TORONTO – The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television will posthumously award Alan Sawyer the Digital Media Trailblazing Award for outstanding achievement in Canadian digital media. The award will be presented Tuesday evening at the Canadian Screen Awards’ television and digital media awards show in Toronto.
As an Emmy-Award winning transmedia-storytelling consultant and content creator, Sawyer (pictured) was at the forefront of merging Canadian digital and conventional platforms. Always curious, he questioned the conventional way of doing things and was intrigued with the implications of emerging media on Canadian content and broadcasting policy. He worked with the CRTC, funding agencies and creator-groups to help them make sense of the changing landscape, and to make sure Canadian stores had a place in it.
Sawyer passed away on June, 8, 2013. To keep moving his work forward, friends and family have joined with Ryerson University to create the Alan Sawyer Memorial Graduate Award. The annual award will encourage a graduate student in Ryerson University's Media Production Program to pursue a major research paper or media project exploring storytelling across multiple screen platforms. Click here to make a donation.
