June 6, 2026 – Toronto – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Seven National Film Board of Canada (NFB) short films celebrating excellence in Canadian performing arts will premiere online Saturday, June 6, as the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA) honours laureates in Ottawa.

These cinematic tributes will debut June 6 at 9 p.m. EDT on NFB, Apple TV, CBC Gem (in English) and ICI TOU.TV (in French) immediately following the GGPAA Show at the National Arts Centre—giving everyone the opportunity to take part in this salute to inspiring Canadian artists and volunteers.

This year’s films are directed by Jennifer Chiu, Dana Claxton, Tara Johns, Kevin McIntyre and Yasmine Mathurin, and produced by Christine Aubé, Niki Little, Teri Snelgrove and Robert Vroom at NFB production units across the country.

The NFB’s GGPAA film collection now totals 133 shorts, created over an 18-year partnership with the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation that began in 2008.

Laureates and their films

• Directed by Jennifer Chiu and produced by Teri Snelgrove 

• Susan Benson: A Life in Form celebrates the work and career of the accomplished theatre designer and Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award laureate through her reveries and reflections, revealing an artist still in bloom.

• Directed by Dana Claxton and produced by Niki Little

• In Worlding, second-generation Korean-Canadian Sae Hoon Chung reflects on belonging, privilege and the responsibilities of cultural leadership. Moving through spaces where diasporic communities are often unseen, he traces how volunteerism in the arts became a practice of visibility and togetherness. Centering swimming as metaphor—cultural freedom, soul repair and a rhythm aligned with the universe—this recipient of the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts invites us into community participation rooted in embodiment, listening and the ongoing rehearsal of hearing one another.

• Directed by Tara Johns and produced by Robert Vroom 

• Exploring Mindsis a visually immersive journey into the imagined mindscape of Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award laureate James Cameron, guided by the voice and perspective of his childhood mentor, Dr. Joe MacInnis, and inspired by the spirit of ocean pioneer Jacques Cousteau. Blending 1960s documentary homage with impressionism, the film dives into the legendary director’s uncharted mental landscape, shaped by deep-sea imagery and populated by his personal musings, artwork and memories.  

• Directed by Kevin McIntyre and produced by Christine Aubé 

• In Thinker of Movement, iconic choreographer and Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award laureate Sylvain Émard strolls through Montreal, meditating on dance and humanity. As he walks, his thoughts take shape: dancers spring forth, inhabiting the space and translating his imagination into living choreography. From archival footage of his works to moments of candour and reflection, the film reveals a creator who seeks to sublimate the everyday through movement. An immersive, luminous ode to the power of the body and the beauty of human motion.

• From Canada to Europe’s great opera houses, National Arts Centre Award recipient Barbara Hannigan builds a fearless career defined by risk, precision and emotional intensity. As her artistry expands beyond singing into conducting, she discovers a new form of expression—leading orchestras with the same instinct and vulnerability she brings to the stage. Rooted in her Nova Scotian sense of community, Soprano, and Conductor reveals how she continues to evolve, inspire and seek transcendence through music.

• Even as a child, singer-songwriter and Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award laureate Daniel Lavoie knew that music was his calling. His journey has been strewn with instinctive impulses and serendipity, including his grandfather’s piano, setting early poems to music and the encounter that kicked off a 60-year career. From the hit song “Ils s’aiment” through his metamorphosis into Frollo in Notre Dame de Paris, Failing at Retirement follows the thrilling path of a creator who never stopped moving forward.

• Directed by Yasmine Mathurin and produced by Niki Little

• One Way or Anotheris a reflective portrait of screen actor and producer, arts executive and activist Tonya Williams, shaped through her encounter with her own archives. As she revisits these materials, this Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award laureate recounts the memories that have anchored her journey, from her early work in commercials to her role on Polka Dot Door, and later her rise on The Young and the Restless. These experiences reveal the foundation that led her to create the Reelworld Film Festival, a lasting extension of her vision and advocacy.

About the directors

• Jennifer Chiu is a writer, director, producer and researcher living in Vancouver whose debut documentary feature, Clan of the Painted Lady, premiered in the fall of 2025. She has a decade of experience researching and developing series and feature documentaries for film and television. In 2022, she was nominated for the Barbara Sears Award for Best Editorial Research at the Canadian Screen Awards.

• Dana Claxton is a member of Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation, located in Saskatchewan, and currently resides in Vancouver. An acclaimed multidisciplinary artist, Dana investigates Indigenous beauty, the body, and sociopolitical and spiritual themes in her work. Her honours include the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

• Tara Johns is an Alberta-born writer-director based in Montreal. Her debut short film, Killing Time, won the Best Canadian Short award at the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto. Her first feature, The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom, has garnered awards and acclaim. Tara is now in development on the feature film project Good Bones, with Palomar Films.

• While music is Acadian artist Kevin McIntyre’s preferred outlet for creative expression, his rich and vibrant career also encompasses writing and design, as well as film editing and directing. Kevin’s experience in creative production is wide-ranging: three solo albums, his role as a member of the band Salebarbes and several years as a camera operator, editor and producer with CBC/Radio-Canada Television in the Maritimes. 

• Yasmine Mathurin is a Haitian-Canadian filmmaker whose debut feature doc, One of Ours, won the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs and earned three Canadian Screen Award nominations. The producer of acclaimed CBC podcasts like The Shadows and Tai Asks Why, Yasmine received the TIFF–CBC Films Screenwriter Award for her fiction debut, now in development. 

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Press release – PDF here.

Version française ici.