Filmmaker alumni from York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) were recognized with awards and honourable mentions at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
This year’s TIFF featured a strong presence from AMPD with nine alumni selected to showcase their creative works to audiences from the global film community.
Several of those alumni went on to receive awards or honourable mentions from TIFF’s prestigious festival-end prizes, which are decided either by audience vote or by a jury of film industry professionals.
The awards and their recipients are:
TIFF People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award
Director Matt Johnson (BFA ’06, MFA ’16) won the audience-voted prize for Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. In the film, two friends (one played by Johnson) try to promote their band with a reckless stunt that goes awry, accidentally sending them back in time.
The recognition adds to Johnson’s growing list of accomplishments, which includes multiple Canadian Screen Awards in 2024 for the acclaimed film BlackBerry. He collaborated on the TIFF-winning project with fellow AMPD alumni Matthew Miller (BFA ’03, MFA ’16) as producer, Jared Rabb (BFA ’07) as director of photography and Victoria Lean (MFA ’14) as consulting producer.
Best Canadian Discovery Award
Writer-director Sophy Romvari (MFA ’20) received this award – which recognizes emerging filmmakers who enrich the Canadian film landscape – for her debut feature Blue Heron. The film, shot by alumna Maya Bankovic (BFA ’07), follows an eight-year-old Hungarian Canadian girl who witnesses her family unravel under the weight of her eldest brother’s mental health struggles.
An honourable mention in this category went to Kunsang Kyirong (MFA ’21) for 100 Sunset. Also a debut feature, the film tells the story of an introverted Tibetan Canadian teenager in Parkdale who forms an unexpected bond with a newcomer that challenges her identity and sense of belonging.
Best Canadian Feature Film – Honourable Mention
There Are No Words, directed by Min Sook Lee, received an honourable mention for Best Canadian Feature Film. Two York alumni contributed to the documentary, which explores the impact of Lee’s mother’s death by suicide. Yong Zong (MFA ’18) was the film's editor and Chanda Chevannes (MFA ’20) was its executive producer.
Collectively, these AMPD alumni are building on a recent wave of York creative talent that are being recognized with Canadian Screen Awards and inclusion in TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten for shaping Canadian – and global – visual storytelling.