Prism Prize


The Prism Prize is a national juried award recognizing the artistry of the modern music video in Canada. A jury of over 120 Canadian music and film industry professionals, including members of the print and web media, broadcasting, film, radio, and video art communities, nominate the 10 best videos of the year to comprise the Prism Prize shortlist. The winning video receives a cash prize of $15,000. This is the richest cash prize for music videos in North America.
Founded in 2012, the award is administered by the Association for Music and Innovative Arts.
The inaugural Prism Prize was awarded in March 2013 to director Noah Pink for Rich Aucoin’s "Brian Wilson Is A.L.I.V.E", while director Vincent Morisset took home the Audience Award for Arcade Fire’s "Sprawl II".
For the second award presentation in 2014, the Prism Prize introduced two new awards, the Special Achievement Award for artistic achievements and exceptional contribution to music video art on a world stage, and the Arthur Lipsett Award for innovative and unique approaches to music video art.
The 2014 Prism Prize was presented on March 23, 2014 to director Emily Kai Bock for her Arcade Fire "Afterlife" video. The Audience Award went to director Kheaven Lewandowski for his video for "River" by The Belle Game. The Arthur Lipsett Award was presented to Scott Cudmore and Michael LeBlanc for their innovative video work. The Special Achievement Award went to Floria Sigismondi.
In 2020 the committee introduced the Willie Dunn Award, a lifetime achievement award honouring Canadians who have been trailblazers in the art of music video. The award was named in memory of Willie Dunn, an indigenous Canadian musician whose 1968 animated short film The Ballad of Crowfoot has sometimes been credited as the first Canadian music video.

Winners and nominees

2013

Nominees were announced on February 14, 2013, and the winners were announced on March 24.
Nominees were announced on February 18, 2014, and the winners were announced on March 23.
Nominees were announced on February 12, 2015, and the winners were announced on March 29.
Beginning in 2016, the prize revised its process. A longlist of 20 nominees was announced on February 9, 2016, a shortlist of 10 finalists was announced on March 22, and the winner was named on May 15.

Shortlist

2017

Winners

Longlist

2018

Winners

Longlist

2019

Winners

Longlist

2020

The longlist for the 2020 Prism Prize was announced in February 2020, with the shortlist originally slated to be announced on April 2 and the winner to be announced on May 11. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, however, the prize committee cancelled the May 11 event, and postponed the announcement of the winners to July 22 for the special awards, and July 23 for the topline categories. In addition, they opted not to issue a shortlist, instead announcing that all 20 longlisted nominees would be eligible for the final awards.

Winners