Fabienne Colas
Master of Ceremonies
Winner of the 2019 Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 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 Relève Femme d’exception from Quebec’s Federation of Chambers of Commerce (Les Mercuriades), Fabienne Colas is an award-winning actress, filmmaker, speaker and business owner who works tirelessly and passionately to support and promote diversity off and on screen around the globe.
She is the ‘Queen of Festivals’ who created and manages 9 successful festivals in Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Halifax, Port-au-Prince and Salvador (Bahia, Brazil) - including the Montreal Intl Black Film Festival, Canada’s largest black film festival and the very popular Toronto Black Film Festival. These events, which attracted close to 1 million festivalgoers and supported over 2,000 artists, have welcomed top names.
Her primary mission is to continue to create platforms that show a diversity of voices, faces and points of view. As chairman of the Fabienne Colas Foundation, she supports, awards grants and promotes independent films and artists who, otherwise, would be invisible.
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. CEO of Zaza Production, she also sat as a board member on the Society for the Celebrations of Montréal’s 375th Anniversary.
She just started the McGill-HEC Montréal EMBA program (2019-2021).