Noreen Golfman has been named ACTRA National’s Woman of the Year.

The annual distinction is given to an ACTRA member who has made outstanding contributions to art and advocacy. Past recipients include Rita Shelton Deverell, Tina Keeper, Catherine Joell MacKinnon and Amanda Tapping.

Golfman, who has been an ACTRA member for 27 years, is the founding director and chair of the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (SJIWFF), which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. She is also vice-chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation and co-chair of Business and the Arts Newfoundland Labrador.

She has worked as a commentator, reviewer and performer for CBC, as well as playing Ariel Flint in the CBC Radio comedy show The Great Eastern, which ran from 1994 to 1999. Golfman is also a recipient of the ArtsNL Hall of Honour Award and the Women in Film and Television – Atlantic’s WAVE Award.

In a statement, ACTRA National president David Sparrow praised Golfman for her “passionate and powerful work” on behalf of women in the industry, adding that she has “helped lay the groundwork to advance gender equity in our recorded media industries.”