary to deliver the goods and madness, whether they were able to shove more wings in their mouth than their opponents’ or attend each year as a family tradition in this compelling, hilarious and one of a kind personal story of a balanced dysfunction. Director Pat Taggart brings a smorgasbord of first hand accounts from competitors, sponsors, and the truly underground and unbelievable backstory from the Philadelphia radio station WIP (94.1 FM) and the morning show hosts and producers that started this chaotic and goofy event celebrating a tortured fan base, left this jury astonished and flabbergasted that indeed….No One Died.”

• • Honourable Mention – ENDLESS COOKIE, Directors Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver

“ENDLESS COOKIE took home the honourable mention award at the Calgary Underground Film Festival, and for good reason. Seth and Pete Scriver brought a super original mix of animation and real-life storytelling that really hit home emotionally. The film stood out for its heart, creativity, and totally unique style. It’s a story that felt personal, imaginative, and seriously memorable.”

Best Canadian Short

• • Winner – GENDER REVEAL, Director Mo Matton

“GENDER REVEAL is a fully realized, dynamic, and funny short film. Strong performances, exact art direction, and tight editing emphasize Mo Matton’s crystal clear voice as a writer/director. This film is dripping in personality, and we loved spending time in its world.”

• • Honourable Mention – BIDET, Director James Brylowski

“BIDET is a wickedly fun mix of comedy and horror. James Brylowski and his entire team have delivered the kind of sharp, well crafted film that CUFF audiences have come to expect from the festival.”

• • Special Jury Prize – TAKING THE PISS, Directors Christina Dovolis and Tavis Putnam

“TAKING THE PISS receives a special mention for excellence in mixing humour with finely crafted experimental filmmaking.”

Calgary Underground Film Festival Award Winners