The Toronto ACTRA Women’s Committee presented the fourth annual Nell Shipman Award to Back Alley Film Productions’ Adrienne Mitchell on Monday evening.

The award honours a female producer, writer or showrunner who advances gender equity in the screen-based industries. Tara Ellis, a longtime media exec previously with the CBC, Showcase and Global, presented Mitchell with the award.

Mitchell co-founded Toronto and Montreal-based Back Alley with producer Janis Lundman in 1989. The company most recently produced the eight-part CBC thriller Bellevue with Muse Entertainment. Mitchell served as co-showrunner on the series with co-creator Jane Maggs. She also directed the pilot and half of the series’ episodes.

In her more than 25-year career, Mitchell has directed documentaries such as Talk 16 and Talk 19, and co-created several series, including Durham County (co-created with Lundman and Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik) and Bomb Girls (with Michael MacLennan), on which she served as co-showrunner. She recently optioned the novel The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys for her feature film directorial debut. 

Past Nell Shipman award winners are Jennifer Podemski,  Sheri Elwood and Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik.