Image Arts Alumni

Andrew Cividino (IMA '06) is a writer, director and Co-President of Film Forge. His debut feature film Sleeping Giant had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win prizes at TIFF, Munich and Mumbai. Andrew was a frequent director on the POPTV/CBC series Schitt’s Creek, for which he won a primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Direction for a Comedy Series in 2020. As a producer, Andrew plays an active role in Film Forge’s slate of projects, including as a producer on Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool.

Dr. Michelle Kasprzak (IMA '00) is a leading contributor to the field of digital culture as a curator, writer, artist, and educator. Michelle’s creative practice includes writing, conceptual work, and digital media, supported by awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Creative Industries Fund NL. She has curated exhibitions for V2_ Institute for Unstable Media, Dutch Electronic Art Festival, and the ZERO1 Biennial. Her writing has appeared in HOLO, C Magazine, CV Photo, Mute, Blackflash, and others.

In 2024 she founded Little Earth Mountain, a label for artist’s multiples and printed matter. The label soft-launched with the release of Blue 23, a one-page tract first presented in a public reading at Bozar, Brussels.

She completed her BFA in New Media at Toronto Metropolitan University (2000), followed by a Master’s in Visual and Media Art at the Université du Québec à Montréal (2006). 

She obtained her PhD in Digital Media at the University of Porto (2020). She is currently Course Leader of the Master’s in Design at the Piet Zwart Institute, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, and Lecturer in the Digital Art department at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. She lives in Hilversum, the Netherlands.

Dubbed by Variety as a “major talent”, Jasmin Mozaffari (IMA '13) is a film & television writer/director based in Toronto. She graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Image Arts - Film Studies program in 2013. Her student short, FIRECRACKERS, premiered at TIFF in 2013 and screened around the world. Her debut feature, FIRECRACKERS (based on her short), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, won Best Film at the Stockholm International Film Festival and Best Director at the Canadian Screen Awards. FIRECRACKERS was lauded by Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, the LA Times, was listed on Vulture Magazine’s “Best Films of 2019” list and was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick.  Jasmin’s latest short film, MOTHERLAND, won Best Canadian Short Film at TIFF 2023 and two Canadian Screen Awards including Best Live Action Short Film. Jasmin also works in television; she directed the pilot and is co-exec producing the Netflix series, FAKES, and also directs the Netflix hit, GINNY & GEORGIA.

Peter Higdon is the Founding Collections Curator of the Image Centre at TMU. Over a period of thirty-six years, he drove the expansion of its photographs collection through numerous acquisitions, among them the Black Star Collection of photojournalism. Funding accompanying this major donation allowed commencement of a long-sought building project that yielded museum-standard exhibition spaces and a Research Centre incorporating a print storage vault.

He was also instrumental in the Image Centre’s acquisition of the Berenice Abbott Archive. For ten years, he was consultant to graduate students in the FPPCM program, and for over twenty years was coordinator of the Photography Workshop in France. Upon retirement in 2014, the Research Centre was named in his honour, and an annual graduate scholarship established in his name.

George Pimentel (IMA '92) is Canada's renowned celebrity photographer, celebrated for his captivating Photos of the world'sbiggest stars. A graduate of Ryerson University (TMU) with an Honours BA in Photo Arts in 1992, George's career took off when he captured his first celebrity photo of Robert De Niro at the Toronto Film Festival in 1993. Reflecting on that moment, he says, since then, I knew this is what I wanted to pursue. It has been my passion ever since.

Over the years, George has gained unprecedented access to A-list celebrities such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Taylor Swift, and Jennifer Lopez. He is a regular fixture at major global events, serving as the official photographer for the Toronto Film Festival for the past 20 years, and attending prestigious gatherings like the Cannes Film Festival, the Met Gala, and royal weddings. He has also roamed the iconic red carpets of the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards. With his work appearing in top publications like Vanity Fair, Vogue, and People magazine, he has become one of the most published Canadian photographers.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, George founded the Canada Covid Portrait Project, creating a visual archive of thousands of images taken across every province to document this transformative moment in history.

Despite his global travels, George continues to work from his studio in Little Portugal, where it all began. He remains grateful for the education he received at TMU, which he credits for helping him reach his current success.

Montreal-based John L’Ecuyer’s (IMA '94) first feature film, Curtis’s Charm, won the Jury Prize at TIFF and his four other features all premiered at TIFF.  L’Ecuyer has directed over 200 one-hour TV episodes for several Canadian and American networks and over a dozen MOWs including Prom Queen.  His Feature documentary Confessions of a Rabid Dog won Best Social Documentary at the HotDocs Festival. He also wrote the novel Use Once and Destroy (DAP 1997) about his years as a heroin addict.

Shortly after graduating in 2011, Amanda Row (IMA '11) was hired as a special unit director on Netflix’s first original series Hemlock Grove, thus starting her career in genre television. With a flair for SPFX and VFX, she has directed and produced over 40 episodes of some of the most unique series of the last decade, including Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The 100, DC’s Doom Patrol, Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, Nancy Drew, Shadowhunters and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Zanele Muholi (IMA '09) is a visual activist and photographer born in Umlazi, Durban, and living in Johannesburg. Muholi’s mission is ‘to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in SA and beyond’. Their work is exhibited in the most prestigious museums in the world and they have received many international accolades, most recently the Spectrum International Prize for Photography. 

Jordan Tannahill (IMA '11) is a novelist, playwright, and director of film and theatre. His debut novel, Liminal, (external link)  won France’s Prix des Jeunes Libraires. His second novel, The Listeners (external link) , was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. He has twice won Canada’s Governor General's Literary Award for Drama.  His virtual reality performances and  dance collaborations have won international acclaim.  In 2019, CBC Arts (external link)  named Tannahill as one of sixty-nine LGBTQ Canadians, living or deceased, who has shaped the country's history.

Kiana Hayeri (IMA '11) grew up in Iran before immigrating as a teenager to Toronto where she took up photography as a way of bridging the gap in language and culture. Her work explores complex topics such as migration, adolescence, identity and sexuality in war-ridden countries. She has won many international awards including the Robert Capa Gold Medal and she’s been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. Kiana is a regular contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic.

Kazik Radwanski’s (IMA '08) thesis short, Princess Margaret Blvd., had its international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and was named one of Canada's Top Ten Shorts by TIFF.  His first two features, Tower, and How Heavy This Hammer, were both festival favourites as well. His most recent feature, Anne at 13,000 ft, premiered at TIFF 2019 and was awarded the $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association.

Adrienne Mitchell (IMA ’84) is a Director and Showrunner who has been creating auteur-driven drama series for over 25 years. Her shows Durham County, Bomb Girls, Bellevue and Coroner have been nominated for or won dozens of awards and she has personally been nominated or won both a Director’s Guild of Canada Award and a Canadian Screen Award for Best Director. She also received the 2017 Nell Shipman Award for directorial achievement and for advancing gender equity.

Balint Zsako (IMA '02) was born in Budapest in 1979, immigrated to Canada when he was 10 and eventually studied Photography at Image Arts.  The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art organized a traveling exhibition of his works accompanied by the artist’s first monograph.  He was long listed for The Sobey Award, Canada's largest art prize & is featured in Jason Schmidt's Artists 2 photographic survey.  His picture book “Bunny & Tree” will be published in 2023 by Enchanted Lion Books.