Awards

Meet the 2024 Festival Jury!

Charlene K. Lau is an art historian, critic and Curator of Public Art at Evergreen Brick Works. She has held fellowships at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; Parsons School of Design, The New School; and Performa Biennial. Charlene has also held teaching positions at Parsons School of Design, OCAD University, Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Toronto Scarborough, Western University and York University. Her writing has been published in Art in America, Artforum, TheAtlantic.com, The Brooklyn Rail, C Magazine, Canadian Art, frieze, Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, Fashion Theory and Journal of Curatorial Studies, among others.

www.charleneklau.com

Isabel Okoro (b. 2001, Lagos, Nigeria) is a visual artist currently based in Toronto, ON. She is exploring the interactions between the motherland and the diaspora, and coined the term normatopia to describe a space which considers the tensions between a harsh reality and a utopia, and chooses to rest and thrive in the humanly achievable sweet spot that exists in the middle. At the cornerstone of her practice is visualising and developing an imagined world, Eternity, as a space to immortalize community members through stories of speculative fiction that embrace her concept of normatopia.

Keith Lock’s, Flights of Frenzy, won the Best Super 8 award at the UNESCO 10th Muse International, Amsterdam,1969. A Brighter Moon, 1987, received a Gemini Award Nomination for Best Short Drama. His television documentary, The Road Chosen: The Lem Wong Story, received NFB’s Innoversity Conference Award, 2002. He was cinematographer for Michael Snow’s, Two Sides to Every Story, voted TIFF’s 150 Essential Works of Canadian Cinema, 2017. His experimental feature, Everything Everywhere Again Alive, 1974, was named in Jim Shedden’s “100 Best Canadian Films of All Time”, 2020. He was the inaugural recipient of the trailblazing Firehorse Award in 2022.

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.

Presented to Rana Nazzal Hamadeh.

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 for a decade. This prize is $1500 and is sponsored by Charles Street Video, CFMDC, LIFT, MANO/RAMO, Reel Asian Film Festival, VTape, DARC, and the8fest Small-Gauge Film Festival.

Presented to Nour Ouyda.

For the Love of Celluloid

This award recognizes an artist who demonstrates profound artistry and craftsmanship with celluloid film. It acknowledges the artist’s commitment to exploring and preserving the unique qualities and opportunities of the medium. Main Film is truly thrilled to introduce and sponsor this award at Images Festival, celebrating both the festival and the artist demonstrating a profound connection to analog practices. The prize is $500.

Presented to Diana Vidrascu.

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 and is sponsored by Toronto Queer Film Festival, Reel Asian Film Festival, Oakville Galleries, and an anonymous donor.

Presented to Firas Shehadeh.

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.

Presented to Joyce Joumaa.

York University Award

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

Presented to Arina Chernova.

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:

Charles Street Video, CFMDC, LIFT, MANO/RAMO, Reel Asian Film Festival, VTape, DARC, the8fest Small-Gauge Film Festival, Astrolab Studios, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Oakville Galleries, York University’s Department of Cinema & Media Arts, Niagara Custom Lab, Main Film, and MyAirBridge.

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.