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Luna the killer whale is continuing to make waves, 18 months after his death.

Saving Luna, a film produced by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm of Mountainside Films Ltd., of Sidney, has won a top award in the prestigious Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Wyoming.

The international festival is held alternate years in the U.S and Britain and attracts filmmakers from all over the world.

Saving Luna, the only Canadian movie accepted, won in the people and animals category, which had 80 entries.

"This is a pretty big deal. This is the biggest wildlife film competition in the world," Parfit said jubilantly yesterday, as he and Chisholm drove back from Wyoming to attend the Canadian premiere today at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

The film, which will be shown at 1:30 p.m. at the Cinematheque on Howe Street, is also nominated for the National Film Board of Canada documentary feature award.

The appeal is the story of Luna, the orca who lived alone in Nootka Sound from 2001 to 2006, when he was killed by a tugboat propeller, Parfit said.

"I talked about Luna (at the awards ceremony). People really respond to his story and understand the complexities of it. You realize it is a universal story," he said.

The young whale, who first turned up lost in Nootka Sound when he was just a baby, tried to compensate for the loss of his pod by connecting with people, but his presence in the waters around Gold River became a major controversy.

While people, and especially boaters, were told to avoid contact, Luna did everything he could to make friends.

When the Department of Fisheries and Oceans decided to try to move him back to Juan de Fuca Strait, in hopes he would rejoin his pod, the Mowachaht/

Muchalaht band, which didn't want him moved, lured him away from the net pen with canoes.

The description of the film says "To First Nations, he's a chief. To boaters he's a goofy kid. To activists he's a cause. To scientists he's a puzzle. To officials he's a threat. But Luna's just lost and lonely on B.C.'s wild west coast and all he wants is friends."

Parfit and Chisholm moved to Gold River during the Luna years and part of the film deals with their increasing involvement with the whale and their efforts to protect him.