Toronto’s White Pine Pictures is calling on emerging film and TV makers to submit their work for the annual Lindalee Tracey Award, which comes with a cash prize of $5,000.

The award, named after the writer/director who passed away after a battle with breast cancer in 2006, will be presented to a filmmaker who works in the spirit of Tracey ‘with passion, humor and a strong sense of social justice,’ according to husband and business partner Peter Raymont.

‘Those three ingredients are essential to understanding her… and to being a successful filmmaker, frankly,’ he tells Playback Daily. Tracey’s work includes the docs Bhopal: The Search for Justice and Abby, I Hardly Knew Ya.

Raymont says the CBC drama The Border, which he exec produces, was the brainchild of Tracey, and notes it’s tragic she’s not able to witness its success.

‘It was her idea, her inspiration… she hired the first writers. She’d be delighted to see how well it’s doing,’ he adds. The Border averages around 700,000 viewers on CBC. It is currently being considered as a pickup by ABC in the U.S.

Raymont says the producers are looking forward to doing a second season, though it has not officially been greenlit by CBC. ‘We’re optimistic that we will get to [make more],’ he adds.

The submission deadline for the Tracey award is Feb. 29. It will be presented on April 25 during the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto.

See www.whitepinepictures.com for full details.