George has won thirty-two awards for his university scholarship, journalism in English and French, literary works, film production and direction, cinematography and film music. These awards include the Michener Fellowship (in Canada) and a Resident Fellowship at Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine; awards at book festivals in San Francisco and Austin (Texas); and awards at film festivals in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, London, Paris, Cannes, Rome, Berlin, Darjeeling and other places. George has also been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for French-to-English Translation.
Here are the details, in reverse chronological order. This list includes some of the eighteen Official Selections so far, which are technically distinctions rather than awards. Also, entries marked Nota bene are awards for the film crew.
2022 – London New Wave Film Festival, the Award for Best First Time Filmmaker, for The Blinding Sea.
2022 – Mountain View International Film Festival (Darjeeling, India), the Award for Best Documentary, for The Blinding Sea.
2022 – International Ocean Film Festival (San Francisco), Official Selection, for The Blinding Sea.
2022 – International Festival of Winter Cinema (Edmonton), Official Selection, for The Blinding Sea.
2022 – Rome International Movie Awards, the Award for Best First Time Director, for The Blinding Sea.
2022 – Silk Road Film Awards – Cannes, the Award for Best Biographical Feature Documentary, for The Blinding Sea.
2021 – Latitude Film Awards (London), the Silver Award for Best Documentary Feature, for The Blinding Sea.
October 2021 – Boston Independent Film Awards, the Award for Best First Time Filmmaker, for The Blinding Sea.
August 2021 (Fourth Edition) – California Indies (Santa Monica, Greater Los Angeles, California), the Award for Best Documentary Feature, for The Blinding Sea.
July 2021 – Toronto Film and Script Awards, the Award for Best Feature Documentary, for The Blinding Sea.
June 2021 – Black Swan International Film Festival (Calcutta), the Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Documentary category, for The Blinding Sea.
June 2021 – Black Swan International Film Festival (Calcutta), the Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Debut Filmmaker category, for The Blinding Sea.
2021 – New York Independent Cinema Awards, the Award for Best International Documentary Feature, for The Blinding Sea.
2021- Festival international du film d’histoire de Montréal, Official Selection – Best Feature Film, for The Blinding Sea.
April 2021 – Chicago Indie Film Awards, Official Selection – Best Composer, for The Blinding Sea.
2021 – Vancouver Independent Film Festival, the Award for Best Music in a Feature Film, for The Blinding Sea.
2021- Five Continents International Film Festival (Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela), the Award for Best Production in a Documentary Feature, for The Blinding Sea.
2021- Five Continents International Film Festival (Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela), the Award for Best Documentary Feature, for The Blinding Sea.
Nota bene: 2021- The Blinding Sea picked up an additional award at the Five Continents International Film Festival (Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela): the Award for Best Editing in a Documentary Feature (Guillaume Falardeau).
March 2021- Paris Film Festival, the Award for Best Original Score, for The Blinding Sea. (Composer & Director: George Tombs)
March 2021 – Berlin International Art Film Festival, the Award for Best First Time Feature, for The Blinding Sea.
January 2021- Tagore International Film Festival (Bolpur, India), the Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Debut Filmmaker Category, for The Blinding Sea.
December 2020 – CIFT Festival of Toronto, the Award for Best Canadian Documentary, for The Blinding Sea.
2020 – Indo French International Film Festival (Pondicherry, India), the Award for Best Debut Feature Film, for The Blinding Sea.
2020 – Nature Without Borders International Film Festival (Delaware), the Award of Outstanding Excellence in Biography, for The Blinding Sea.
2020 – Nature Without Borders International Film Festival (Delaware), the Award of Excellence in Cinematography, for The Blinding Sea.
Nota bene: 2020 – The Blinding Sea picked up an additional award at the Nature Without Borders International Film Festival (Delaware): the Award of Excellence in Editing (Guillaume Falardeau.
Nota bene: 2020 – The Blinding Sea picked up an additional award at the Nature Without Borders International Film Festival (Delaware): the Award of Excellence in Sound Editing (Julien Bouchard).
2020 – Beyond Earth Film Festival (Calcutta, India), the Award for Best Historical Feature, for The Blinding Sea.
2020 – San Francisco Book Festival, the Wild Card Award, for the audio-book version of Mind the Gap. This award is for a surprising, out-of-the-blue work that doesn’t fit any of the Festival’s other categories. In August 2022, this novel was reissued in three versions (illustrated print version, illustrated e-book version and audioibook version) as An Almost Impossible Story.
2020 – Montreal Independent Film Festival, the Award for the Best First Documentary, for The Blinding Sea.
2020 – Montreal Independent Film Festival, the Award of Excellence in Feature Documentary, for The Blinding Sea.
2020 – Toronto Independent Film Festival, the Award for the Best Documentary Feature of the Year, for The Blinding Sea.
2020 – Reader Views (a literary competition based in Austin, Texas), Reviewers Choice Award for Best Humor/Satire of the Year, for Mind the Gap. In August 2022, this novel was reissued in three versions (illustrated print version, illustrated e-book version and audioibook version) as An Almost Impossible Story.
2013 – Governor General’s Literary Awards, Finalist in the Translation Category, for George’s translation from French to English of Marcel Trudel’s groundbreaking work, Canada’s Forgotten Slaves: Two Hundred Years of Bondage, Montreal: Véhicule Press (2012).
2008 – St. Thomas University School of Law (Miami, Florida), Distinguished Lecture Series. St. Thomas Law invited George to the university as a Distinguished Lecturer (US$2000), marking his Contribution to Legal Scholarship, in researching and writing the unauthorized biography of Conrad Black, Robber Baron: Lord Black of Crossharbour (2007). (An academic award.)
2007 (June-July) – Oxford University, Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Resident Fellowship. As a Resident Fellow, George undertook scholarly research on the social aspects of whether/how clinicians and patients are influenced by published papers (or media accounts of these papers) outlining new medical evidence. This relates directly to the difficulty of going from publication of medical research to its use in clinical practice. The media play a huge role in recasting or translating medical evidence into compelling human-interest narratives – for better or worse. This in turn has serious implications for whether/how clinicians and patients are influenced by published papers. (An academic award.)
2003 – McGill University PhD (Doctorate in History), Dissertation title: Man the Machine: the History of a Metaphor from Leonardo da Vinci to H.G. Wells, Dean’s Honour List. (An academic award.)
1988 – Michener Fellowship, awarded for a selection of George’s feature articles, published in English and French, on Arctic Canada, French Guiana and Patagonia. He used this CA$20,000 fellowship for a study of journalism ethics in Canada, the United States, France and the United Kingdom.
1987 – North-South Fellowship, awarded by the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, to fund one month of reportage in Argentina, investigating disappearances, the return of a pluralist democracy after years of military rule, socio-economic development and Patagonia, including Tierra del Fuego. George used this CA$5,000 fellowship to cover expenses for reportage that was subsequently published/broadcast by a wide range of media organizations, for example American Public Radio, the Christian Science Monitor, Le Devoir, The Montreal Gazette, The Financial Post, CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, etc.