A two-phase tribute to acclaimed documentarian Allan King is in the works at TVOntario, which has launched a documentary contest followed by a retrospective of his work, as part of its Allan King Film Festival.

TVO is calling on students and would-be filmmakers to submit an original five-minute doc to the fest, for an opportunity to have King evaluate their work.

‘[King] represents an exploration of things that he was passionate about, and we thought it was a beautiful idea that we could wrap the contest around… to encourage young filmmakers to tell a story about something that they’re passionate about,’ TVO supervising producer Jane Jankovic tells Playback Daily.

A jury, including King, will create a shortlist of the submissions — about three to five films — to be posted on TVO’s site where viewers get to choose the winning film. It will then air on the educaster during its tribute of King’s work. The winning filmmaker will also receive an industry pass to Hot Docs.

TVO will showcase a variety of King’s work in primetime from April 26 to May 1, including two films it commissioned: the 2003 drama Dying at Grace and 2006’s acclaimed Empz 4 Life.

‘It occurred to us that we had this extraordinary relationship with him and that we had several of his works under license… it was time we acknowledged [it],’ says Jankovic.

The documentary contest closes Feb. 26. Contest rules and other details are available at tvo.org/akfestival.