Past winners of the Joy Award >

The 2008 Joy Award - $16,200
$10,000 in rental services and $500 in materials from PS Atlantic (Halifax).
$3,000 in post-production services and equipment from the Atlantic Filmmakers Coop (this portion of award can only be used if winner is a resident of Nova Scotia).
$1,200 in equipment rental from 45 North.
$1,000 in film stock from Kodak Canada Inc.
$500 in cash from Prime Insurance.

Note: Residents of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, PEI, and Nova Scotia may apply for the CBC Television Script Development Award, the Joy Award, Joy Post and the Helen Hill Animated Award.

Stephen Arnold is the winner of the 2008 Joy Award, for Dust.
Dust is a short film about a writer frozen by the looming blank surface of his writing paper, his journey through connections of the imagination, and the resulting epiphany and inspiration.
Using a phantasmagorical merging of fleeting internal landscapes and the reality around the writer, Arnold takes us on a magical trip through the creative process in all its chaotic wonder.
Influenced by “the literary work of Kafka and cinematic work of Terry Gilliam and Michel Gondry,” the film will offer a rich visual experience with surprising and innovative techniques to cross between real and unreal, this world and the world of imagination.

A graduate of Dalhousie University’s Theatre program, Stephen Arnold is a writer and filmmaker who has worked in the film industry on set as a Key Grip, Props Master, and other jobs. He is also an actor working in theatrical and broadcast projects. Last year he participated in the Writer’s Lab & Boot Camp at the Island Media Arts Centre in Charlottetown. Dust is his first independent production.

Marina Shepeta is the 2007 recipient of the Joy Award for her project HOME OUT OF NOTHING. The film traces the filmmaker's transition from her Russian homeland to Canada in the early 1990's. Unable to leave Russia legally her husband defected in 1991 and Marina was able to follow three years later. Reflecting on the adjustments made by immigrants and how they overcome the shock of fundamental differences in cultural assumptions and values, the film follows their successes, losses and regrets in a strange land.