Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is always a pleasure to see one of our northern residents succeed in their career and showcase their talents in competition. Today I’d like to recognize a Yellowknife resident who has excelled to a level of award-winning performance.
Nadya Debogorski is an exceptional young actress who was born and raised here in Yellowknife. She was recently presented the 2014 Phrike Filmfest Award for best female actress in a competition of short screen plays.
The Phrike Filmfest competition was conceived and put together by New Image Entertainment and New Image College of Fine Arts in Vancouver. This film competition was a thrilling no-holds-barred race. Filmmakers, actors and makeup artists competed to see who could make the best horror film within 72 hours and take home cash prizes, scholarships and the Grand Goblin Award.
This competition was held on Thanksgiving weekend. It challenged novice and professional filmmakers to bring their unique horror-themed short films from script to screen in less than three days. Each four-person team was supplied with a secret package containing a prop, a screen shot and a dialogue line. Of the 38 teams entered into the competition, 13 qualifying films were premiered for the public and judged by their peers, celebrities and industry professionals in the inaugural Halloween parade and expo at the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver.
Nadya was named and awarded best female actor for her performance in the short film 13 Cell Phones, created by her team, Ignis Fatuus. Nadya attended Sir John Franklin High School here in Yellowknife and graduated in June of 2012. She has since completed her studies at New Image College of Fine Arts, graduating this past June, and now does some instructing in their fine arts program.
Although Nadya is living in Vancouver at this time, her parents, Greg and Laurette Debogorski, are still in Yellowknife, and I am very pleased to congratulate them on their daughter’s achievements and welcome them here to our proceedings today.
I’m sure, as parents, they have provided encouragement and support to their daughter, and have obviously done a great job at that, and they should be very proud of her achievements.
Yellowknife has produced some serious film talent over the years, going all the way back to Margot Kidder, Toby Mehler and Dustin Milligan. In receiving this award of national recognition, it is evident that Nadya is a talented and ambitious young star who we are very fortunate to say hails from the Northwest Territories and Yellowknife.
Today I’d like to say congratulations to Nadya on her accomplishments and I wish her every continued success and a very bright future ahead of her.
