Historically, the awards have taken place in late February. In 2023, the awards were held in late April. The date of the 2024 awards has yet to be confirmed.

Submissions for the four Outstanding Performance juried awards (Gender Non-Conforming (GNC) or Female, GNC or Male, GNC or Female Voice and GNC or Male Voice) are open from December 1 to October 31. Submit whenever you see a significant performance by a fellow member that you think is truly outstanding. The submission form can be found here and eligibility criteria here.

You may self-submit your performance or ask a sibling ACTRA Toronto member to submit you. But be smart about it. The award is for Outstanding Performance. It should be some of the very best work you’ve ever done; you don’t want to waste the jury’s time.

It must be a principal role, usually a lead, supporting or guest lead role. If it is a principal supporting role, it should have significant screen time. A few performers in supporting roles have been nominated in the past, but they tended to be “guest leads.” The jurors understand they are comparing leads to supporting performances, feature-length productions to shorts, TV to film to web series and so on. They try their very best to evaluate each performance on its merits alone. Every year, we are impressed and honoured by the seriousness and integrity with which our jurors approach their work.

Complete the submission form as best you can. If you don't know all the answers, don’t worry about it. We’ll look them up for you.

There is a link to the awards page on the homepage of our website. ACTRA Toronto also posts to social media and sends E-blasts to members reminding them to submit noteworthy performances as soon as they see them through the easy online submission form. You’ll get additional E-blast reminders throughout September and October as the October 31st deadline approaches.

We send E-blasts to all ACTRA Toronto members. Deleting E-mails from ACTRA Toronto or sending them to your junk mail folder means you will not only miss out on updates about the awards, but you also won’t receive information about other fantastic ACTRA Toronto events or your very important voting privileges. Read your ACTRA E-mails. It is a membership requirement to have a valid E-mail address on file with your union.

Over the years, such suggestions have been made and considered and will be again, but at this point, there are only four Outstanding Performance juried awards. One of the considerations is to keep the show to a reasonable length.

ACTRA Toronto jury coordinators for both the on-camera and voice juries start to recruit jurors after submissions close on October 31. ACTRA Toronto members who have previously won or been nominated for an Outstanding Performance award may be asked to be a juror. The jury coordinators also work to ensure the juries are inclusive.

For the on-camera jurors, once the jurors are recruited and screeners obtained for each submitted performance, the eligible submissions are roughly divided equally between the jurors. Each eligible submission is viewed in its entirety by one juror. All juries (Gender Non-Conforming (GNC) or Female, GNC or Male, and Voice) will then each meet remotely to discuss submissions and decide on the five nominees for each Outstanding Performance category. The nominees are announced via news release.

The voice juries listen to the performances with the screen turned off. This way, voice jurors are only influenced by the artistry of the vocal performance and not by the artistry of the animation or other visuals.

That is left to the discretion of the Jury Coordinators. In some cases, a different final jury may choose the winner or the same jury may choose both the nominees and the winner in their respective category. The winners are announced at the awards.

No. The Members' Choice Series Ensemble nominees and winner are chosen by ACTRA Toronto members in two separate online votes, one to select the five finalists and the second to select the winner. As with the juried awards, the nominees are announced via news release and the winner is announced at the awards.

The shows are all ACTRA Toronto Canadian Content live-action series and were first broadcast in the previous calendar year. At least four of the top five cast members are Canadian and appear in the majority of episodes. The eligible shows are assembled by staff based on the production information ACTRA Toronto has on file. If a show you would like to be considered was filmed 14+ months prior to its first broadcast date, please E-mail jmcgibbon@actratoronto.com before January 10 to ensure it is considered in the list of eligible shows for that year’s Members’ Choice Series Ensemble vote. Please note, all shows will be considered but only those that meet all eligibility criteria will be included in the vote.

Yes. The Stunt Ensemble Award is also a juried award. The nominees and winner are chosen by a jury of ACTRA Toronto’s stunt community members. The nominees are announced via news release and the winner is announced at the awards.

The ACTRA Toronto Stunt Award criteria and recipient is decided by a committee comprised of past recipients.

The ACTRA Toronto Award of Excellence recipient is chosen by ACTRA Toronto Council. The ACTRA Toronto Award of Excellence recognizes a distinguished ACTRA Toronto performer whose outstanding career achievements as a performer are matched by a significant volunteer contribution to the industry and ongoing work of ACTRA Toronto to improve the lives of its members. The ACTRA Toronto Award of Excellence is selected by ACTRA Toronto Council at a fall council meeting and presented to the recipient at the next annual ACTRA Awards in Toronto event.

Please contact Jennifer McGibbon at jmcgibbon@actratoronto.com.