Toronto—April 8, 2026—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, otherwise known as the “Augie.” 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 is an annual prize that recognizes gifted Indigenous actors from across Turtle Island based on 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 was launched in 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.

Maurice’s debut feature film, Rosie, was one of Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Top Ten films of 2022, it won 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 named the Best Feature Film at the Available Light Film Festival (Yukon Film Society), among other accolades. Maurice was also named 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.

A member of the Directors Guild of Canada, Maurice was nominated 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 and the Berlinale 2024 European Film Market (EFM) Toolbox Programme.

“It’s an honour to recognize Gail Maurice for this year’s August Schellenberg Award of Excellence,” said Lindsay Monture, Artistic Director at imagineNATIVE. “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 to 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. 

Ticketing options are priced from now until May 6, 2026 at $187.50 CAD for the In‑Person Festival Pass (a 25% discount), $45 CAD for a six (6) ticket package, $80 CAD for a twelve (12) ticket package, and $25 CAD for an Online Festival Pass (a 50% discount) granting access to all of the films available to watch during the online festival (subject to location geoblocking and distribution rights). Taking place from June 2-7, 2026 (Toronto) and June 8-14, 2026 (online), early bird ticket packages and online passes for this year’s imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival are on sale now at imagineNATIVE.org/festival/box-office.