The Winnipeg Real to Reel Film Festival has wrapped up for another year and a few local filmmakers left with very high praise.

"It was a wonderful year again this year," said Paul Boge, long-time coordinator of the festival. "Fantastic attendance."

The festival ended on Sunday with the award ceremony, which crowned Same Kind of Different As Me as the best picture in the festival. The Case for Christ and Priceless followed it up.

The documentaries and short films are where Canadians and Winnipegger's shone brightest. Joy Smith was awarded the best documentary for her recent film Human Trafficking: Canada's Secret Shame. Manitoba's Stephen Gray finished third for documentary shorts with Discovering Heaven.

A big winner was local filmmaker Andrew Wall, who took first place for documentary short with Otto's Obsession. He also finished third for feature screenplay with Prayer Warrior By, and also finished third in documentary features with Fantasy Makers.

"This year has the highest percentage of Canadian winners," Boge said. "We usually see it heavily loaded towards the American side, but this year was very cool to see Canada do well." Canada swept the documentary short awards, with Canadian Patrick Mugosa pulling in second place with Restoration: A Refugee's Story.

The Real to Reel Film Festival ran from Tuesday, February 20 until Sunday, February 25 at North Kildonan Mennonite Brethren Church, with 38 films, documentaries, and shorts, showing in six different theatres throughout the event.