The Royal Bank of Canada and the Toronto International Film Festival has announced its winners for the 2013 edition of RBC’s Emerging Filmmakers Competition.

Austrian director Christoph Rainer [pictured] was awarded the $20,000 grand prize for his short film, Requiem for a Robot, with honourable mentions and $5,000 going to Canadian filmmakers Dan Popa and Kevan Funk for their shorts Tales of Santa Fe and Destroyer.

“These winning films demonstrate the work of unique, emerging voices in filmmaking,” said Piers Handling, director and CEO of TIFF. “The Emerging Filmmakers Competition is a platform to share these voices and we are thrilled to partner with RBC once again on this initiative.”

Each year, TIFF offers a four-day intensive program to a select group of filmmakers to develop a one-to-five minute short film based on a certain theme to guide their creative process. This year’s theme was based on the idea of memory.

A panel of producers, directors and film executives looked over 16 submissions from Canadian and International filmmakers before narrowing them down to five panelists in July. Israeli filmmaker Rafael Balulu and US director Mako Kamitsuna were also finalists in the competition.

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