Andrea Gorfolova, the president of Toronto-based Tricon Films and Television, is to receive The Women in Film and Television Showcase Foundation’s Elizabeth Grant Entrepreneur Award (Film) Saturday.

Gorfolova fled Communist Slovakia to Canada at the age of 18 by departing a Cuba-bound flight during a fueling stopover in Montreal with roughly $20 in her pocket and unable to speak English. She is receiving the accolade “for her courage in fleeing a restrictive regime and triumph in overcoming extraordinary obstacles and building a successful international film and television production and distribution company,” the foundation says in a statement.

She established Tricon in in 2000 in the documentary niche. It now has offices in Los Angeles and the U.K. and also produces scripted programs, of which Sanctuary is one of its greatest success.

Gorfolova will be handed the award during an annual foundation awards ceremony in Los Angeles.