A diptych shows a man in sunglasses smoking a cigarette on the left and a man in black overalls standing in front of a foil backdrop.

Bruce LaBruce

Artistic Achievement Award
Filmmaker, Writer, Artist, Photographer
Toronto, Ontario

Gain insight into artist Bruce LaBruce in this short film by Anushay Sheikh and David Willem Boot.

Highlights from the nomination statement

Nominator: Bonny Poon, owner, Bonny Poon / Conditions

“[LaBruce] continually transgresses and destabilizes any core idea of what a film is, what culture is, what family is, what sexuality is, what activism is, what art is.”

Three people in costume sit against a background of greenery.
Production still from Otto; or, Up with Dead People, Bruce LaBruce rehearsing with actors, 2008, Bruce LaBruce, film.

“LaBruce’s penchant for collaboration is a decidedly punk characteristic, refusing an egoistic thread of auteurship in lieu of elevating an entire community, context, and milieu.”

“[E]ach piece of his film and photographic oeuvre remains distinctly LaBrucian: the telltale ingredients of political activism; film theory; psychoanalytic underpinnings; camp expression; radical sexuality; religious, social, and/or moral transgressions; humour; self-reflexivity; and tenderness.”

Double exposure showing a tattooed, red-haired woman and a man on a sidewalk with his top pulled up to his chest.
Earlier work
Bruce LaBruce, Tony & Wynonny: Unintentional Double Exposure #3, “Hustler White” Production Still, West Hollywood, 1995, Film Photograph, Edition of 3 + 2 artist proofs
Photo credit: Bruce LaBruce

“Where we enact borders, LaBruce dissolves them.”

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The next deadline for nomination is October 5, 2025.

For more information, view the guidelines.