Gail Maurice set to receive 2026 August Schellenberg Award of Excellence

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is thrilled to announce Métis director, actor, writer, and producer Gail Maurice as the recipient of this year’s August Schellenberg Award of Excellence.

The announcement comes on the same day as early bird ticket packages and discounted passes for in-person and online screenings go on sale for the 26th edition of the Festival.

The Augie

The Augie (August Schellenberg Award of Excellence) is an annual prize that recognizes gifted Indigenous actors from across Turtle Island. The award serves as a celebration of the longevity and impact of their careers, as well as their professionalism and involvement in mentorship and community work. To honour the memory of actor August Schellenberg. The award is possible through partnership with imagineNATIVE and August’s widow and lifelong partner, Joan Karasevich Schellenberg.

Gail Maurice’s work has spanned decades. Originally, from Beauval, Saskatchewan, Maurice is proudly fluent in Northern Michif, a language with fewer than a thousand speakers. She is the founder of Toronto-based Assini Productions, established in 2004 to bring Indigenous stories to the screen.

Award Winning

Maurice’s debut feature film, Rosie, was one of Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Top Ten films of 2022. Look at these accolades:

The Audience Choice Feature Film Award at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival,
The Best Feature Narrative at the Festival International du Cinéma Francophone en Acadie, and was
Best Feature Film at the Available Light Film Festival (Yukon Film Society).

Maurice was also one of Variety’s 10 Canadians to Watch. Her sophomore feature, Blood Lines, premiered at the TIFF last year, 2025 and is currently on the festival circuit.

The 2005 short Smudge, featuring Indigenous women integrating ancestral ceremonies into their urban lives, screened at Sundance and was among the titles selected by Michael Moore for his Traverse City Film Festival. Maurice’s short films have also screened at imagineNATIVE, Sundance, TIFF, the Smithsonian, the CBC, APTN, and more.

As an actor, Maurice is a two-time Canadian Screen Award nominee for her roles in Trickster and Night Raiders. Her other acting credits include Street Time, Cardinal, Memory in Bones, Bones of Crows, and Aberdeen.

She is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada. Maurice received a nomination for the DGC’s Jean-Marc Vallée Discovery Award for Rosie. Additional honours include the Hnatyshyn Indigenous Award of Excellence and a Chalmers Arts Fellowship. She was also selected for the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative. As well as the Berlinale 2024 European Film Market (EFM) Toolbox Programme.

A Multihyphenate Artist

Lindsay Monture, Artistic Director at imagineNATIVE had this to say:

“It’s an honour to recognize Gail Maurice for this year’s August Schellenberg Award of Excellence. Gail is a remarkable multihyphenate artist who has dedicated her career to uplifting the stories that are often hiding under the surface. Pulling our attention to new perspectives, and humanizing those who are often overlooked and underrepresented. She has maintained a longstanding and close relationship with imagineNATIVE, and continues to collaborate with and champion the work of many artists in the global Indigenous cinema community. She has already accomplished so much, yet it feels as though she is only just beginning, and we look forward to seeing how her career will inspire a new generation of Indigenous storytellers.”

The Augie Award, with support from ACTRA, will be presented to Maurice at this year’s imagineNATIVE Awards Presentation during the festival.