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Our Founder
Fabienne Colas
Founder and Chairperson of the Board
Fabienne colas, who just completed McGill-HEC Montréal Executive MBA program (2019-2021), is an entrepreneur, filmmaker, producer, award-winning actress and sought-after speaker, who works tirelessly and passionately to support and promote Diversity off and on screen around the globe.
She is the recipient of the 2019 Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women award, named 2018 Canada’s Top 40 under 40, Personality of the Year (Arts & Culture) by La Presse newspaper in 2018 and recipient of Prix Mercure Relève Femme d’exception from Quebec’s Federation of Chambers of Commerce (Les Mercuriades).
She is the ‘Queen of Festivals’ who created and manages 10 successful festivals in Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Halifax, Port-au-Prince and Salvador (Bahia, Brazil) – including the Montreal International Black Film Festival, Canada’s largest black film festival and the very popular Toronto Black Film Festival. These events, which attracted over 2 million festivalgoers and supported over 3,000 artists, have welcomed top names such as Harry Belafonte, Spike Lee, Stedman Graham, Danny Glover, Martin Luther King III, Dany Laferrière, Wyclef Jean, P.K. Subban, Souleymane Cissé, Alfre Woodard…
As a woman of color, her primary mission is to continue to create platforms that amplify Black voices and show a diversity of voices, faces and points of view in our society. Through the Fabienne Colas Foundation (FCF), she supports, awards grants and promotes independent films and Black artists who, otherwise, would be invisible. One of the Foundation’s most impactful accomplishment is the FCF’s Being Black in Canada program – Canada’s largest incubator dedicated to Black Filmmakers presented by Netflix in collaboration with National Bank.
In 2015, Colas was awarded a Medal from Quebec’s National Assembly recognizing her leadership and contribution in the fight against racism and discrimination in Quebec. In 2017, she was awarded the Harry Jerome Arts & Culture Award in Toronto for her great contribution to Canadian Arts and Culture. In 2018, Femmes en Cinéma, Télévision et Médias Numériques (FCTMN) paid tribute to Fabienne for her exceptional contribution in the Quebec Film Industry.
In 2019, she will receive the Black Theatre Workshop’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award. CEO of Zaza Production, she also sat as a board member on the Society for the Celebrations of Montréal’s 375th Anniversary. She has been part of many juries among which the Canada Council for the Arts, Prix Gémeau, CALQ.