Actor Tantoo Cardinal Winner 2018 Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award

The Toronto Film Critics Association is pleased to announce prolific Indigenous film, television and stage actor Tantoo Cardinal is the recipient of this year's Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award.

The TFCA thanks Technicolor Creative Services for enabling the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award recipient to give $50,000 in services to a filmmaker of their choosing. Cardinal will announce her designate in the days to come.

"I am most honoured to be receiving this recognition - and from film critics!" said Cardinal. "It's very exciting."

"Tantoo Cardinal's win represents the first time in the history of the TFCA that our annual Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award goes to an actor," said TFCA president Peter Howell.

"And what a great year for Tantoo it has been," Howell pointed out. "As one of Canada's most respected stars of the screen and stage, she is finally getting the recognition she deserves in her 48-year career, including her first-ever lead role in the upcoming film Falls Around Her. We're delighted we can contribute to her acclaim."

Alberta-born Cardinal has had notable roles in Canadian and international films, includingDances With Wolves, Black Robe and Smoke Signals. A Genie Award recipient for her work in TV series North of 60, she'll be seen next in features The Grizzlies and Through Black Spruce, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September alongside Falls Around Her.

A Member of the Order of Canada, Cardinal is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award recognizes a Canadian industry figure who has made a substantial and outstanding contribution to the advancement and/or history of Canadian cinema. This includes, but is not limited to, writers, directors, producers, distributors, actors, academics, cinematographers and technicians. Those who can viably be seen as forwarding Canadian cinema and culture through their work are eligible. 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 Technicolor Creative Services.

The Toronto Film Critics Association will announce the majority of its 2018 awards on December 10, 2018, including the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, which carries a $10,000 cash prize and the RBC Allan King Documentary Award, with a $5,000 cash prize. The TFCA will also name the three finalists for coveted Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, by far Canada's richest film prize at $100,000, with $5,000 going to each of two runners-up. The winner will be announced at the 22nd annual TFCA Awards, a gala dinner held at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.

The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor Rogers Communications for theRogers Best Canadian Film Award, to returning sponsors Labatt's for the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, to Technicolor for the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award, to Cineplex Entertainment for the awards cocktail reception. The TFCA welcomes new sponsors Air Canada as the official airline and RBC for the RBC Allan King Documentary Award. The TFCA also welcomes new sponsors the Four Seasons Hotel and Champagne Perrier-Jouët. The TFCA salutes stalwart supporters The Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Zoomer Magazine, and TAXI Toronto.

Under the TFCA's guidelines, contenders eligible for the awards include films released in Toronto in 2018 as well as films that qualify for the 2019 Academy Awards and have a Toronto release scheduled by the end of February 2019.

The Toronto Film Critics Association was established in 1997 and is comprised of Toronto based journalists and broadcasters who specialize in film criticism and commentary. All major dailies, weeklies and a variety of other print, electronic and web outlets are represented. Members of the TFCA also participate in the Federation of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI). As such, they have sat on juries at festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Montreal, Miami, Palm Springs, Chicago, Pusan, Moscow, Amsterdam, London and Vienna, among others.