Big News From TIFF!--- Meredith Hama-Brown’s SEAGRASS Wins FIPRESCI Prize at TIFF

 Vancouver, BC (September 17, 2023) – It was announced today that Meredith Hama-Brown’s debut feature film SEAGRASS has won the International Film Critics Awards FIPRESCI Prize on the heels of its world premiere at TIFF. The award, which promotes film-art and new and young cinema, is selected by a jury of members of the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI), which consists of international film journalists and is awarded at international film festivals or at film festivals of particular importance. 

Seagrass, which premiered to a sold-out crowd on September 8th, 2023 as a part of TIFF’s Discovery Programme, stars Ally Maki (Shortcomings) as Judith; a Japanese Canadian woman who brings her family to a self-development retreat after the recent death of her mother. When Judith and Steve (Luke Roberts, Ransom) befriend another interracial couple who seem to have the perfect marriage, Judith begins to recognize how irreparably fractured her relationship is. When their distressed relationship begins to affect the children’s emotional security, the family is forever changed.

Hama-Brown is a Japanese-Canadian filmmaker who is interested in exploring themes of identity and lineage in her work. It was announced just before the festival that she was signed by Gersh. Her award-winning short film work has been featured in film festivals internationally and her music video for Alaskan Tapes’ song ‘And, We Disappear’ (2019) was nominated for a UK Music Video Award. In 2020, she was selected for the TIFF Filmmaker Lab and was awarded the Canada Goose Fellowship for Seagrass. She is in the early stages of writing her sophomore feature film. 

Seagrass is written and directed by Hama-Brown, Cinematography by Norm Li, CSC (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open), produced by Experimental Forest Films’ Tyler Hagan (Never Steady, Never Still) and Ceroma Films’ Sara Blake (Until Branches Bend). The all-star cast includes Ally Maki (The Big Door Prize), Luke Roberts (The Rook), Chris Pang (Crazy Rich Asians), Sarah Gadon (Maps to the Stars), Nyha Breitkreuz and Remy Marthaller (The Island Between Tides). World sales and distribution in Canada are being handled by Game Theory Films.

After sold-out screenings at TIFF, Seagrass will travel the globe on the film festival circuit, including the upcoming Vancouver International Film Festival with a theatrical release to be announced.