NFB leadership in gender equity, artistic achievement recognized at Women In Film & Television Vancouver’s Spotlight Awards. Claude Joli-Coeur honoured for NFB’s groundbreaking commitment to films by women; Mina Shum for her outstanding body of work including her latest NFB doc, Ninth Floor.
PRESS RELEASE
17/05/2016
May 17, 2016 – Vancouver – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The National Film Board of Canada’s leadership role in women’s filmmaking is being recognized on June 20, 2016 in Vancouver, with Women in Film & Television Vancouver (WIFTV) “Spotlight Awards” for NFB chairperson Claude Joli-Coeur and filmmaker Mina Shum.
Presented by WIFTV since 1999 to celebrate the outstanding achievements of BC women and people who’ve made a difference in the province’s film and television sector.
Claude Joli-Coeur, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson since November 2014, will receive the Please Adjust Your Set Award, which “honours a person or organization that has made a major contribution to promote gender equality in film, television or screen based media.” This award follows a new NFB policy announced by Joli-Coeur in Vancouver on March 8, International Women’s Day, which has Canada’s public producer committing 50 percent of its production budget to films by women. Already an industry leader in gender equality, the NFB will now ensure that at least half of its productions will be directed by women and half of all production spending will be allocated to films directed by women.
Vancouver based NFB filmmaker Mina Shum will receive WIFV’s Artistic Achievement Award, honouring a screen-based media artist who has created an outstanding recent work or a significant body of work. Shum’s stellar career includes a pair of acclaimed NFB features: her feature directorial debut Double Happiness (1994), an NFB co-production which won both the Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Feature Film and the Toronto Metro Media Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as her latest work, the NFB feature documentary Ninth Floor, named to Canada’s Top Ten for 2015 by TIFF.
The May 17 announcement of the Spotlight Award for Shum also coincides with the launch of Ninth Floor on NFB.ca and iTunes (Canada and the U.S.), for both download-to-own (DTO) and video-on-demand (VOD), following a critically acclaimed run at Canadian film festivals.
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Associated Links
Women in Film & Television Vancouver
Canada’s Top Ten for 2015
NFB Gender Equity
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About the NFB
Founded in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a one-of-a-kind producer, co-producer and distributor of distinctive, engaging, relevant and innovative documentary and animated films. As a talent incubator, it is one of the world’s leading creative centres. The NFB has enabled Canadians to tell and hear each other’s stories for over eight decades, and its films are a reliable and accessible educational resource. The NFB is also recognized around the world for its expertise in preservation and conservation, and for its rich and vibrant collection of works, which form a pillar of Canada’s cultural heritage. To date, the NFB has produced more than 14,000 works, 7,000 of which can be streamed free of charge at nfb.ca. The NFB and its productions and co-productions have earned over 7,000 awards, including 11 Oscars and an Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.