Fantavious Fritz Wins $15K Prism Prize

By Kerry Doole

Toronto video director Fantavious Fritz is the Grand Prize winner of the 2018 Prism Prize for best Canadian music video for his work on Charlotte Day Wilson’s music video, “Work.” Both director and artist were on hand to accept the Prism Prize trophy and $15,000 award at the Prism Prize Awards Presentation at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto last night.

Four other awards were handed out on the night. The Hi-Fidelity Award, "presented to a Canadian recording artist with a strong visual identity in music video art," went to Grimes, who recorded an appreciative acceptance speech. The Lipsett Award for "an innovative and unique approach to music video art" went to Karena Evans, a director, writer and actor whose career has soared after directing two Drake videos, "God's Plan and "Nice For What."

The Audience Award winner, chosen by public votes for the Top 20 Prism nominees, went to Keavan Yazdani and Sean Brown, for Daniel Caesar's "Freudian, a Visual."

Presented by Slaight Music, the Special Achievement Award went to industry veteran Cherie Sinclair. This award goes to "a Canadian music video icon for their artistic achievements and exceptional contribution to music video art on a world stage." Founder of prolific production company The Field, Sinclair has produced videos for Bryan Adams, Drake, Tea Party, Moist, Nelly Furtado, Carly Rae Jepsen, and many more.

The Grand Prize was announced at the conclusion of the well-attended and smoothly run two-hour show. Winner Fritz praised the Prism Prize "for allowing this community to continue to grow." He then drew cheers by stating that he and Wilson will donate their winnings to a women's shelter and to the creation of a grant "to help a female video director perfect their craft."

The elephant in the room at the gala was the recent dismantling of MuchFACT, the funding agency that helped support the vast majority of the Prism-nominated clips. Sinclair addressed the situation in thanking MuchFACT, adding "hopefully someone else can step up." Her sentiments were reinforced by last year's grand prize winner, Martin C. Pariseau, on hand to present that trophy last night.

About

Now in its sixth year, The Prism Prize is the largest cash prize in the world for music videos. The annual award recognizing outstanding artistry in Canadian music videos and is produced by the not-for-profit Association for Music and Innovative Arts.

Plans for the 7th annual Prism Prize will be announced later this year. Prism Prize is proud to host a comprehensive resource for music fans to watch the best Canadian music videos all in one place. Videos and news from Canada’s music video community are available throughout the year at prismprize.com.