January 18, 2024

Prolific Film and TV Director, the Late Charles Officer  Awarded 2023 Company 3 Luminary Award

Ariane Louis-Seize Wins Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an Emerging Artist

Winnie Wang Wins Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic Award

The Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) announced today late director/writer/producer Charles Officer as the recipient of the 2023 Company 3 Luminary Award. The award recognizes a Canadian industry figure who has made a substantial and outstanding contribution to the advancement and/or history of Canadian cinema. In the spirit of the pay-it-forward nature of the award, the recipient names an emerging filmmaker to receive $50,000 in services from Company 3. Representatives for Officer will announce his designate in the days to come.

The Canadian film industry was shocked by the death of Officer in December at age 48 after a lengthy illness. Officer left an impressive legacy of work, much of which gave voice to people of colour. The final year of his life saw The Porter, his CBC/BET series about the pioneering Black-led union ‘The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters’, win twelve Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Drama Series. In 2020, Akilla’s Escape, Officer’s feature about a gang-trained former drug dealer who tries to save a teenager from following in his footsteps, won five Canadian Screen Awards and was nominated for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Officer also made acclaimed documentaries, including Unarmed Verses, about the fate of Toronto Community Housing tenants uprooted by gentrification.

Additionally, the TFCA announced winners of two awards recognizing those viably seen as forwarding Canadian cinema and culture through their work.

Ariane Louis-Seize was named the winner of the 2023 Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, which carries a $10,000 purse, courtesy of Labatt. Louis-Seize is also in the running for the Rogers Best Canadian Film for her breakthrough, morbidly comic feature Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. Solidly on the film industry’s radar, Louis-Seize has won the Best Director prize at Venice Days and the Emerging Canadian Artist award at the Calgary International Film Festival, as well as this year’s Jean-Marc Vallée Discovery Award from the Directors Guild of Canada.

Winnie Wang was named the winner of the 2023 Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic award for aspiring film reviewers. Wang, whose work has appeared in Cinema Scope, Little White Lies and Documentary Magazine, got their start in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Next Wave programming department. The Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic award comes with a cash prize of $1,000, courtesy of Telefilm Canada.

These awards will be presented along with the prestigious Rogers Best Canadian Film and Rogers Best Canadian Documentary – both $50,000 prizes – at a gala at Toronto’s Omni King Edward Hotel, on Monday, March 4, 2024. Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is nominated alongside BlackBerry and Solo as finalists for the former. Rojek, Someone Lives Here and Swan Song have been chosen as finalists for Best Canadian Documentary. The two runners up in each category will receive $5,000.

The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor Rogers Communications for the Rogers Best Canadian Film and the Rogers Best Canadian Documentary. TFCA thanks returning sponsors Labatt for the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, Netflix as the dinner sponsor, Air Canada as official airline and Company 3 as the Company 3 Luminary Award sponsor. The TFCA salutes sponsors Prime Video as the cocktail reception sponsor, Telefilm Canada as the Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic sponsor and Pinnacle Live as the official AV Sponsor. The TFCA also thanks sponsors Cineplex Entertainment, Omni King Edward Hotel and salutes stalwart supporters, G.H. Mumm Champagne, L’Eat Catering, Zoomer Magazine, and The Printing House.