FIRE HORSE AWARD Nominations Open For Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival has opened nominations for the Fire Horse Award.

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival proudly established the Fire Horse Award in 2021 to commemorate Reel Asian’s 25th anniversary. They envisioned an annual prize recognizing an Asian Canadian in the media arts or screen-based industries who has dedicated their energy and talents to breaking down barriers, uplifting Asian Canadian communities, and sparking cultural change.

Check out the Nominations Process here.

The award is named in honour of Reel Asian founder and long-time champion Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer at the Toronto International Film Festival and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Fire Horse Award

The Fire Horse is Anita’s Asian Zodiac sign. Members of the Reel Asian community wanted to recognize her pioneering vision and transformative leadership over the years. This includes a near two-decade tenure from 2014 to 2022 as Executive Producer of the Ontario Studio of the NFB, where she presided over unprecedented support for projects from BIPOC communities.

People born in the Year of the Fire Horse are said to be changemakers, original and creative thinkers, and passionate visionary leaders. The Fire Horse Award recognizes trailblazers in the Asian Canadian media arts or screen-based industries.

Those who have demonstrated leadership, excellence and innovation in their own work. While inspiring and invigorating the Asian Canadian media arts ecosystem through mentorship, volunteerism or other forms of community service. The $25,000 cash prize comes through the generosity of the award’s lead donors, Lap Chan and Ha-kyung Helen Song and Sandra Oh; and major donor Pan Asia Food Co., Ltd. Ongoing contributions from the Reel Asian community will ensure the sustainability of the award for years to come.

In keeping with the spirit of the award, Reel Asian is reaching out to the community for nominations.

Guidelines

To have been considered for the Fire Horse Award, nominees must:

Identify as Asian Canadian and be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
Have a significant body of work or career achievements in the media arts or screen-based industries.
Have actively contributed to the media art/screen-based industries. Either as creators (e.g. filmmakers, video artists, etc.); craftspeople (e.g. cinematographers, editors, etc.), actors, or other industry professionals (e.g. producers, programmers, organizers, distributors, etc.).
Have contributed to uplifting or promoting Asian Canadian perspectives, stories, images and/or talent.
Have demonstrated excellence in their own practice/field.
Have a demonstrated commitment to giving back to the community.
Exemplify the traits of the Fire Horse (i.e. trailblazers or changemakers, original and creative thinkers, and passionate, visionary leaders).
Not be a current Reel Asian staff, Board or Awards Committee member.
Not have received the Fire Horse Award in a previous year.