Vidéographe bestows the 2026 Robert-Forget Award to Nicole Gingras
Vidéographe bestows the 2026 Robert-Forget Award to Nicole Gingras
Montreal, Tuesday, February 3, 2026 - Vidéographe is proud to announce that the 2026 Robert-Forget Award goes to curator, researcher, and author Nicole Gingras, in recognition of her exceptional contribution to the development, dissemination, and promotion of moving images in Quebec.
Created in 2021 as part of the celebration of Vidéographe’s 50th anniversary and named in honour of its founder, the Robert-Forget Award is presented every two years to a Quebec artist, curator, or researcher whose commitment has significantly marked the discipline of video art. The prize includes a $5,000 grant, a digital publication, and a retrospective program supported by Vidéographe.
A recipient with an exemplary career
Following a rigorous evaluation, the jury, composed of Rachel Echenberg (artist and professor in the Visual Arts Department at Dawson College), Mathieu Li-Goyette (Editor-in-Chief of Panorama-cinéma and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam) and Maude Trottier (Editor-in-Chief of Hors champ and project manager in history and heritage at the Société d’histoire and the Centre d’archives de Laval), selected Nicole Gingras from a wide range of candidates whose achievements testify to the richness and diversity of the field.
Active since the 1980s, Nicole Gingras has made a decisive contribution to the recognition and circulation of Montreal, Quebec, Canadian, and international works. Programmer for 23 years of the experimental section of the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA), independent curator, author, editor and teacher, she has supported multiple generations of artists with consistency and generosity.
Her career has played a key role in expanding perceptions of video art, experimental cinema, sound practices, and installation-based forms involving moving images. By shaping the concepts of “exploratory cinema” and “exploratory forms,” she has cultivated an approach attentive to the hybridity of artistic practices and enabled unprecedented modes of circulation among works. Thus, she has directly enriched the vitality of the cultural ecosystem through both project-based and long-term collaborations with a wide range of initiatives and organizations, including Vidéographe.
Award ceremony and special program
The 2026 Robert-Forget Award will be presented at an evening event on Wednesday, February 18 at Cinéma Moderne, with the recipient, the jury members, and the Vidéographe team in attendance (by invitation only).
As part of the event, guests will have the opportunity to discover Correspondences and Confidences, a program curated by Nicole Gingras and created especially for the occasion. Bringing together works by Marik Boudreau, Francisco Ruiz de Infante, Manon Labrecque, Matthieu Echenberg, Geneviève Echenberg, Rachel Echenberg and Catherine Boivin, this program will be available on the Vithèque platform later in the year.
The evening will feature speeches by Vidéographe’s director, Alexandra Boilard-Lefebvre, the jury members, and the award recipient. It will also mark the unveiling of the brand new Robert-Forget Award trophy, an original artwork created by Eva-Loan Ponton-Pham, artist and co-coordinator of La Coulée.
For more information, visit videographe.org.
About Vidéographe
Established in 1971, Vidéographe is an artist-run centre dedicated to the distribution and dissemination of independent experimental and documentary works. They are dedicated to promoting the recognition and understanding of archival and contemporary works that stand out for their relevance and their contribution to the ongoing renewal of our discipline. With an expertise in distributing short and feature-length documentary and experimental works, Vidéographe strives to support emerging as well as established filmmakers and artists that make bold and inventive work. Website | Facebook | Instagram
