Awards


Meet the 2025 Festival Jury!

Aaditya Aggarwal is a film curator and writer based in Toronto. Aaditya has programmed films for TIFF, Images Festival, Regent Park Film Festival, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, and London Ontario Media Arts Association, as well as contributed writing to publications like In Review Online, C Magazine, Rungh Magazine, POV Magazine, Canadian Art, and The New Inquiry. He was the 2023 Warner Bros Curatorial Fellow at TIFF and has previously also received fellowships from Canyon Cinema and The Flaherty Seminar. Currently, Aaditya works at the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre and serves as a collective member of Sanghum Film.

Deirdre Logue has been prolific and steadfast in her engagement with the moving image and has subsequently produced upwards of 60 short films and videos. Her solo work in performance for the camera explores anxiety, the queer body, and the limits of ability through video installation and projection. With her partner/collaborator Allyson Mitchell, Logue has presented Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House (Toronto, London, Los Angeles and Philadelphia). Mitchell and Logue also directed the F.A.G Feminist Art Gallery in Toronto and satellite space from 2010-2020 and now direct FAR Feminist Artist Residency on 64 acres of conservation-protected land in Ontario, Canada. Logue is Development Director at Vtape and completing her MFA in Cinema Studies at York University.

Sonya Mwambu is an experimental filmmaker and editor based in Toronto. Born in Kampala, Uganda, they grew up in Canada and their work centres on the intersections of their identities through the exploration of race, gender, language, and the connections they find through the experimentations of analogue film. Mwambu holds a BFA in Film Production from York University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Film.

Astrolab Studios Production Award

Awarded to an emerging Canadian filmmaker who showcases an exciting synthesis of curiosity, experimentation, and innovation. The recipient will receive a certificate valid for one day of production in Studio 1 of Astrolab Studios, valued at $3750. Sponsored by Astrolab Studios.

Boundless Vision Award

Awarded to a festival project that is expansive and imaginative in vision, while creatively resourceful in its production and execution. This award was established in 2015 to honour Scott Miller Berry, who was the Executive Director at Images Festival for a decade. The prize is $1500 cash and is sponsored by Workman Arts, Charles Street Video, the8fest Small-Gauge Film Festival, Image Arts at The Creative School, Deanna Wong and an anonymous donor.

For the Love of Celluloid

Since 1982, Main Film, located in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), has been recognized by its peers as an artists' center that nurtures and uplifts the emergence of a vibrant and innovative generation of filmmakers especially within the analog practice and we are proud to be defenders of the analog practice in Canada. Main Film is excited to sponsor the "For the Love of Celluloid" award, to be presented at Images Festival. This award aims to celebrate and honour the exceptional dedication and passion for celluloid film within the independent cinema scene. The prize is $500 cash and is sponsored by Main Film.

Radical Forms Award

This honour goes to an artist whose work is impervious to constraints—willful, unruly, and uncontrollable. This award was established in 2000 to honour the former Executive Director Deirdre Logue. The prize is $1,000 cash and is sponsored by VTape, Reel Asian Film Festival, Critical Distance Centre for Curators, and an anonymous donor.

The Niagara Custom Lab Award

The Niagara Custom Lab Award is presented to an artist who maintains a curiosity and commitment to exploring celluloid within their films. The recipient will receive $1200 in laboratory services for processing and scanning 16mm and Super 8 motion picture film. Sponsored by Niagara Custom Lab.

York University Award for Best Student Work

Awarded to the best student work on screen. The prize is $500 cash, and is sponsored by York University’s Department of Cinema & Media Arts.

Thank You to our Awards Sponsors


Each winner will also be awarded an Annual Pro Plan from MyAirBridge!


This year’s awards are generously supported by the following partners:

Astrolab logo
CSV logo

Images Festival operates on land stolen from the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Tkáron:to is currently home to diverse Indigenous and Métis peoples as well as people who settle on this land. As part of Treaty 13 and the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Covenant, we acknowledge that we all eat from the same bowl and spoon, and must take only what we need, ensuring resources are available for all. 


As art workers, artists, and curators, we see the process of untangling ourselves from settler complicity as internal, structural, and ongoing. It is not something to be taken lightly. The inclusion of Indigenous artists and curators into our program is just the first step of necessary and deeper change. Extending from our organizational accountability work, we strive to not only undo forms of complicity, but also actively create an environment and infrastructure that can support Indigenous peoples who work with us. 


Images expresses our solidarity with Indigenous people on Turtle Island and globally. We are committed to continuing to learn, critique, and challenge the settler colonial structures we are complicit in.