Multiple CFC alumni worked on the short film, 'Loretta's Flowers,' screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival this month.

CFC alumni and residents are continually making waves in the Canadian and international screen-based entertainment industries – from awards to festivals, industry recognition, “it lists” and more. Here’s the latest round of updates and success stories for CFC residents and alumni from late summer through early autumn.

NOMINATIONS & AWARDS

The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) Awards

Multiple CFC alumni have been nominated for DGC Awards in both film and television categories. Read the full list of CFC alumni nominated, and stay tuned to see who wins on October 20.

The 2018 SOCAN Foundation Awards for Emerging Audio-Visual Composers

Two CFC Slaight Family Music Lab alumni were winners in this recent announcement: Spencer Creaghan won first place for Best Original Score (The Ballad) and second place for Best Original Score-Non Fiction (Sonoris); and Lora Bidner won second place for Best Original Theme (Beauty within the Nothing).

The International Emmy Nominations from the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

CBC Digital’s How to Buy a Baby was nominated for an International Emmy, in Best Short-form Series. The web series features the talents of multiple CFC alumni, including Slaight Family Music Lab alumna Aimee Bessada, and Cineplex Entertainment Film Program alumni Lauren Corber (also a CFC mentor), Matt Code, Molly McGlynn and Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux.

The Birks Diamond Tribute to the Year’s Women in Film

The Sixth Annual Birks Diamond Tribute applauds the best female film talent in Canada on both sides of the camera. This year, CFC Tribeca All-Access alumna Stella Meghie was one of the honoured six women in the emerging talent category, which recognizes the Canadian filmmakers making a splash early in their careers – certainly true given Meghie’s recent festival hit, The Weekend, as well as her debut at the 2016 festival with Jean of the Joneses. Read more about Meghie and the Tribute, held on September 10, here.

The Hollywood Reporter’s “Rising Stars”

CBC Actors Conservatory alumna Emily Coutts and Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Directors’ Lab alumna Sherren Lee made The Hollywood Reporter’s “Rising Stars” list this year; read more about both women here.

Playback’s 2018 5 to Watch

Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Directors’ Lab resident Karen Chapman was named one of Playback’s 2018 5 to Watch. Read more about her work here. The award-winning documentary filmmaker had also been named to Telefilm’s revamped 2018 Talent to Watch program and is currently developing The Village Keeper, her first narrative project, which was nominated for the Talent to Watch program by Caribbeantales. Read the Playback profile of Chapman.

FESTIVAL WATCH

2018 Toronto International Film Festival

At the recent Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which ran from September 6 to 16, CFC alumni and residents presented a bevy of projects and garnered two significant wins, both speaking to the value of our Cineplex Entertainment Film Program:

• First, 2018 Producers’ Lab resident Evren Boisjoli worked on the short film, Fauve, which won an honourable mention in the IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Short Film“for its confident visual storytelling and moving performances from the child actors." The film also won Best Overall Short at the Calgary International Film Festival.
• Second, this year’s Pitch This! winners were CFC Cineplex Entertainment Film Program alumni Gharrett Paon (Producers’ Lab) and Bretten Hannam (Writers’ Lab) for Wildwood. This two-spirit coming-of-age drama, initially developed in the Producers’ Lab, tells the story of a rebellious Mi’kmaw teenager who runs away from home to find his birth mother – and reclaim his heritage. Congrats to all of the finalists, and we’re proud that four of the six finalist teams were helmed by CFC alumni this year!

Read about all the CFC alumni and resident talent at TIFF this year, and check out some of our favourite alumni films at this year’s festival.

FIN: The Atlantic International Film Festival Awards

Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Writers' Lab’ alumna Shelley Thompson scored not one, but two awards at September's FIN: The Atlantic International Film Festival Awards. In the short-film category, her film Duck Duck Goose took home the prize for Best Short, and she also won best performance for her work acting in Splinters. Read more here.

Alumni & Resident Films in Canadian Film Festivals This Fall

‘Tis the season – to celebrate Canadian cinema from coast to coast, not just TIFF. September and October are also home to these following festivals:

Quebec City Film Festival: September 12-21
FIN: The Atlantic International Film Festival: September 13-20
Cinéfest Sudbury: September 15-23

Ottawa International Animation Film Festival: September 26-30
Calgary International Film Festival: September 19-30
Edmonton International Film Festival: September 27-October 6
Vancouver International Film Festival: September 27-October 12
Festival du nouveau cinéma: October 3-14

TIFF cult hit and Midnight Madness selection, 'Assassination Nation,' is making the festival rounds and was produced by CFC Features alumna Andria Spring.

The following alumni films have screened, or will soon screen, at multiple Canadian film festivals

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Calgary, FIN, Festival du nouveau cinéma, VIFF)
Assassination Nation (Calgary, FIN, Sudbury)
Clara (Calgary, FIN, VIFF)
Fauve (Calgary, FIN, VIFF)
Firecrackers (Calgary, FIN, Festival du nouveau cinéma, Sudbury, VIFF)
Giant Little Ones (Calgary, Sudbury, VIFF)
The Grizzlies (Calgary, FIN, Sudbury, VIFF, Festival du nouveau cinéma, Sudbury)
Mouthpiece (Calgary, FIN, Festival du nouveau cinéma, Sudbury, VIFF)
Paseo (Festival du nouveau cinéma)
Through Black Spruce (Calgary, FIN, Sudbury, VIFF)

A few more upcoming festival watch notes for films this week:

• Loretta’s Flowers screens at VIFF on Wednesday, October 3 and next week on Wednesday, October 10 as part of the “Various Positions” program. The short film was directed by Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Directors’ Lab alumnus Brendan Prost, with CBC Actors Conservatory alumni Harveen Sandhu and Matthew Gouveia, Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Editors’ Lab’s James Tracey, and music by Slaight Family Music Lab alumnus Neil Haverty.
• CFC Media Lab’s co-production of the VR experience, Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity,will screen daily at the Festival du nouveau cinéma from Friday, October 5 through Sunday, October 14.
• The New Romantic screened at Calgary, FIN and Sudbury in September, and will be at VIFF on Thursday, October 4 and Saturday, October 6 this week. Telefilm Feature Comedy Exchange alumna Carly Stone co-wrote and directed, with Kyle Mann co-writing and producing; Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Editors’ Lab alumna Christine Armstrong edited; and also features music by the Slaight Family Music Lab alumnus Matthew O'Halloran.

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Producer-alumna Miranda de Pencier has a reason to smile, too - 'Anne with an E' was renewed for a third season. Image courtesy of Netflix.

• Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Writers' Lab alumnae Kirsten Carthew and Kathleen Hepburn (also a CFC mentor) were two of the eight directors selected to take part in the Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television’s second annual Apprenticeship for Women Directors. The program, launched in 2017, provides intensive professional development to a small group of emerging female content creators by pairing them with an established director. The program began this September and will runs to March 2019.
• CFC alumnus, mentor and writer/director Charles Officer debuted his latest feature documentary, Invisible Essence: The Little Prince, at a private event on September 13. Produced by Toronto’s 90th Parallel Productions, Montreal’s Groupe Fair-Play and Officer’s Canesugar Filmworks, the film explores the legacy of French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s famous novella 75 years after it was released. CBC holds the broadcast rights, but have not yet announced a date. The film also screened at the Calgary International Film Festival on September 24.
• 22 CHASER, the high-octane drama and 22nd feature film developed and financed for production by CFC Features, not only starts a 10-city US theatrical release on October 12. It also appears on Canadian screens for a monthlong run on TMN beginning on Friday, October 19. The film features the talents of numerous CFC Features alumni, as it was directed by Rafal Sokolowski, written by Jeremy Boxen and produced by alumni Aeschylus Poulos and Daniel Bekerman, alongside CFC board member Don Carmody. American friends, find a city close to you.
• Mark your calendars! In addition to its slate of fall film festival screenings, The New Romantic opens in Canadian theatres on October 19 (the U.S. theatrical release will take place in 2019; stay tuned). Read more about the film, which premiered at SXSW 2018.
• Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Producers’ Lab alumna Miranda de Pencier, fresh off the successful world premiere at The Grizzlies at TIFF 2018 (and DGC nomination for this work), has more good news to celebrate: her Netflix series, Anne with an E, which she also produces, was renewed for a third season. Read more here.
• Production is underway for Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Directors’ Lab alumnus, Vincenzo Natali, who is directing In the Tall Grass. Produced for Netflix by Toronto’s Copperheart Entertainment and L.A.-based Mosaic, the project is an adaptation of Stephen King and his son Joe Hill’s 2012 Esquire novella of the same name. Worldwide distribution is planned for 2019. Read more about the production.
• Canadian short film Milk (produced by CFC Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Producers’ Lab alumnus Max Walker) is being turned into a feature. James Wan (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring) will produce. Hear more about the production (subscription).

Thirsty? Canadian short film 'Milk' is being turned into a scary-good feature.

Have some alumni news to add or share? Want to update your bio or photo in our directory with all your exciting news? Get in touch anytime at alumni@cfccreates.com.

As leaves start to change and pumpkins pop up on porches, it’s tempting to stay inside and keep cozy next to a warm high-definition TV. Good thing there are so many CFC alumni behind and in front of the camera on new and returning shows this fall!

Check out the list below to see when alumni series are on small screens near you.

ANNE WITH AN E

National treasure and P.E.I. resident Anne Shirley returns to your PVR on Sundays at 7 p.m. (7:30 p.m. NT), as the second season of Anne with an E (executive produced by alumna Miranda de Pencier) debuts on CBC. 

Season 1 of Anne with an E garnered stellar reviews for its refreshingly modern take on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s famed 1908 novel, as it explored such themes as identity, prejudice and gender parity. Season 2 should attract as much, if not more, attention, with Dalmar Abuzeid joining the cast as Sebastian, the first Black character in Avonlea history (!).

If that’s not exciting enough, the Season 2 writers’ room was made up entirely of women, including CFC alumnae Shernold Edward (who assisted with the creation of Sebastian) and Jane Maggs! 

BAD BLOOD

This is one crime drama that hasn’t gone swimming with the fishes. Bad Blood, executive produced by alumnus Mark Montefiore, is back for its second season starting Thursday, October 11 at 8 p.m. ET/PT (7 p.m. CT) on Citytv.

Canada’s own Kim Coates (formerly of Sons of Anarchy) returns as mobster Declan Gardiner in Season 2, set five years after Season 1. Vito Rizzuto’s former right-hand man Declan is now “the reigning king of the Montreal drug trade” and struggling to keep European crime lords away from his throne.

Also new for Season 2? Cineplex Entertainment Film Program alumna Molly McGlynn directs two episodes! 

THE BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW

If you’d rather laugh than scream through the spookiest of seasons, you’ll definitely want to tune into Season 3 of this hilarious, Canadian Screen Award-winning CBC series.

The new season will, like its predecessors, feature a slew of skits on the trials and tribulations of being a woman, including a sure-to-be-iconic spoof of The Handmaid’s Tale. What’s more, all of the new episodes were co-directed by CFC alumni Jeremy LaLonde and Jordan Canning.

Check out Season 3 of The Baroness Von Sketch Show every Tuesday at 9 p.m. (9:30 p.m. NT). 

FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES

Head back to ‘20s Toronto this fall with all-new episodes of Frankie Drake Mysteries, a series co-created by CFC alumna Michelle Ricci for Shaftesbury (which was itself created by Christina Jennings, CFC alumna and Chair, CFC Board of Directors).

Frankie and company are back on the case Monday nights on CBC at 9 p.m. (9:30 p.m. NT), tackling whodunits at such notable locations as the Royal Ontario Museum. Also worth noting for Season 2? Alumni Peter Stebbings and Sudz Sutherland directed episodes!

THE GREAT CANADIAN BAKING SHOW

Did you know that Season 1 of The Great Canadian Baking Show (GCBS) was cooked up at Windfields Estate (a.k.a. our home base!)? Well, hosts Dan Levy and Julia Chan took over the place again this summer, welcoming 10 new bakers from across Canada to the CFC grounds for a whole new set of culinary challenges!

Season 2 of GCBS started on September 19, but you can check out new episodes every Wednesday at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT) on CBC. Make sure you have something sweet on hand because we were drooling within minutes of Episode 1 (a.k.a. Cake Week).

GREY’S ANATOMY

Paging Dr. DeLuca!

Grey’s Anatomy is back on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/MT on CTV, and Thursdays at 8 p.m./7 p.m. CT on ABC. That means CBC Actors Conservatory alumnus Giacomo Gianniotti (who plays aforementioned M.D. Andrew) is back in scrubs, too.

After last year’s finale, in which Andrew and Meredith shared a drunken smooch (!), we’re pretty sure we’re in for a steamy season of the long-running (this is Season 15!) hospital drama. 

MURDOCH MYSTERIES

This beloved Canadian series (also produced by Christina Jennings’ Shaftesbury) is back for its 12^th season, with new episodes coming your way on Mondays at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT). 

The season premiere (“Murdoch Mystery Mansion”) featured an appearance from famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright (played by Aaron Poole), and the third episode of the season is titled “My Big Fat Mimico Wedding” (where should we direct our congrats, Constable Higgins?). So you know you’re going to want to tune in. 

Alumni: If we missed you or a series you contributed to, let us know by emailing alumni@cfccreates.com. We’re happy to add your show to the list, or include it in the winter roundup coming later this year. 

Technology has transformed how the world does business across increasingly shifting distances. Smart companies need global partners to compete in a global marketplace.

That’s as true for cultural industries as it is manufacturing. It’s why an international group – the Canada Media Fund (CMF), Canadian Embassy in Berlin, German Consulate in Toronto German Medienboard and CFC Media Lab – put together the Creative Digital Innovation Exchange, a series of workshops between 10 Canadian and nine German companies. It was designed to foster collaboration and cultural exchange between tech companies and content creators on both sides of the Atlantic.

“A lot of people still think of widgets, a tangible thing that’s manufactured. In the creative industries, there’s a lot more co-production,” says Jeffrey Crossman, Canada’s Trade Commissioner for the Ontario Region. “When you sell to a market, you’re not selling a thing. You’re licensing your content so when you sell, you go to multiple markets."

“Canada is a natural partner,” says Claudia Seeber, Trade Commissioner for Creative Industries and Tourism at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin. “We’re looking to produce more internationally, and this initiative is a strong incentive to look to Canada.”

Frederic Dubois, the organizer of the German delegation and one of the event’s primary architects, along with CFC Media lab Associate Director, Nataly De Monte, worked with Medienboard to whittle 30 applicants down to a nine-company German delegation. That delegation was then matched with 10 Canadian companies, many of whom members of IDEABOOST’s Network Connect. All 19 companies varied in size and scope, ranging from smaller studios like Mirage VR and IDFABRIK, to more established content creators and distributors like Secret Location and Another World VR. Each had an established track record in the fields of interactive technology, virtual reality (VR) or web development.

Canadian and German delegates during one-on-one networking sessions.

The goal: to drive innovation and enable Canadian and German companies to get projects off the ground. The gathering was its own proof of concept. Binational funding brought the two countries’ companies together, showing an openness to jumpstarting development and generating new trade alliances.

Of course, binational co-production isn’t easy, especially when dealing with the bureaucratic lethargy that sometimes hinders international negotiations. “It’s not as clear-cut as selling wrenches,” says Seeber of the modern economy. “We need to be more flexible and support different sorts of trade.”

Funding is, unsurprisingly, one of the thornier knots. Thanks to tax credits, federal programs like the CMF, and provincial platforms like Ontario Creates (formerly known as the Ontario Media Development Corporation), Canadian startups have access to more public funding and support than their German colleagues.

“In Germany, we have some funding available, but it is limited,” says Anna Moll, the creative producer of Molle & Korn, a German production company that targets digital audiences and uses social media to maximize its films’ impact.

“Canada has done a great job over the last 15 years of supporting the digital creative industries,” adds Anna Sarah Vielhaber, the head of new media funding with the Medienboard. “It’s a role model for us.” Managing Director of IDEABOOST Ana Serrano in her presentation, however, underscored the need for German companies to understand the constraints of the Canadian funding requirements. “Yes, there are public funds available, but they are competitive, hard to get, and come with strings that are sometimes difficult to untangle.”

Because funds in Canada do not guarantee access, so many Canadian companies seek alternatives. The summit was appealing to these Canadian companies because it enabled them to cast a wider net.

Deep Inc.'s Thomas Wallner shares insights on Canadian and German co-productions.

“The benefit of working with another country is that together, you might get your entire budget,” adds Thomas Wallner, the founder and CEO of Deep Inc. A dual citizen who was born in Germany before moving to Canada, Wallner has relied on German-Canadian co-productions throughout his career, and could only realize projects like The Polar Sea thanks to investment from both nations.

“Interesting things happen when people in disparate countries work together,” he adds. “It can reframe ideas. You can mix and transfer knowledge, and that’s really good. Plus, you can access two markets.”

“I look at Canada and see highly creative projects,” says Moll. “They’re actually a little daring.”

In any industry gathering like this one, discussing money and financing is prudent and inevitable. Yet there’s also an intrinsic value in the free-flowing exchange of ideas.

“Meeting humans on the other side, not just 20-minute Skype conversations but really getting quality time, is super important,” says Dubois. “Companies get to exchange technology and ways of telling stories, which often are culturally different. They can have a more profound understanding than if they stayed at home.”

The workshops at the CFC were designed with that in mind. They offered morning pitch presentations, followed by afternoon networking. The Canadian companies got a chance to sit with their German counterparts and look for points of intersection and compatibility.

“You really have to trust somebody if you’re going to be working with them for five years,” says Crossman. “These opportunities give more occasion for people to interact, get to know each other, and then follow up and hopefully co-develop.”

“It’s a people business,” adds Vielhaber. “You have to talk and experience if it’s a match.”

Delegates got a chance to experience Canadian and German VR productions.

The Creative Digital Innovation Exchange demonstrates that both countries’ governments are willing to invest in their entrepreneurs and prepare them for the future by, in part, focusing on early-stage collaboration.

“For this stage, it’s important that you hang out together, that you get to know each other, and there’s not much funding for this. We have to finance it ourselves,” says Moll. “Here, we have facetime. We need to see each other and interact on a very human level.”

“Smaller companies invest all their money in their projects. Exploring another market is insecure and expensive. So the funding can give them the opportunity to do something they couldn’t do otherwise,” says Vielhaber, explaining that institutional support frees up more resources for actual development. In turn, companies gain a chance to break through with innovative solutions.

“We already have three companies from Germany co-producing with Canadian companies. My personal hope is we’ll see another three to five co-productions stem from this [meeting],” says Dubois.

“I am confident that there will be joint projects,” concludes Seeber. “The energy I felt today was very positive. If two projects, maybe three, materialize, I will be very happy.”

For an exploratory summit like the Creative Digital Innovation Exchange, even a single co-production would be a win. On a broader front, it also strengthens the trade relationship between Germany and Canada, and will continue to open doors for further collaboration in the years to come.

Photos by Sue Holland.

Ana Serrano receives the Insignia from Mr. Marc Trouyet, Consul General of France in Toronto. Photo by Brian de Rivera Simon.

On Friday, October 12, 2018 in Toronto, the Consulate General of France in Toronto presented Ana Serrano, CDO of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), with the insignia as a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters). The Order of Arts and Letters was established in 1957 to recognize eminent artists and writers, as well as people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world. It is aimed at building relationships and fostering cultural and linguistic exchange. To be considered for the award, recipients must have “significantly contributed to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance.”

Mr. Marc Trouyet, Consul General of France in Toronto, noted that “Ana Serrano founded the CFC Media Lab to lead the wider CFC’s digital innovation strategy. She has supervised more than 130 digital media projects, coached more than 50 startups, and initiated a breadth of visionary projects in the field of interactive and immersive media. As both a Francophile and an executive member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, Serrano has been invited to France to share her expertise, including at Cannes and the Forum des images. Her action has been critical to the development of a partnership between the Cultural Service of the French Embassy and the CFC Media Lab to organize Enterprising Culture, a Franco-Canadian forum promoting French and Canadian expertise in the field of creative industries, and to reinforce Franco-Canadian cooperation in this field. I am delighted to have the opportunity to present her with the title of Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters this week.”

The special bestowing ceremony took place at the conclusion of the third annual Franco-Canadian forum of creative industries, Enterprising Culture, presented by the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France in Canada and the CFC, in the Distillery District in downtown Toronto. The forum provided opportunities for unique discussions and exchanges between Canadian and French stakeholders and startups from the worlds of culture, creative, and media industries. It drew high-level French and Canadian stakeholders in the sectors of education, arts, culture and heritage, including academics, CEOs, content creators, designers, educators, entrepreneurs, government leaders and investors. Together, they generated substantive reflection on the ethics and impact of new digital technologies in creative, cultural, and educational sectors, especially machine learning, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI).

On Saturday, October 20, two CFC alumni were feted with awards from the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), at the 17th Annual DGC Awards Gala at the Fairmont Royal York in downtown Toronto.

Miranda de Pencier. Photo by Blake Hannahson, Courtesy of Mongrel Media.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film (Presented by Technicolor)

Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Producers’ Lab alumna Miranda de Pencier won for her timely, true-story crowd-pleaser, The Grizzlies. For this project, de Pencier collaborated closely with two Inuit producers, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and Stacey Aglok MacDonald, to depict the formation of a lacrosse team helping combat youth suicide in Kugluktuk, Nunavut.

The Grizzlies was one of the CFC’s five festival hits to watch out for. Watch this 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) world premiere Q&A, which shares de Pencier’s and other producers’ insights into the film’s unique collaborative approach:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Family Series (Presented by William F. White)

Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange alumnus Bruce McDonald won for his work on the popular series, Heartland, with episode 1110, “A Fine Balance."

Photo credit: Andrew Bako. Courtesy of CBC.

McDonald works across film and television, and is no stranger to DGC wins, including a past win for Heartland in this same category in 2016 (Episode 910, "Before the Darkness"). The series follows sisters Amy and Lou Fleming and their grandfather, Jack, on their horse ranch in the Alberta Rocky Mountains, and in 2014, became the longest-running one-hour scripted drama in the history of Canadian television.

The CFC was pleased to be a Bronze sponsor of this Gala, headlined by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Kim’s Convenience) and directed by writer-director/CFC alumnus and mentor, Charles Officer (Unarmed Verses). We are proud to see our CFC alumni so well represented and rewarded for their stellar work in directing and editing for television and film, both as winners and nominees every year.

Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees!

Pat Whelan is a co-founder of Paddle HR, a talent technology company that helps large enterprises keep their best talent by improving internal mobility. Using big data and deep learning, they help employers match talent to open jobs within their companies. Pat talked to us about his own non-linear career path, and how the “change of scenery” many employees seek might actually be found in their current workplace.

Q: Can you give us a brief history of how Paddle came to be?

A: Paddle was started in October 2015, with the broad and lofty goal of trying to help people succeed in non-linear careers – or to have an easier time job jumping, which is another way to think about it. The concept was that people increasingly want to have more diversity in the work they're doing. They want to have jobs that are different and exciting. That's true of younger generations more than older ones, but everybody wants more of that sort of freedom. Yet there are also these external pressures like job automation and more that are essentially shifting jobs.

They're not necessarily replacing old jobs – that’s the extreme version – but even when they automate some small part [of a job], that shifts the work that people are doing on the ground. So jobs are changing, and people want to change jobs more. The assumption was that there are going to be more job switching in the future than today – and there are more today than ever before. So our idea was to use technology to help us through that process, because it’s not always the easiest thing in the world.

We started by trying to help university students figure out what they want to do with their careers. Our idea was that it's not just one thing they’ll be doing. It's probably going to be multiple things. And how do they build agility in their career to prepare for those different career paths?

We built this wonderful product and sold it to Stanford University, a bunch of Ontario universities, and Singapore Management University, but we found that the only way we could make this business model work was to take money from employers to put job ads on your platform. And it’s a highly competitive space.

So we decided we didn’t want to go down that path. We took a bit of a hard look in the mirror and said, “Okay. We want to help people switch careers. We know that it's difficult to get financing from the individual who needs to prepare for career planning. It's a weird anomaly that people have: they’ll spend 20 bucks to go to a movie, but not 20 bucks to get their resume reviewed or something like that, even though the ROI is super clear. So we had to think, “Who's got a business case around trying to help people switch careers?”

What we found is that there's a really big problem in big companies. People no longer feel that there are career growth opportunities in large companies. And that was traditionally where career growth existed, right? Careers were built to these big corporate ladders, and now these companies are turning people all the time. It's something that they can't seem to shake, this perception that there's a lack of career growth opportunities. So we thought that within big companies, there would be a way to apply our products. It’s our mission to try and create some diversity for the people who work at them, by allowing them to engage with new opportunities more quickly and easily.

Q: How do the seemingly contradictory dual goals of Paddle – promoting “internal mobility” recruiting within companies and “job jumping” for employees – align?

A: Well, where you work has a lot to do with cultural alignment – liking the people you work with, liking the mission, liking the customer or whoever you serve – but that doesn’t mean you don’t want a “job” job. People don’t necessarily say, “I am sick and tired of my employer.” They say, “I’m tired of this job, I want a change of scenery.” And it’s a lot easier to go external [to look for a new job] than to go internal. So it’s not about slowing down job jumping; it’s about increasing the opportunity to make that job jump internally, because there’s already tremendous opportunity to do it externally. It’s about giving those internal opportunities a fighting chance when you’re thinking about the best way to grow your career.

I think they’re complementary goals, and in large part, big companies have a lot to offer in terms of learning and development from an employee’s perspective. If a business is no longer a place to learn and develop in your career, then that’s obviously bad for the company and its employees, because it becomes a kind of revolving door – in and out. There’s definitely a business case to be made as to why it’s bad for employers. They’ve built their entire businesses on a labour model that is one person, one job. Increasingly that labour model is being broken. Now it’s often one person and a collection of jobs, doing different things. 

Q: What does a Paddle success story look like?

A: I have a couple of examples of how people are really trying to leverage this technology. I think it's really interesting in the Canadian context specifically, because in Canada, we have a lot of underemployed people. Going back to the demographic that I was trying to serve earlier in this business, students, there are a lot of new grads who are underemployed or not working in their fields. We also have a ton of new Canadians with incredible skills and credentials, who are also underemployed due to the challenges of starting a whole new life in a whole new country. And so companies in Canada are really interested in what we’re saying. They’ve got these massive operations, whether they be retail or call centres, or the tellers in banks, or whatever it may be. Within these massive operations, there are hidden, high-impact individuals they can leverage. They can pull them into the organization, and put them in a role where they can have a bigger impact on the overall mission of the company.

This is a story that an HR professional was telling me, about working with a bank that was looking to hire an industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologist. Instead of just putting a job posting up online looking for new grads, he decided to go in the database. What he found was that they had eight I-O Psychologists working as bank tellers. They had graduated and couldn’t find roles in their field, so they had worked for the bank while they were in school. It was a great job, so they went back to it. These people weren't necessarily unhappy, but they were certainly interested in the opportunity to move to corporate, and put their education in that field into practice. That’s a use case that I’m really excited about, especially in the Canadian context, because I think the underemployment of qualified professionals is a big problem here.

Q: Can an AI really be as powerful a recruiting tool as a seasoned HR professional? How does the platform operate?

A: We get our data from publicly posted career histories on the internet. So anywhere people are saying, “I did this job, for this time period, and these were my responsibilities… .” We’re leveraging technology, partners and a variety of different ways to gather that data, but it’s largely LinkedIn and similar sources. The model we were going for is similar to how you would get career advice. There's essentially two broad ways people seek this advice. Go to someone you trust, who may know very little about your actual career realm, but they're a parent or a friend, and you ask them for career advice. That's one way. The other model is to seek out mentors who have had similar experiences or career trajectories you admire, and you ask them how they did it. That's basically one data point.

What we’re trying to do is do essentially like crowdsourcing, but instead of going to just one person, we're saying, “Okay, of the known people who are working here in North America and across Europe who have had similar career experiences to me, what did they go on to do next and how did they do it?” That’s essentially what the machine learning is doing. It is looking to find people who have or had a similar background, see what the patterns were, and then recommend jobs based on that. So we tried to model this big, fancy, new technology off one of the oldest ways of getting career advice, from people that have had similar career trajectories to one’s own aspirations.

Q: Has your own career path evolved the way you imagined? What would your high school guidance counsellor think of how things turned out?

A: (Laughing) I have no idea! It’s certainly been a winding road, and I do subscribe to the notion that I’m not going to have one career. I’ll have multiple careers, and entrepreneurialism is one of them. It’s certainly challenging and interesting, and you gain skills – as well as a bunch of bad habits (laughs) – all of that comes with entrepreneurship. Before this, I was working in the world of election campaigns and politics, and I enjoyed that as well. Before that, I was really involved in non-profit work and student government. I’ve bounced around and picked up different skills in different places. I definitely would not have mapped out this trajectory, but I’m certainly glad I’m here.

Q: What would you say is the best career advice you’ve encountered?

A: I think it’s generally to work towards what we call a non-linear career. After reading lots of really interesting work about cross-sector leadership and related concepts, that’s what it boils down to for me: work for lots of different organizations throughout your life. Not just work for Pepsi and then Coke, but work for governments. Work for that small non-profit. Work in an entrepreneurial environment. Work in XYZ, because then, later in life, you’ll be able to bring together these different experiences – and understand how to bring people who work in these worlds together to solve common problems. To me, that is a really interesting way to think about it. What collection of skills and experiences do I want to put in my basket? And I continue to build that experience, so that maybe I can be in a position where I can bring people together to solve problems.

Q: What have you and Paddle gained from working with the CFC IDEABOOST Accelerator last spring and IDEABOOST-Network Connect community?

A: It’s absolutely awesome mentorship. There’s an impulse in entrepreneurship to put your head down and get to work. You can sometimes lose sight of the fact that you’re in the midst of a community, and that community can help you along this path. There’s real benefit to that, from working with someone who can say, “Yeah, I’ve been there before and it is hard, and here’s how you can avoid it,” to making an introduction to a valuable partner or collaborator. So IDEABOOST was a really good way for us to re-engage with the Toronto community, and get to know a lot of really, really smart mentors, partners and practitioners – whatever you want to call them. People who have got this really excellent set of skills, and are dying to help companies like Paddle leverage it. The biggest gain for us was a community.

Beyond that, there is an accountability measure. That’s another challenge of entrepreneurship. You don’t have the accountability that reporting to a boss provides. So you need that sometime to make the steps you want to make in a month. It’s so easy to say, “Oh, I can wait until tomorrow.” When you’re in a community, though, you’re going to meet once a month and say “here's what I've done in the last month,” so you can’t get away with that. It's an extra push to stay a later and get that done today, as opposed to putting it off. So that's always good, always necessary, and mentors do that for you, too, of course – and we’ve met a bunch of them through the CFC and IDEABOOST Accelerator.

Q: The reality that we’re in a time of precarious employment can’t be avoided – and Paddle is obviously riding the crest of a wave that is changing the way all of us think about work. Care to make any predictions as to what a “good job” might look like in 10 years? 20? 50?

A: Well, hopefully in 50 years we just don't have jobs anymore (laughs). Wouldn’t that be nice? But in the interim, I think what we’re going to see is first that people are going to take a portfolio approach to how they think about work. Most everyone I know has got a few things on the go, whether that’s a full-time job and some volunteering on the side, or they’ve got a small entrepreneurial venture that they’re cooking up. I think a lot more people are enjoying that kind of work, where you can get a little bit of this from here, and a little bit of that from there. I think that will continue, and may even continue with a single employer.

Think about the way companies hire engineering talent: typically for skill sets. So you hire a developer who's really good in the VR realm; you don't necessarily hire a staff member to a particular project and if that project disappears, so does that staff member. I think organizations are going to use that concept that we've already used in the realm of engineers, creatives and other high-skill employees across the board. They’ll hire people with that skill set or capability, and that will be the job posting: that’s what the person will get hired for, rather than a specific position, and the organization will be staffed. The project might run full-time for a week or it might be 10 hours for a year with a bunch of different projects. Then, when the project goes awa, and the organization doesn't need that skill set, they can pick and redirect that person to someplace that needs it.

I remember seeing these two articles side by side, and was one of the things that made me realize how important things like Paddle are going to be in the future. It was two headlines: “LinkedIn faces huge hiring costs in the Bay Area” right above “LinkedIn___ office lays off X number of staff,” because they discontinued some project or product. It was this disconnect, where you've got this excellent talent, but for business reasons, you’ve decided to discontinue that piece of work. Meanwhile in the other office down the road, they’re having trouble getting people to fill seats. If you could just create better fluidity and mobility within organizations, it would be less dramatic for employees, less dramatic for businesses, and people would likely have better careers because they could move around more. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Photos by Brian de Rivera Simon.

Six years ago, ApprenticeA Productions was one of the inaugural startups in the CFC Media Lab’s IDEABOOST Accelerator. Today, their Buffer Festival is a thriving tech and new media conference that draws hundreds of prominent YouTubers and digital content creators for a weekend of talks and presentations. The 2018 event took place at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in downtown Toronto on September 27th to 30th, with guests being treated to a glimpse at the future of digital media.

That future includes Flipside VR, another startup in the IDEABOOST Accelerator Cohort 7. Both Flipside and CFC Media Lab sponsored the Buffer Festival Creators’ Lounge that weekend, demoing the former’s Flipside Studio in a high-profile showcase – one that speaks to the success of IDEABOOST in mentoring promising Canadian entrepreneurs.

Flipside is an animation tool that turns a room scale VR headset like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive into a full motion-capture studio. With Flipside, creators can rapidly storyboard and edit animated videos or livestream animated content like they’d livestream a video from their phone.

“This is a way to make animated content faster so you can keep up with YouTube’s monetization rules,” says Rachael Hosein, the CCO and co-founder of Flipside VR. “You have to push out a lot of content and get a lot of minutes of video, which is almost impossible if you’re doing it in the traditional way.”

“People are looking for time savings,” says Flipside CTO and co-founder John Luxford. “YouTube’s algorithms prioritize long-form content, so an animator becomes challenged, versus someone who can whip out a phone and record until their battery dies. Something that can reduce the time becomes a really assistive tool.”

That’s what gives an app like Flipside transformative potential. On YouTube, special effects seldom get more ambitious than a green screen. Content needs to be relatively cheap to produce, which leads to a chorus of talking heads who deliver monologues to a fixed camera while a photo montage or a video game plays in the background. That visual stasis often reflects functional necessity rather than artistic intent.

“A lot of ideas stem from what’s possible with technology,” says Luxford. Changing the formula is risky when YouTube incentivizes speed and consistency over originality, even for those who want to experiment with the form. Flipside makes it easier (and less expensive) to get something different in front of an audience, allowing creators to present new characters and settings at a fraction of the cost.

“Digitization has democratized the content world,” says Scott Benzie, the CEO of Buffer Festival. “What once took years of training is now tangible for anyone. For Flipside, it has enabled storytellers to become animators. In the right hands, that could be an amazing vehicle for change.”

“If I were to do this without the use of VR or mo-cap, I would have to find a 3D modeler to make a model, find someone to animate that model, get an actor to voice it over, and then use that footage to compose a show. That’s a big ask,” says Hosein. “Technology and accessibility go hand in hand.”

There’s no telling what new content will look like, which makes it exciting. The videos that people make with Flipside will reflect the different creative visions of the people using it, whether it’s a fully animated series or a one-off episode of a live-action channel akin to the claymation episode of a TV show like Community.

Even that single-use case represents a massive shift in the digital paradigm. Flipside may be the app that many creators didn’t know they needed, a user-friendly tool that allows them to take chances that once would have been prohibitively expensive.

“Flipside is a great partner for us,” says Benzie. “Our creators are always looking for new technology and new ways to explore storytelling. Flipside provides a glimpse into the future of content and consumption.”

“As the technology is getting leaner, people are becoming more receptive to it,” says Hosein. “It’s been great to get people who wouldn’t consider this as an option, to hear them brainstorm how they would use it. That’s giving us fresh ideas.”

The Creators’ Lounge offers a mutually beneficially exchange. Buffer Festival guests are introduced to genre-shaping technology that allows them to stay ahead of the market. Flipside, meanwhile, gets the opportunity to speak to and learn from its future customers. The honest feedback helps the company evolve and deliver a more appealing product.

“You have the opportunity to talk to a YouTube creator and learn the priorities, their thinking, and the business,” says Luxford. “We’re coming at it from a totally different vantage point. If you’re not connected to them, your ideas may not connect with their reality.”

“We’re finishing things as we go, but we’re hoping that a show or two emerge from this,” he says. “We’re hunting for people who might become users.”

As the venue for that conversation, the Creators’ Lounge also demonstrates the value of programs like IDEABOOST. Buffer Festival is itself a success story, having grown from an independent startup into an international new media showcase and a thought leader in the sector. It now provides a platform that in turn nurtures smaller startups like Flipside, becoming an IDEABOOST alumnus that can return the favour.

“If we could go back there’s a ton of stuff we would do differently,” says Benzie. “I think the best example we can set is to not get hung up on our mistakes and setbacks. They’re part of the process and I wish we had come to that realization sooner.”

As one of the most prominent investors in that pipeline, the CFC Media Lab is simply fostering a healthier, more stable ecosystem for Canadian startups. IDEABOOST empowers companies like ApprenticeA with the knowledge and experience they need to stand on their own merits.

“[The CFC] know people that would be hard, as an independent studio, to connect with. Having someone to make those intros has been a great bonus,” says Hosein.

“They give you mentorship and opportunities,” says Luxford, describing conferences like Buffer Festival. “This seems to align with your target demographic. Why don’t you come showcase?”

Initiatives like the Creators’ Lounge ensure that IDEABOOST will continue to produce successful companies – and that the CFC Media Lab’s network will continue to expand – in the years to come. Flipside VR is the latest beneficiary, inheriting the legacy from ApprenticeA Productions as a Canadian startup with a groundbreaking new idea that deserves to reach a wider audience. 

The third annual Enterprising Culture in Toronto on Friday, October 12 set out to explore the concept of wisdom in a digital age. Presented by the Canadian Film Centre ‘s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) and the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France in Canada, speakers posed critical questions about hidden dangers in modern technology. They asked guests to consider the potential impact of new ideas, and address the challenges of finding broadly applicable and sustainable long-term solutions. If digital wisdom is the ability to use technology responsibly, how do we share those lessons to benefit society? How do we pass that wisdom on to the next generation?

These questions gave this year’s Enterprising Culture forum in Toronto a strong educational focus, and prompted a new addition – Made for Kids: Tech Discovery Day. On Thursday, October 11, a group of Enterprising Culture’s organizers and participating startups went to Gabrielle-Roy Elementary School in Toronto to showcase their latest projects for a group of grade four students. Like the conference itself, the Made for Kids: Tech Discovery Day gave its audience a chance to experience groundbreaking new technologies, and encouraged them to use that technology more humanely.

“Education is key for the development of a person. We should keep being educated all life long,” said Sauveur Menella, the head of brand and communications for BNP Paribas Canada. BNP Paribas is one of the partners who has been involved in all three Enterprising Culture forums, and who sponsored Made for Kids: Tech Discovery Day specifically. He saw the educational focus this year as an opportunity to expand the scope of the conference.

“We wanted to have more young people involved because they are part of the digital world,” says Menella.

Tiffany Fukuma, cultural attaché at the French Embassy in Toronto, added, “We had talked for a long time about opening the program to the public because we thought we were missing something, We needed to bring this to a wider audience.”

“It’s twenty-first-century education. We are trying to show kids the benefits of technology,” Karima Foul noted, the principal of Gabrielle-Roy Elementary School. “It’s like any other subject. If we teach kids how to behave, they will know how to use it and it will benefit them.”

Barry Patterson, the director of marketing and communications for Masterpiece VR, a software suite that allows users to collaborate on artistic projects in VR, attended the event. “People are going to create content and work together, so it’s important for them to be exposed to it. It’s already part of their language and how they interact in the world today. It’s a glimpse of what is happening and what will be their futures.”

For the children engaging in demos first-hand, the immediate appeal of a Tech Discovery Day is obvious. They get out of class for an hour to draw and play video games in the gym. The recreational hook is precisely what made the demos so effective. They let the kids see how things that seem like fun toys can just as easily be used for more productive ends.

“It’s important for kids to be aware that new technologies are not just gadgets, but also tools,” Fukuma said. “They can be educational. They can access culture. France is a twenty-first-century country. We promote works done by women. We promote diversity. Maybe they will find inspiring works and become developers, designers, animators.”

The lineup at Tech Discovery Day featured several startups that exemplify that forward-thinking philosophy, like MasterpieceVR and Dowino, a French game developer that makes socially conscious games like Glucozor, which teaches children how to manage diabetes. Both are interactive attempts to prepare children for the world they will encounter as adults.

“They’re not just using the computer to play games or watch YouTube videos. They do that already,” said Ann Poochareon, CEO of Little Robot Friends, a company that uses miniature robots to teach children about computer programming and give them more agency in a digital marketplace. “Teaching code is the fundamental building block to that future.”

“We wanted to bring new technology to these kids to show them cool new experiences. We also wanted to open up the possibility of continuing this momentum beyond a single day with ongoing learning workshops. Little Robot Friends is the perfect opportunity for that," added one of the day’s organizers, Nataly DeMonte, the associate director of CFC Media Lab.

Poochareon believes that coding will be an essential life skill that will allow us to maintain a vital human element in an increasingly mechanized society. “Our world is currently run by technology and it’s not going anywhere. Knowing how to code makes you a creator. If there are robots cleaning your house and robots driving the car, kids should not be thinking in terms of the consumer, but the creator. That’s how you get ahead of all of this impending AI doom, like robots taking all the jobs.”

“It’s important to understand how tomorrow’s generation is connected to these new technologies,” added Daniel Mamane, the head of digital development for BNP Paribas North America. “For us, it’s new. For them, it is not. It’s their day-to-day. These young people are focused on their gaming or learning about coding, and it’s reassuring.”

“When I was young, I was learning with a book and that’s it. Today they are learning with digital devices. We see the bridge between the startup ecosystem and the school. It’s important to understand that to understand tomorrow.”

In that regard, the transfer of knowledge goes both ways. The students get to see something new, while companies like BNP Paribas and startups like Little Robot Friends and Dowino get to see how people use their products. In the process, the latter get valuable user feedback that will allow them to build better, more responsive products. If you want to plan for the future, you need to know how the people in that future will navigate their environment.

“They pick up the technology faster, just because they have lived experience,” Patterson added. “It’s intuitive. Kids are not as bound by certain ways of doing things, so they’re the perfect audience.”

“Things have to be robust for kids,” noted Poochareon. “They teach us a lot about how they learn, and we take that into consideration.”

The outcome? A fun and informative day for kids and adults alike, who were able to witness a cool new piece of tech and the educational process itself. As Menella stressed, “Digital is reaching everybody. Young, old, each generation is impacted.”

“It’s amazing to watch a human being grow up and learn about the world,” concluded Poochareon. “We want to make sure these little humans get inspired.”

Pairing inspiration with ethical responsibility, the Tech Discovery Day gave kids a healthier, more constructive relationship with the tools at their disposal and highlighted digital literacy, suggesting that education can unlock wisdom for present and future generations alike. 

Photos by Brian de Rivera Simon.

Technology has rapidly transformed every aspect of the modern world, but progress sometimes exceeds our ability to understand it. That can make it difficult to figure out where humans fit in the broader digital landscape. At this year’s Enterprising Culture, the third annual Franco-Canadian forum held in Toronto on Friday, October 12, speakers sought to explore and restore that sense of humanity.

Since 2016, Enterprising Culture has been a joint initiative of the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) and the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France in Canada, among other industry partners in France. Each Enterprising Culture has been an invitation-only meeting that provides opportunities for unique discussions and exchanges between Canadian and French stakeholders and startups from the cultural, creative and media industries. Last year and this one, it expanded to Vancouver as well.

This year, the forum brought together French and Canadian academics, investors and entrepreneurs to explore the theme, “From Facts to Insights: Wisdom in the Digital Age.” It also included a special hands-on event for children, sponsored by BNP Paribas on Thursday, October 11, which focused on new digital educational technologies. Friday’s forum then ended with CFC Media Lab Executive Director Ana Serrano receiving the insignia as a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) from the Consulate General of France in Toronto. The award was presented, in part, in recognition of her work in building the cultural partnerships that have shaped Enterprising Culture.

Serrano noted in her opening remarks that “even something as innocuous as a data set can be harmful when used irresponsibly. We need think more critically about the hidden dangers of the digital era to make sure we fully understand the implications of these new technologies.”

Dr. Igor Grossman of the University of Waterloo delivered the opening keynote, which stressed that “big data was generated by somebody doing something online. If that information is used without their consent, or it’s used on a larger scale and introduces certain biases, you have to be mindful of that. Otherwise, you’ll be reinstating particular social structures that may not be desirable.”

Enterprising Culture 2018 adopted a unique structure. In the morning, an opening keynote speaker was followed by a round of “lightening talks” by a panel. Then, instead of a standard Q&A, the audience spent time with each other to generate questions – to which the panelists and keynote(s) both responded. The afternoon then repeated this structure twice. This made for a more interactive and dynamic day, facilitating greater networking.

In the first lightening round, Paddle HR CEO Patrick Whelan noted that “data has the bias of whomever created it.” Paddle HR is a startup that uses hiring data to help companies retain their employees. Whelan added, “When you see a piece of data, you need to think about how it was collected and the bias that may exist within it.”

Grossman added to this point. Companies often collect data to maximize profit without considering the impact on people. As an industry, journalism provides another example. The internet allowed websites to expand their reach, but many local news outlets shut down because they were unable to compete with a business model that demanded clicks in exchange for ad revenue. That had a measurable impact on our society.

“People who live in communities that don’t have local journalism are less likely to volunteer, less likely to vote, and less likely to trust their neighbors because they’re not talking to each other,” says panelist Erin Millar, the founder and CEO of The Discourse, a community-focused journalism outlet. “There’s a real human impact not only to democracy, but to our quality of life and our connection as human beings.”

There are similar stories in virtually every contemporary industry. Algorithms that seem like great ideas as code often have a devastating impact when implemented. They do not mesh well with people’s lived experiences or emotional realities.

With a focus on wisdom in the digital age, it is no surprise that many of the keynotes and panelists focused on education and educational technologies. One of the afternoon’s keynotes was Jesse Stommel of the University of Mary Washington “The solution that technology often looks for is efficiency. When we’re talking about education, it tries to make it easier to keep track of larger numbers of students with fewer teachers. The problem is that efficiency should not be the goal. We need to create relationships and communities.”

“If we’re going to use digital tools, we have to think critically about those tools,” added Stommel. “Who has access to them? It is unethical for teachers to use or teach digital tools without understanding the political, social, and personal ramifications of those tools.”

“When people talk about ethics and transparency, they’re not always questioning the necessity of technology. It’s only about fixing it in one way or another. So we’re not really confronted with actual options. Here is a bad version of this technology. Here is a less bad version of this technology. Sometimes the best technology is no technology,” said morning keynote Alessandria Renzi of Concordia University.

In other words, we downplay the negative side effects to technology, such as the loss of privacy. We’re expected to accept them as the cost we pay to reap other benefits of modernity. The demands of innovation become more important than our misgivings and critiques, which are reduced to mere speedbumps before an unyielding industrial machine. Enterprising Culture paused to create space for people caught in its path. Speakers assured guests that their concerns are valid, and insisted that we do have the authority to push back and reassert our rights as individuals.

“Engineers, product managers, designers – the people building these systems have a responsibility to ensure it’s being done in an ethical way,” added Whelan, whose own willingness to acknowledge the flaws in his company’s datasets represents a broader trend towards transparency. “Large companies should invest in research and development. Governments should fund academic institutions and startups.”

These efforts to curb the runaway pace of innovation are relatively recent, but indicate that a paradigm shift may be underway. People in every sector are starting to seek a more empowered relationship to technology.

“We shouldn’t make our tools invisible. We need to turn them over and poke at the underbelly,” suggested Stommel. New gadgets are exciting, but we can’t get too carried away if we want them to serve our interests.

“There is a lot of demand for stories with depth that reflect what people care about,” Millar added. “We use digital platforms to distribute. We’re just trying to do it in a more mindful way. There’s a lot of doom and gloom, but it’s heartening to hear these questions being asked in a critical way.”

In that regard, Enterprising Culture as an event sought to bridge gaps between communities often kept separate. “A lot of groups think about it [our relationship to technology], but often in isolation,” Grossmann said. “Bringing academics, practitioners, and industry to the table allows them to share their experiences from different domains.” As Renzi added, “We need to refine and forge a shared language to understand these problems. We may not come out with satisfying solutions, but at least there are attempts at digging below the surface.”

Read more about this year’s Enterprising Culture Toronto.

Photos by Brian de Rivera Simon.

In August 2018, CFC Features announced the results of their historic partnership with Women in View (WIV), the national not-for-profit dedicated to strengthening gender and cultural diversity in Canadian media.

CFC Features adapted WIV’s Five in Focus nomination process to select its next project. They gathered nominations from culturally and regionally diverse female creators across Canada, aiming to redress how underrepresented female filmmakers are in Canadian cinema, women of colour especially, and to better promote the work of Canadian female directors.

The new approach was so successful that CFC Features chose two projects for support: BEANS, from co-writer/director Tracey Deer, which explores a twelve year-old Mohawk girl’s experience of the Oka Crisis in 1990; and SUMMER WITH HOPE, from writer/director Sadaf Foroughi, which traces an alliance between two adolescent swimmers in their small Iranian town.

Both the process and partnership counter the stereotype of too few female directors in Canada today. A multitude of compelling projects were brought to the CFC’s attention over the past year. That indicates just how much talent is out there – and why initiatives like this one are necessary.

The success of CFC Features’ partnership also illustrates a useful model. We spoke with Amber-Sekowan Daniels, WIV’s general manager, Jill Golick, WIV’s executive director, and Justine Whyte, CFC Features’ director and executive producer, about how they collaborated to select these two exciting new projects.

Origins

In 2017, Justine Whyte, CFC Features’ director and executive producer, was speaking with Sherren Lee, a director-alumna of the Cineplex Entertainment Film Program (also currently one of The Hollywood Reporter’s “Canada’s Rising Stars”). Lee was one of the first Five in Focus participants, and found its mentorship valuable. Among other wins, it helped her break into directing television, which she has continued to do ever since.

Whyte also learned about WIV’s then-executive director/co-founder Rina Fraticelli, who shared Whyte’s approach to mentorship.“There are different types of mentorship,” Whyte noted. “Talking is one, but she wanted to provide real, concrete opportunities. That’s what the Five in Focus model was all about and that echoed my vision about cultivating emerging talent at CFC Features."

So in October 2017, Fraticelli and Whyte met to glean how the Five in Focus model could translate to CFC Features’ selection process for its 23rd film.

Five in Focus

The genius of the Five in Focus model ensures that the very process of choosing who goes through the program raises the profile of many more women, not just the final five.
Jill Golick, Executive Director, Women in View

WIV pioneered its Five in Focus initiative in 2016 at the Whistler Film Festival to promote five female directors over three years. The second iteration in 2017 was a partnership with Women in Film and Television-Atlantic and Telefilm Canada to spotlight five female directors from the Atlantic region. This year is B.C.’s Five in Focus: Animation, in partnership with Women in Animation Vancouver. Here, five female creators in animation – a screenwriter, director, producer, art director and animation director – will develop and produce an animated short film for Spark 2019.

Each Five in Focus begins with a confidential nomination committee, drawn from diverse industry decision-makers across Canada, who nominate creators whose work they find dynamic. Then a smaller selection committee/jury of three to five people forms, independent of the nominators, to select the top five.

Amber-Sekowan Daniels, WIV’s general manager, recounted the initiative’s origins. “The plan was to expand the pool and look within the community for that talent.” Jill Golick, WIV’s current executive director, then identified a key part of the model’s success. “The process gets people in the industry talking about the qualified women they know who need a shot. Everyone on that nomination committee is thinking, ‘Who could I put forward?’ Then all the nominees’ names, bios and applications are shared."

Adapting Five in Focus to CFC Features

We went outside many of the typical voices and people, and included people who don’t normally participate in that decision-making and gatekeeping, all to open it up. It was incredible how diverse all these women were.
Justine Whyte, Director and Executive Producer, CFC Features

Fraticelli and Whyte started by composing a confidential nominations committee of 12 women in the industry and asked each one: which female filmmaker’s next project are you most excited to see?

The result was inspiring. Twenty-seven names were brought forward. Ten of those 27 had original new projects worthy of consideration for CFC Features’ support. 

Initially, Whyte had been hesitant to abandon the open call process she’d run for years. Yet as the process unfolded and new talent came in, she was glad she’d branched out. Many on the nominations committee put forward more than one filmmaker-project. Daniels added that “this was one of the best parts of the process. Even the women who didn’t have a film that was ready still told us what they were working on. Hearing that, from women all across the country, was really exciting."

Forming the Jury

In each WIV’s Five in Focus, the jury collectively selects. CFC Features, however, historically chose its projects, albeit after benefitting from the counsel of an advisory committee in the final stage. For this partnership, Whyte and Fraticelli agreed that the jury would make recommendations, not select, after in-person interviews with the shortlisted teams. Alongside Whyte, the jury would include a director, writer and producer; a CFC Features’ program partner representative from The Movie Network (TMN); and Fraticelli, who elected to serve as an observer.

Ultimately, selection was more collaborative in practice. A powerhouse trio took shape with director Deborah Chow, producer Christine Piovesan and writer Karen Walton, who were thrilled to see this adapted model at CFC Features. They offered substantial support throughout and even after. Piovesan, for example, later joined as one of SUMMER WITH HOPE’s producers. Walton recently begun consulting on BEANS’ story. Chow gave extensive feedback that went beyond what she originally promised. The result: CFC Features has two of its most original, compelling and timely projects to support in 2019.

Reframing Canada

We can’t underestimate what it means to communities to be heard. Women know how much it means to us when we finally see true representations onscreen, but white women have had a lot more opportunities than other communities. Both of these choices are going to be meaningful to people in ways that go far deeper than the immediate value of boosting two women’s careers.
Jill Golick

Deer’s BEANS and Sadaf Foroughi’s SUMMER WITH HOPE will add to the much-needed conversations unfolding in the wider Canadian film and television industries about what constitutes Canadian content. Historically, Indigenous and immigrant women’s stories have not been told in Canadian cinema. This inequity obscures how many immigrant voices comprise Canada, and how many Indigenous voices have been displaced and silenced, sometimes violently, from within.

This is part of the legacy that CFC Features, WIV, and both the nomination and selection committees have sought to change, with an eye to broadening the conversation about who the “we” of Canada is, and what stories we typically tell.

Not only are BEANS and SUMMER WITH HOPE great stories. They are also films where women tell the story, reframing the narrative by stepping behind the camera. We’ll be looking at each of these projects and filmmakers more in 2019, but here’s a sneak peek of each director’s thoughts on their projects.

Sneak Peek: Tracey Deer’s BEANS

Speaking as an Indigenous woman, it is so important for a film to be going forward about the Oka crisis. There are no words to describe what that’s going to mean to the community, to have that. To have CFC championing that story is amazing. BEANS is also putting a young girl’s point of view front and centre. For younger women and generations coming up, that’s big.
Amber-Sekowan Daniels, General Manager, Women in View

Deer on the set of 'Mohawk Girls'. Photo Credit: Eric Myer.

Had the Oka Crisis happened today, Twitter would have lit up. Yet as it unfolded in 1990, there was little insight into Indigenous points of view. The very naming of it as a “crisis” illustrates how Indigenous perspectives were framed as a threat to Canada.

Filmmaker Tracey Deer, creator of the Canadian Screen Award-winning, long running television series Mohawk Girls, had this to say about her life during this time and place, and how these experiences are informing her newest project:

“It was a confusing and often violent environment in which to learn about my place as an Aboriginal person in this country. That summer, we stood up to a formidable bully – and won. Canadians did not experience that summer as we did, however. The media painted us as terrorists. So while we did find our voice and have since inspired First Nations across the country to follow suit, there is still quite a large divide between Canadians and my people."

My goal is to retell the story of the Oka Crisis from the point of view of a child, whose personal coming-of-age journey will represent the same themes being played out in the armed conflict around her. The theme of the film is that true strength is about having the courage to stand up for what you believe in. Our main character Beans has to do it in her life, and the community has to do it in parallel to her journey."

Sneak Peek: Sadaf Foroughi’s SUMMER WITH HOPE

SUMMER WITH HOPE follows Montreal-based Foroughi’s earlier festival hit, Ava, and shares elements of that earlier film’s coming of age theme in Iran. Her debut was one the most nominated films at the most recent Canadian Screen Awards.

Foroughi on the set of 'Ava'. Photo Credit: Shahin Azma.

As a filmmaker who has lived in and traveled to multiple countries and regions before settling in Canada, her films explore the effects of national borders, while seeking to challenge those boundaries and recognize our shared humanity.

Foroughi describes SUMMER WITH HOPE, the second in a trilogy, as:

“A coming-of-age chamber drama, which portrays the adventure of an adolescent swimmer and his single mother in Iran today. We are not separate from the world in which we live. We are snails, as Milan Kundera puts it beautifully, and the world our spiral shell. In this spiral shell, what brings us closer together and helps us to better understand each other is to share our worldview through our stories. Film, as one of the powerful mediums of storytelling, enables me to analyze the relation between characters, their possibilities in this world, and how much more similar than different we are, regardless of geographical and cultural boundaries."

Conclusion

We look forward to seeing these two feature films grow. With such talented women at the helm, they will enrich, expand and nuance Canadian cinema as a whole. Whyte summed it up well. “I couldn’t think of two better people to support, and to have the CFC stand behind them, to help them have their stories heard in the most supportive ways possible.” Golick adds of the partnership, that “with every initiative like this, and with every partner like the CFC, the situation gets better. Because not only is the CFC going to work with two female filmmakers. They’re also going to be advocates for female filmmakers."

If you’re a female filmmaker, Golick and Daniels added that in the past, they’ve noticed women were sometimes reticent to apply for Five in Focus, fearing they weren’t ready. “Don’t wait!” Daniels and Golick urge. “Apply anyway. Do it wrong, even. Put that application in. Because you just may get it and juries will see your stuff. So that can promote you and raise your profile."

Apply and try anyway – good advice. Indeed, as both CFC Features and WIV’s Five in Focus model proves, one’s project might land on just the right person’s desk – and start to spring to life.

Stay tuned for more stories on these two projects and filmmakers next year!

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We are excited to see a number of our talented alumni from various CFC programs participating in the upcoming Regent Park Film Festival, running from November 14-17 at Daniels Spectrum in Toronto.

The Regent Park Film Festival is Toronto’s longest running free community film festival, celebrating its 16th anniversary this year. It showcases local and international independent works relevant to people from all walks of life, with a focus on inviting those from low income and public housing communities. Free admission and free onsite childcare is available throughout the festival, with programming that breaks stereotypes and shows that no one place or person has just one story.

CFC alumni and projects participating in this year’s festival include:

Marsha Greene Speaks at Emerging Directors Spotlight

Bell Media Prime Time TV Program alumna Marsha Greene will be participating on the “talkback” panel at the Emerging Directors' Spotlight, a series of short films.

Wednesday, November 14
7:30 to 10 p.m

Feature with Free Breakfast for Kids: The Breadwinner

The Academy Award-nominated animated feature, The Breadwinner, returns for this special morning screening and free breakfast, specially directed to children.

Co-written for the screen by the CFC’s Late Fragments’ director-alumna Anita Doron and produced by Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Producers’ Lab alumni Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen from Deborah Ellis’s novel, The Breadwinner tells the story of Parvana, an 11-year-old girl growing up under the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. When her father is wrongfully arrested, she disguises herself as a boy to support her family. With dauntless perseverance, Parvana draws strength from the stories her father told her, and ultimately risks her life to discover if he is still alive.

Saturday, November 17
Free Breakfast: 9 a.m.
Screening: 10 a.m

Feature Film-Political Satire, Black Cop

Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Directors’ Lab alumnus Cory Bowles directed Black Cop, a political satire in which one officer struggles between duty and moral obligation. Things take a drastic turn when he is profiled by his colleagues off‐duty, pushing him over the edge. Armed with the power of his badge, he then decides to target the privileged community he’d been sworn to protect.

In addition to Bowles, two other CFC alumni were involved in the production: CBC Actors Conservatory alumna Sophia Walker stars, with music by Slaight Music Residency alumnus Dillon Baldassero.

Friday, November 16, 6-8 p.m.

CFC Media Lab’s VR Experience Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity

CFC Media Lab and Network Connect company Cinehackers co-produced the VR experience, Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity, which will screen as part of the Virtual Space Program. No advance tickets or reservations are required to attend. Comprised of photographs and virtual reality volumetric testimonials, Made This Way is an 18-minute interactive mixed-media documentary that explores how transgender subjects are challenging gender norms and redefining traditional masculinity. Creators Irem Harnak and Elli Raynai will be in attendance in the gallery, which includes other innovative VR experiences such as Biidaaban: First Light, Reunion; self-determination of the Black American South and where now?

Thursday, November 15, 4 to 8 p.m.
Friday, November 16, 4 to 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 17, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Photo of Marsha Greene by David Leyes.

Corey Vidal was on stage at VidCon 2011 in a hotel ballroom crammed with screaming fans. He was sharing his journey from homelessness to stardom when a guy in a suit leaned over to me and screamed above the din: “This is the future of show business.”

He was right, sort of. All of the elements of today’s massive “influencer marketing revolution” were in place back then –creators, fans, brands and agencies. Together, they are disrupting the half-trillion dollar advertising business, not to mention traditional celebrity culture rooted in films, television and music.

Talent is still at the heart of the industry. Early YouTubers like Vidal, whose videos have been viewed upwards of 75 million times, have been joined by thousands of digital creators who make a living delivering content to fans, collecting a share of advertising revenue, and cutting lucrative sponsorship deals. (Note: Vidal also launched Buffer Festival, a digital creators showcase with help from IDEABOOST back in 2012.)

The top tier of YouTube channels attract tens of millions of subscribers and tens of billions of views, as shown here in stats site, SocialBlade. Some 2,400 YouTubers have crossed the one million-subscriber mark, with four additional channels crossing that mark every day. Another estimated 24,000 channels register more than 100,000 subscribers. Mainstream publications like Forbes and TV Guide regularly trumpet the massive paydays of top YouTube stars.

Savvy brands were quick to jump into social media’s new attention economy with sponsorships and other ways to capitalize on the popularity and authenticity of homegrown digital celebrities, who are trusted by fans, and who give their permission when they subscribe to a channel or view a video.

Enter the Agencies

Hundreds of specialized agencies have emerged to help content creators find sponsorship dollars and help brands sort through the vast sea of what are now routinely called “influencers.”

Google delivers a mere 25 million results for the “influencer marketing agency” query. A Crunchbase search delivers more than 400 companies in the influencer marketing category. The Business of Apps website’s list of top influencer marketing agencies is rife with claims like “Influencer content as a service,” “Influencer marketing built for scale,” and “Your influencer marketing analytics SaaS,” for example – most of which sound interchangeable.

The best of these agencies help match brands to the right influencers, as well as design and manage marketing campaigns/production and provide audience metrics and analytics. Among the benefits brands find in working with influencers:

• Improve brand awareness among target audience members, especially youth
• Deliver ROI, much like traditional advertising
• Generate leads
• Identify brand advocates
• Support sales conversion
• Develop relationships with influencers
• Aid in a company’s digital transformation
• Make a company more customer-centric

How does this new breed of influencer agency deliver on these goals, while still allowing creators to remain true to the values and credibility that attracted their fans in the first place? How does the brand manager decide among the thousands of firms that have sprung up?

It can indeed be confusing.

Wiping the Web

To learn more, I talked with Taylor Klick, founder of IVVI, a Toronto-based influencer strategy firm with clients across North America such as Samsung, Adidas and Universal Pictures. IVVI has built an artificial intelligence engine that analyzes billions of YouTube and other videos to discover rising talent to create more efficient campaigns. IVVI was one of the first companies in IDEABOOST’s Network Connect program.

“Our goal is to wipe the web -- we are forging virality by gathering the right mix of influencers that have anywhere from 50,000 to two million followers – the right people who are influential enough, and enough of them; that’s where you can create a movement.”

IVVI’s predictive analytics technology seeks out influencers with spikes in views and subscribers, as well as growth in engagement, such as likes, comments and sharing.

IVVI also provides support in negotiating with influencers, planning live influencer events, and assessing ROI and other results of their campaigns. “By the way,” says Klick, who counts many YouTubers as personal friends, “Content creators hate being called ‘influencers.’”

Something for Everyone

Other agencies compete with different strengths. For example, WhoSay, founded by Steve Ellis, represents some 2,000 influencers and celebrities on an invitation-only basis, which reflects the company’s roots with the Creative Artists Agency. WhoSay also produces branded content featuring their roster, and distributes across multiple channels. To underscore just how mainstream influencer marketing has become, WhoSay was acquired by media giant Viacom earlier this year (and Viacom also acquired VidCon as they bulk up on digital media).

Influential is an AI social data and activation platform powered by IBM Watson that matches brands to audiences using machine learning on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube. The site woos influencers, talent agencies and brands in a kind of multi-sided marketplace that delivers granular data about each party to the others.

Traackr is an enterprise-wide system for influencer discovery, management and analytics with an emphasis on scaling these influencer relationships across a large organization.

Sprinklr calls itself the number one “social suite for the enterprise,” in effect subsuming influencer marketing within the broader digital and social toolset for large companies and brands. Sprinkler helps brands with social listening, social advertising, social media management, and content marketing, the last being what often involves the recruitment of influencers.

CreatorIQ is a SaaS software platform that helps brands manage their influencer advocacy programs, including creator discovery, campaign management, talent relations, fraud analysis and more. Customers include Disney, Fox, Univision, Fullscreen, Refinery29, NatGeo, Airbnb, CVS Health, Dell, Edelman and Ralph Lauren.

Channel-focussed

Taking the opposite approach, VidIQ is a technology suite aimed at brands, agencies and networks seeking to optimize audience for their own YouTube channels. Launched in 2011, the company is used by more than 30,000 YouTube channels.

Another audience-focused platform is Influenster, which aggregates millions of consumer reviews of thousands of products. While it isn’t strictly an influencer network of video creators, Influenster uncovers product trends, a kind of mass-market version of Product Hunt.

Brand Safety

The frenzied growth of social media influencers, audiences and the agencies that link them to brands has had some growing pains, including such issues as “brand safety” – fake accounts, computer-generated influencers (bots) – all issues that have plagued the internet and social media overall.

Each of these agencies claim, with no small amount of self-interest, that they are the essential link to secure and authenticate followers and to carefully select and manage influencers who will not damage a brand with their hijinks or fraudulent numbers. So fraud protection becomes part of the suite of services in an industry that increasingly depends upon technology as a differentiator from the larger PR and marketing industry of which it is a growing part.

Nick DeMartino is a Los Angeles-based media and technology consultant. He served as Senior Vice President of the American Film Institute. He has been part of the IDEABOOST team since its launch in 2012, now serving as chair of its Investment Advisory Group.

We are saddened to learn that the legendary novelist and screenwriter William Goldman has died at age 87.

Goldman was the screenwriter for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men, for which he received Oscars. He also wrote the screenplays for Marathon Man, Magic and The Princess Bride, which he adapted from his own novels. His memoir, Adventures in the Screen Trade, remains widely read and admired for its insights into the craft and business of screenwriting.

“When William Goldman came to the CFC to talk about screenwriting, he altered our view of what great storytelling in film and TV could be,” remembers Kathryn Emslie, the CFC’s Chief Programs Officer. "He was forthright, practical, extremely funny and above all inspiring. His produced body of work in film was simply a fraction of this remarkable storyteller and creative mind."

We echo the many heartfelt tributes to him and his legacy pouring in. He will be dearly missed.

An impressive number of Canadian Film Centre (CFC) alumni will be at the upcoming Whistler Film Festival (WFF). Kicking off November 28 and running through December 2,the 2018 WFF presents fresh, innovative films from Canada and around the world, with tributes to distinguished talent – including our own CBC Actors Conservatory alumnus, Giacomo Gianniotti! – and a host of industry initiatives and celebrations like the well-attended WFF Content Summit.

We’re especially proud to see so many female alumnae among these numbers this year, given WFF’s commitment to achieving gender parity in an evolving industry. From directors to writers, producers to actors, composers to editors, all of the following CFC alumni’s films can be seen at WFF. Read on to learn more.

Giacomo Gianniotti Honoured

The Signature Series Artist Spotlight this year shines on CBC Actors Conservatory alumnus, Giacomo Gianniotti, best known for his roles on Grey’s Anatomy, Reign and Murdoch Mysteries. George Stroumboulopoulos will interview Gianniotti onstage about his career and love of acting.

Saturday, December 1, 5:30 p.m. at the Maury Young Arts Centre

Next, stay for the world premiere of Acquainted, a love story in which high school acquaintances meet years later and stir up new feelings – which complicates each of their committed relationships. Gianniotti stars and produced the film, alongside producer-alumnus Peter Harvey.

Saturday, December 1, 7 p.m. at the Maury Young Arts Centre
Sunday, December 2, 6 p.m. at Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 7

Bella Ciao!

Bella Ciao! offers a compassionate love song to Vancouver’s Commercial Drive, where Latin American, First Nations and Italian communities intersect. Directed and edited by Directors' Lab alumna Carolyn Combs, the film’s cinematographer was another CFC Media Lab alumnus from OCAD U’s Digital Futures Program, Andrew Forbes.

Friday, November 30, 7 p.m. at Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 7
Saturday, December 1, 10:30 a.m. at Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 6

Claire’s Hat

Courtesy of Whistler Film Festival. 

Don’t miss your chance to see Claire’s Hat, a rarely-screened gem that Whistler’s pulling out of the vault. Versatile Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange alumnus Bruce McDonald directed this remix, after his feature Picture Claire was trashed at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2001. McDonald went on to reimagine that film’s creators in the principal roles of what was supposed to be a slick DePalma-styled thriller. Claire’s Hat spoofs the self-congratulatory tone of most “making-of” films, and excoriates itself with hilarious behind-the-scene anecdotes. This much-improved version features a screenplay by the award-winning Semi Chellas, alumna of the Writers’ Lab and inaugural recipient of the CFC Award for Creative Excellence in 2014.

Saturday, December 1, 6:30 p.m. at Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 8

Hugh Hefner’s After Dark: Speaking Out in America

Directors' Lab alumna Brigitte Berman dug through the archives for Hugh Hefner’s After Dark: Speaking Out in America. She wrote, produced and directed this documentary about two Playboy produced, late-night syndicated television series, one in 1959-60 and another in 1968-70, both of which gave voice to progressive Black artists and champions of dissent who were not heard elsewhere on the small screen. The documentary also features the talents of Slaight Music Residency composer-alumna Erica Procunier and Editors’ Lab alumna Jane MacRae.

Friday, November 30, 7:30 p.m. at Maury Young Arts Centre
Sunday, December 2, 11 a.m. at Rainbow Theatre

Honey Bee

Honey Bee demonstrates the artistic verve of CFC alumni when they join forces. Several phenomenal CFC alumni made this complex, moving portrait of the stakes of underage prostitution. CFC Features and Producers’ Lab alumnus Damon D’Oliveira executive-produced; Producers’ Lab alumna Sally Karam produced; Writers’ Lab alumnae Bonnie Fairweather and Kathleen Hepburn co-wrote the screenplay; Editors’ Lab Michael Pierro edited; and the film stars CBC Actors Conservatory alumnus Steven Love and one of the Program’s current residents, Michelle McLeod!

Saturday, December 1, 9:30 p.m. at the Maury Young Arts Centre
Sunday, December 2, 1 p.m. at Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 7

Into Invisible Light

In this Winnipeg-shot story of forgiveness, second chances and the revitalizing power of art, a woman rediscovers her own creative voice. Into Invisible Light is directed by Directors’ Lab alumna Shelagh Carter, who also co-wrote this sensitive character study of a screenplay with Jennifer Dale (who stars as the film’s lead).

Saturday, December 1, 6 p.m. at the Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 7
Sunday, December 2, 2:30 p.m. at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre

Nose to Tail

A trio of CFC talent takes shape in the drama Nose to Tail. Here, we meet a stressed-out chef at a high-end restaurant – and a temperamental man at the end of his rope. When fickle foodies’ interest wanes and financial security fades, the chef’s stakes get higher and hotter than a well-done steak. CFC alumni Tony Wosk executive-produced, and the film stars Telefilm Feature Comedy Exchange alumna Lauren Collins, and current CBC Actors Conservatory resident, Brandon McKnight.

Friday, November 30, 9 p.m. at the Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 7
Saturday, December 1, 2 p.m. at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre

Red Rover

In the quirky Red Rover, Damon, a geologist by trade who’s fed up with earth, decides to try to qualify for a spot on a one-way mission to Mars. He’s not terribly motivated, however, until he encounters offbeat musician Phoebe, a force of positive energy who encourages his efforts. Telefilm Feature Comedy Exchange alumnus Mike MacMillan executive-produced, and the film also features Writers’ Lab alumnus Sugith Varughese among its cast.

Friday, November 30, 3:30 p.m. at the Maury Young Arts Centre
Sunday, December 2, 9 p.m. at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre

Sorry for Your Loss

With a myriad of successful writing credits in hand, Telefilm Feature Comedy Exchange alumnus Collin Friesen debuts as a feature director with this droll charmer, which he also wrote, about the difficulty of an adult son trying to meet estranged dead dad’s burial wishes. Executive-produced by CFC alumnus Tony Wosk, Sorry for Your Loss was developed through the Telefilm Feature Comedy Exchange. It also features Bruce Greenwood as the dead dad’s best golf buddy, someone scheming to get a few wishes of his own met, too. Find out whether dear old dad will get to be buried on his beloved Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ stadium grounds.

Saturday, December 1, 1:30 p.m. at the Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 8
Sunday, December 2, 5:30 p.m. at the Village 8 Cinemas, Theatre 8

Trouble in the Garden

Trouble in the Garden marks yet another fantastic collaboration of CFC talent. Directors’ Lab alumna Ros Owen wrote and directed this tough, uncompromising story of a young First Nations woman (rising star Cara Gee) experiencing a profound identity crisis after having been raised by a white adoptive family from whom she is estranged. Trouble in the Garden was also produced by CFC alumni Bill Marks and Jennifer Mesich, and features CBC Actors Conservatory alumna, Kelly Van der Burg, in a key supporting role.

Shortwork Program One – The Garage and Keep Coming Back

We’re excited to see these alumni shorts in Shortwork Program One. The Garage was written by Writers’ Lab alumna Rachel Langer, a story in which a couple sort through old boxes in their garage, dredging up more than just memories. Then Producers’ Lab alumnus Brendan Brady produces and directs the dark comedy, Keep Coming Back, where he joins forces with executive producer Marc Tetreault, and CBC Actors Conservatory alumna-turned-producer, Erin Carter.

The WFF Content Summit 

The WFF Content Summit takes place concurrently with the festival. Structured on bringing films to market and designed to provide filmmakers with the tools to succeed both within and beyond our borders, the Summit features 30 interactive business sessions and networking events for an expected 1000 delegates – storytellers and dealmakers who will delve into cinema’s converging fields of art, technology and commerce.

In addition to Carolyn Combs, Rachel Langer, Bruce McDonald and Erica Procunier mentioned above, we’re proud to see a sizable portion of the invited industry guests are CFC talent, including:

• Emily Alden: Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange alumna and SVP – Acquisitions, Production & Development, Pacific Northwest Pictures
• Sonja Bennett: Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange alumna and actor-screenwriter
• Jill Golick: NBCUniversal Mutiplatform Matchmaking Program alumna and Executive Director, Women in View
• Kyle Irving: GO WEST Project Lab alumnus and Partner, Eagle Vision Inc.
• Mehernaz Lentin: Producers Lab alumna and Senior Director, CBC Films / CBC English Services
• Liz Levine: Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange alumna and Co-Founder/Producer, Random Bench
• Robin Mirsky: CFC Board Member and Executive Director, Rogers Group of Funds

Grab your festival tickets at the festival website, and for more information on the WFF Content Summit, go here.

Paul Greenberg is the co-founder and CEO of Creatubbles, a safe global online community for creators and artists of all ages. In a recent conversation, he shared his excitement over the expanding opportunities for creativity in the online space, as well as his commitment to ensuring safety and privacy for users of this platform.

Q: Anyone with children will hear about your company and immediately recognize the genius of this idea. Was it your own experience as a parent that inspired Creatubbles?

A: Yes, it was actually a few things, all of which intersect with me being a parent. The first obvious one is creativity, and I wouldn’t say strictly just art, but creation of all types. As a parent, you look at any child, and the younger they are, the stronger that natural creative spirit is. So I wanted to stimulate and support that, first and foremost, for my own children – but also for others around the world. That’s one big thread.

Another aspect is that prior to Creatubbles, I was working in the online space in various capacities for a number of years. I’ve been really aware of – and frankly, concerned about – the general direction of the online space, privacy and security. In a way, I was anticipating things like Cambridge Analytica, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I was thinking ahead to my kids eventually becoming online citizens. Given what the online space was becoming, I wanted to see if I could create an alternative, which I would feel comfortable with them participating in. Creatubbles is a safe, social online space for kids to share their creative output.

Q: Has it been well received by schools and educators?

A: Absolutely. There are schools and teachers and other educators who are on the site in different countries. We’ve got people in the U.S., Italy, Japan and other places who are using it with their students.

Q: Are people using the site in ways that you didn’t anticipate?

A: Yeah, there are lots of things – everything from people putting up food that they made as a creative output, to a lot of digital stuff that’s been pretty cool. There are all sorts of digital creativity tools now that people are using, so that content’s coming up, which has been interesting. When I started out, the underlying assumption was that children are unknowing victims of what’s happening to them online. But looking at some of the dialogue that’s happening on the site, I’m surprised at how mature young kids are. There are nine or 10-year-old kids who are explicitly talking about the value of having a safe space and why this is something they really appreciate. They’re very articulate, which shows not just that they’re appreciating this space, but that they understand well and in much greater detail the alternative to which they’re being exposed.

Q: So you’re getting feedback from users that you didn’t really expect. Is that “youth vote,” let’s call it, going to be an influence in how Creatubbles develops? What can we expect to see from the company in the future?

A: Yes, and it already is influencing us, for sure, especially with some of the new stuff we’ve been putting out. We’re looking at their reactions, feedback and perspectives. Creatubbles started out as a place to save, expose and share work, end of story. What we’re now digging into –partly been sparked by our participation in the IDEABOOST Accelerator – is looking into some interesting aspects from the model. From a user standpoint, we’re examining their core motivations and looking at taking techniques, such as gamification, which are typically used to encourage people to do things that aren’t necessarily in their best interest. We want to apply that same thinking to our space, where doing these types of activities actually is in their best interest.

On the other side, we’re building out aspects of the platform to support brands and companies that make authoring tools that kids like to use. We will help create a logical place and way for them to interact. So these brands can get close to this audience, which is notoriously difficult, but at the same time do it in a way that does not exploit the children or audience – thus avoiding advertising or marketing approaches that aren’t really in the best interest of the kids.

Q: While reading up on the company, I learned of – and according to my 10-year-old, would be remiss not to ask about – a Creatubbles Minecraft Mod? How did that come to be?

A: The Minecraft Mod is super cool. Initially we noticed early on that kids were uploading their Minecraft creations. As I’m sure you know, Minecraft is essentially digital Lego. They were putting up their things made in Minecraft. So we looked into it and realized that they were jumping through a lot of hoops to put up their work. I don’t know how familiar everyone is with Minecraft, but to put their creations online, these kids had to be in the game, make whatever they wanted to make, take a screenshot of it, save it on their device, get out of Minecraft, log into Creatubbles, find the file, and then upload it as a creation. So it was a lot of work.

What we did was create a mod that allows them to be in Minecraft and log into their Creatubbles account. Then while they’re in Minecraft, they can just hit a button, take a screenshot, and automatically send that to their Creatubbles profile without leaving the game, and just keep going.

So that’s the first step. That in and of itself, I think, is pretty cool. Then, when we did that, we realized we could actually go the other way, too. So we enabled access to their Creatubbles profile while in Minecraft. So any creation they’ve uploaded to their profile can be imported and placed into the game. Imagine you’ve built a house in Minecraft, and you want to put one of your drawings on the wall. You can do that. Just grab it from your Creatubbles profile and stick it on the wall.

"IDEABOOST has a very small cohort size. Typically four, five, maybe six companies at most are involved simultaneously, which means that you really get an opportunity to get hands-on, focused feedback and mentorship. You also get the opportunity to establish and develop relationships with the other cohort companies."

- Paul Greenberg

Q: What’s been your favourite part of the Creatubbles journey to date?

A: It’s hard to pick favourites, but I would say more than anything else, it’s been the opportunities I’ve had to meet users and see the reaction, the look on their face when they have the opportunity to display what they’ve done, and the self-esteem that goes along with that. The excitement of getting inspired, and seeing the creators and creations from around the world, has probably been the most fulfilling part of the whole experience so far.

Q: Let’s talk about your experience with IDEABOOST. What would you say to someone who’s wondering whether it’s a good fit for their company?

A: My experience was fantastic. It’s the only accelerator I’ve been a part of, but I’m aware of how others are structured. IDEABOOST has a very small cohort size. Typically four, five, maybe six companies at most are involved simultaneously, which means that you really get an opportunity to get hands-on, focused feedback and mentorship. You also get the opportunity to establish and develop relationships with the other cohort companies. The experts they brought in were really good. Again, because the cohort size was small, they really put an effort into customizing the types of people they brought in – who were able to talk to us not in a generic sense, but about specific issues that we as companies were dealing with.

Q: How did your career path lead to Creatubbles?

A: Simply stated, in big blocks, I studied Engineering in university, and after I graduated with a masters I worked for the first several years of my career as a management consultant. That was great, and it really exposed me to a lot of different businesses, solving problems and encountering issues. That took me literally around the world, and eventually I ended up in Japan.

While there, I joined the last client that I had, which was Napster– the music distribution service – and was hired to start up and run their Asia operation. So I did that for a couple of years, and then basically had a series of similar regional leadership positions based in Tokyo, for U.S. software companies. I went from Napster to Viacom, the media company, and then had a similar role at an EdTech company. The last one was actually in FinTech, insurance industry software solutions. So all of those, whether it was B2C or B2B, were focused on the technology solution. But in our own platform, I see just how much data is collected – and not necessarily what is done, but what could be done with it. Being aware of that, and knowing what’s happening across the industry and the types of discussions that were happening about data and privacy, made me really aware of how vulnerable and exposed people are, much more than they realize.

Q: Can you share some good advice you’ve received along the way?

A: I’ve received a lot of good advice along the way. One thing that stands out, and it’s a very, very hard thing to do – especially early on – is focus on the most important problem. It sounds like a simple and obvious thing to do, but it takes a lot of discipline. When you’re getting going, and especially in a leadership position as an entrepreneur, it’s so easy to get distracted. Or to get caught up with so-called red herrings, things that just don’t matter in the bigger picture. So the advice would be to have the discipline to not get distracted. To stay focused, despite external pressures and people pushing you in one direction or another, is incredibly difficult. I won’t say that I’ve personally mastered that [laughs], but it’s certainly something I’m aware of as important, and it’s helped me make progress at some points.

Q: What would your 10-year-old self think of what you’re doing now?

A: I think I’d think it’s pretty cool. I think I’d be proud. But I’m sure I’d also have a ton of advice [for myself]. So if I could actually speak to 10-year-old-me, I would love to hear what I had to say.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Photos by Brian de Rivera Simon.

The CFC is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. To commemorate this milestone, we’ve introduced a “30 things” series on our website – stories that share 30 facts, memories, insights and/or pieces of information about the CFC, inspired by occurrences in our 30-year history.

The first and second feature stories in this series focused on the CFC’s past, looking back on award-winning film, TV and VR productions the CFC had a hand in making and sharing fun and fascinating facts about the CFC’s history. In this, our third and final story in the series, we’re looking to the future.

As we come to the close of 2018, let’s say cheers to thirty of our CBC Actors Conservatory and Slaight Music Residency alumni (listed below in no particular order). These talented, hard-working creators and entertainers are starring in and creating music for films and TV series screened worldwide, and are sure to stay on your radar for years (and awards seasons) to come.

Top row (left to right): Joseph Murray and Lodewijk Vos of Menalon, Jade Hassouné.
Bottom row (left to right): Emmanuel Kabongo, Patrick Kwok-Choon and Natalie Krill.

PATRICK KWOK-CHOON
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2014

This alumnus is truly out of this world. By that we mean he’s one of the stars of Star Trek: Discovery!

Catch Kwok-Choon’s Lieutenant Rhys on Season 2 of the acclaimed CBS series starting January 17, 2019. (If you’re still catching up on Season 1, it’s currently streaming on Crave.)

JADE HASSOUNÉ
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2012

This alumnus headed straight to CBC’s Heartland after completing the CBC Actors Conservatory and has since been seen in the web series That’s My DJ (created by Directors’ Lab alumna D.W. Waterson!), not to mention his popular posts on Instagram. But he may be most beloved for playing Meliorn on Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments (watch Seasons 1-3 on Netflix Canada).

MENALON
Slaight Music Residency, 2014

This talented duo, comprised of composers Joseph Murray and Lodewijk Vos, has scored many films since their CFC days, including alumni-directed features The Lockpicker (Randall Okita), He Hated Pigeons (Ingrid Veninger), Unarmed Verses (Charles Officer) and, most recently, Level 16 (Danishka Esterhazy).

Murray and Vos have also scored several series for Viceland (Cyberwar and Mister Tachyon).

NATALIE KRILL
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2012

In recent years, Natalie Krill has made a splash on screens big and small, landing parts on series such as The Listener, Remedy,Wynonna Earp, The Next Step and Workin’ Moms, while also co-starring in films like Oscar-nominated drama Molly’s Game.

You may also remember her as the lead of 2016 TIFF selection Below Her Mouth. Catch her next in SuperGrid and Everest.

EMMANUEL KABONGO 
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2014

If you’ve been following the CBC primetime lineup for the past few years, you’ve seen Emmanuel Kabongo. Not only did he star in soccer series 21 Thunder, he also had a recurring role on Season 1 of Frankie Drake Mysteries.

Kabongo has also appeared on Quantico, Hemlock Grove and Ransom, as well as award-winning web series Teenagers. His film work includes Antibirth (2016 Sundance Film Festival selection), Brown Girl Begins (directed by Sharon Lewis, star of CFC Features’ RUDE) and Extracurricular.

Top row (left to right): Sophia Walker, Giacomo Gianniotti. 
Bottom row (left to right): Casey MQ, Grace Glowicki, Todor Kobokov.

TODOR KOBAKOV
Slaight Music Residency, 2012

Composer Todor Kobakov has been working steadily for the past six years, making music for Canadian films like Hellions (directed by alumnus Bruce McDonald), Closet Monster (directed by alumnus Stephen Dunn) and Born to Be Blue, for which he received a 2017 Canadian Screen Award (Achievement in Music – Original Score).

Kobakov won another Canadian Screen Award (Best Original Music, Fiction) for TV series Cardinal. His original compositions can also be heard on Canadian shows like Bitten, The Indian Detective and Ransom.

GIACOMO GIANNIOTTI
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2013

You may know this CBC Actors Conservatory alumnus better as Dr. Andrew DeLuca. That’s the name of the character he’s been playing on Grey’s Anatomy since 2015.

Before checking in to that long-running series, Gianniotti found fans through his recurring roles on Reign and Murdoch Mysteries. He’s also recently appeared in a few films (Edging, Acquainted) and will receive a special tribute at Whistler Film Festival this December.

SOPHIA WALKER
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2016

Sophia Walker made waves at TIFF 2017, starring in the buzzy Canadian feature Black Cop (written and directed by alumnus Cory Bowles). Before that, she was known for playing Matska in the hit web series Carmilla (2015-16).

Walker returned as Matska in The Carmilla Movie in 2017. In the past year, she’s appeared on Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments, Murdoch Mysteries and Carter.

CASEY MQ
Slaight Music Residency, 2016

This accomplished composer and songwriter has alternated between laying down original tracks for Canadian films (Mary Goes Round, written and directed by alumna Molly McGlynn; and Firecrackers, executive produced by alumni Matt Code and Paul Barkin) and making his own music (his latest EP, Nudes, just came out).

We can’t wait to hear his score for the Easy Land, an upcoming feature written and directed by alumna Sanja Zivkovic (whom he worked with previously on CFC Short Dramatic Film and TIFF 2016 selection, CLEO).

GRACE GLOWICKI
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2015

Before finishing the CBC Actors Conservatory in early 2016, Glowicki went to the Sundance Film Festival with short film Her Friend Adam and came home with the Short Film Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance.

Glowicki has also appeared in alumni features like Suck It Up (directed by Jordan Canning), Cardinals (produced by Matt Code and executive produced by Chris Bennett) and Paper Year (produced by Jennifer Shin). This is in addition to starring in, writing and directing and her own films (2016 short Queef and upcoming feature Tito).

Top row (left to right): Eli Goree, Annie Murphy.
Bottom row (left to right): Aimee Bessada, Jeff Morrow, Trevor Hayes.

TREVOR HAYES
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2011

Trevor Hayes was a highly experienced actor before coming to the CFC, having appeared in The Aviator and I’m Not There!. But he’s kept busy post-CFC too, appearing on major shows like Flashpoint, The Listener, Murdoch Mysteries and Saving Hope.

In recent years, he had a recurring role on The Girlfriend Experience and has also appeared on The Handmaid’s Tale. Catch him next in Flowers of the Field, a feature co-starring another Actors alumnus Jesse LaVercombe.

AIMEE BESSADA
Slaight Music Residency, 2016

In the last few years, alumna Aimee Bessada has composed music for International Emmy-nominated CBC web series How to Buy a Baby and worked alongside Lesley Barber (Composer Chair of the Slaight Music Residency) on Netflix films Irreplaceable You and Nappily Ever After.

You may have also heard Bessada’s original compositions on Holly Hobbie, which recently debuted on Hulu. Holly Hobbie is produced by alumni Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen and executive produced by alumna and showrunner Sarah Glinski.

ELI GOREE
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2010

In his pre-CFC years, Eli Goree was seen on Canadian series like ‘Da Kink in My Hair. Since leaving the CFC, he’s made the move stateside, appearing on major American shows like The 100, Legends of Tomorrow,Riverdale and GLOW. Catch him these days as Quincy Carter on HBO’s Ballers.

Goree also has a few films under his belt, including acclaimed 2016 drama Race (for which he won a Leo Award) and upcoming comedy Suicide Roadtrip. 

JEFF MORROW
Slaight Music Residency, 2012

Did you see Ralph Breaks the Internet,Ant-Man and the Wasp, Trolls and/or The Peanuts Movie in theatres? If yes, then you’ve heard work by Jeff Morrow.

Morrow composed additional music for all those films, while also creating original scores for Netflix comedy Ibiza and Disney featurette Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. He received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for his work on 2014’s Cast No Shadow (directed by alumnus Christian Sparkes, and both written by and starring alumnus Joel Thomas Hynes). 

ANNIE MURPHY
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2013

If you live in Canada, you’ve probably walked by Annie Murphy multiple times. The billboards for her hit series, Schitt’s Creek, are everywhere!

Murphy plays Alexis Rose on the award-winning CBC comedy, which co-stars Dan Levy, Catherine O’Hara and CFC Board Member Eugene Levy. See her next on the Schitt’s Creek holiday special (airing/streaming December 18) and then catch the Season 5 premiere January 8. 

Top row (left to right): Rob Teehan, Sarah Slean. 
Bottom row (left to right): Andy McQueen, Supinder Wraich, Alex Paxton-Beesley. 

ALEX PAXTON-BEESLEY
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2010

This alumna has booked roles on countless TV series since 2010, including recurring parts on Murdoch Mysteries, Copper and The Strain.

Most recently, she played Red on Season 2 of alumni series Cardinal. She also plays Anna Funk on Pure, which is set to return on Super Channel in 2019. 

ANDY MCQUEEN
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2014

Andy McQueen is quite the cable king these days, booking roles on The Handmaid’s Tale, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and The Girlfriend Experience. He also starred alongside Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon in the recent HBO adaptation of Fahrenheit 451.

Some of McQueen’s other notable credits include Edging, Brown Girl Begins and Robbery, and web series V Morgan is Dead and Riftworld Chronicles. 

SARAH SLEAN
Slaight Music Residency, 2017

Sarah Slean is a singer-songwriter who has been active in the music industry since she was 19 years old, when she received her first record contract.

A three-time Juno Award nominee, Slean has recorded 11 albums throughout her career, with her latest being 2017’s Metaphysics. Her songs have been heard in films such as Passchendaele and on series like Cardinal. 

SUPINDER WRAICH
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2012

You may recognize this alumna from her recurring roles on series like Copper, Guidestones, The Strain and The Beaverton. She was also on recent episodes of The Expanse and The Good Doctor, and has a lead role on the CBC comedy, Crawford.

Look out for Wraich in upcoming thriller Hunter’s Moon, described as “a creature feature twist” on Agatha Christie novels.

ROB TEEHAN
Slaight Music Residency, 2014

Love Elementary? How about Netflix’s Jessica Jones? Rob Teehan composed music for both hit shows!

This Juno Award nominee has also composed for films such as The People Garden (written and directed by alumna Nadia Litz) and The Babushkas of Chernobyl. His latest film project, Canadian thriller Salvation, is set for release in early 2019. 

Top row (left to right): Varun Saranga, Emily Coutts.
Bottom row (left to right): Erica Procunier, Kimberly-Sue Murray, Cara Ricketts. 

KIMBERLY-SUE MURRAY
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2011

While Kimberly-Sue Murray started off mainly doing film (see: Mirror Mirror and The Good Lie), she’s moved into TV with roles on alumni series such as Aaron S. Martin’s Slasher, Michelle Lovretta’s Killjoys and Tassie Cameron’s Rookie Blue.

Recently, Murray had a plum role on Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments. Keep your eyes peeled for her on new Netflix series V-Wars. 

EMILY COUTTS
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2015

Patrick Kwok-Choon isn’t the only CBC Actors Conservatory alumnus aboard the USS Discovery. Emily Coutts also appears on Star Trek: Discovery, playing Lieutenant Keyla Detmer!

She’s also had roles on Murdoch Mysteries, Designated Survivor, Dark Matter and The Girlfriend Experience, and in films like Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak. 

ERICA PROCUNIER
Slaight Music Residency, 2014

This alumna currently composes for Little Dog, the CBC series created by and starring alumnus Joel Thomas Hynes. The showreturns for its second season on January 17, 2019.

You may have also heard Procunier’s work in award-winning comedy Don’t Talk to Irene (written and directed by alum, Pat Mills, and starring current CBC Actors Conservatory resident Michelle McLeod) and acclaimed short film Mariner (written and directed by alumnus Thyrone Tommy). Last year, she made music for Sesame Street segment “H is for Holiday” (co-written and directed by alumnus Mark Ratzlaff). 

CARA RICKETTS
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2014

In 2015, Cara Ricketts was cast in the CBC adaptation of The Book of Negroes (co-written and directed by alumnus Clement Virgo). She’s also appeared in Stella Meghie’s Jean of the Joneses, as well as alumni series Orphan Black, Anne with an E and Frankie Drake Mysteries.

Next up for Ricketts: The reboot of iconic Canadian series Street Legal, which will premiere on CBC in March 2019. 

VARUN SARANGA
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2015

Before the CFC, this alumnus was best known for his role on YTV series How to Be Indie. His most current credits include recurring parts on Workin’ Moms, Carter and Wynonna Earp, as well as roles in Syfy flick Killer High (co-starring alumna Humberly Gonzalez!) and soon-to-be-released comedy Appiness. 

Top row (left to right): Devery Jacobs, Nabil Rajo
Bottom row (left to right): Virginia Kilbertus, Matt Murray, Allie X. 

NABIL RAJO
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2017

Barely two weeks after completing the CBC Actors Conservatory, Nabil Rajo went for gold, taking home the 2018 Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Boost).

Rajo has also been seen on Toronto-shot series like Man Seeking Woman, Remedy, Rookie Blue and Suits. We can’t wait to see what he does next!

VIRGINIA KILBERTUS
Slaight Music Residency, 2017

This composer alumna has created music for films like Darken (written and directed by alumni Audrey Cummings and RJ Lackie, respectively) and Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle (2017 TIFF selection), as well as the video game Westerland: Dust to Dust.

Up next for Kilbertus? Original scores for Astronaut (starring Richard Dreyfuss, Lyriq Bent and Colm Feore) and Stealing School. 

DEVERY JACOBS
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2017

Devery Jacobs has quite the history with the CFC, having starred in 2013 CFC Features film RHYMES FOR YOUNG GHOULS. In the years between that film and her time in the CBC Actors Conservatory, Jacobs appeared on Mohawk Girls and This Life, and in the film The Sun at Midnight.

Jacobs’ recent work includes Another Wolfcop, 2018 TIFF selection The Lie, and Season 3 of Cardinal. In the next year, she’ll appear in Netflix series The Order (created by alumni Dennis Heaton and Shelley Eriksen), the new season of American Gods, and films The Road Behind and Blood Quantum (from RHYMES director Jeff Barnaby!). 

MATT MURRAY
CBC Actors Conservatory, 2013

This alumnus has truly made the rounds on the primetime circuit, with recurring gigs on dramas like Rookie Blue and Eyewitness, as well as sitcoms such as Kevin from Work and 9JKL.

Murray’s next major project is feature film Samanthology, co-written by alumnae Clara Altimas and Erin Carter.

ALLIE X
Slaight Music Residency, 2012

This singer-songwriter released her debut EP, CollXtion I, in 2015 and has collaborated with artists such as Troye Sivan. Her most recent album, Super Sunset, was released in October.

On the film side, her songs have been heard in Closet Monster, CFC Features’ film ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC SCHOOL, and recent Netflix rom-com Sierra Burgess is a Loser.

The CBC Actors Conservatory and Slaight Music Residency are currently running. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and/or Facebook for the latest news on these programs and their alumni.

And CFC alumni, don’t forget that you can share all your good news with us by emailing alumni@cfccreates.com. 

On a rainy Monday, November 26, a diverse group of startups and venture capitalists gathered at the CFC Media Lab’s IDEABOOST Road Show at Corus Entertainment in downtown Toronto. Part funding session and part networking session, the Road Show gave 10 startups a chance to deliver a seven-minute pitch to a room full of motivated investors, a prime example of how the IDEABOOST-Network Connect community benefits both participants and the tech industry writ large.

Unlike other pitch events, startups at the Road Show have either participated in one of the seven cohorts of CFC Media Lab’s IDEABOOST Accelerator (The Discourse, MasterpieceVR, Paddle HR, Synervoz), or are part of Network Connect, the IDEABOOST program’s startup affiliates group (ARFront Technologies, Battleverse, Dark Slope, MusicPeaks, Penta Medical and Torus Media Labs). Taken together, they represent an array of disparate industries, ranging from laser therapy to horse racing to video games. Investors like Corus Entertainment, one of the original sponsors of the wider IDEABOOST-Network Connect program and the host of Monday’s event, values that variety.

“You never know where the next great idea is going to come from,” says Colin Bohm, Executive Vice President of International Development and Corporate Strategy for Corus Entertainment. “What may not seem relevant to our business today may be extremely relevant in a couple of years.”

For all 10 startups, the Road Show gave them an opportunity to secure funding that they need to move on to the next stage of development. They know the people in the room are listening, which is not necessarily the case in other pitch scenarios.

“This feels very real,” says  Battleverse co-founder Stephen Shew, who compared the Road Show to a prior appearance he made on Dragon’s Den with a different company. “Dragon’s Den is a TV show, so they’re looking for entertainment value. This feels like there are real stakes, because people are legitimately looking to invest their money.”

Of course, a startup like Battleverse – which is developing an augmented reality (AR) gaming platform for use in family entertainment centres – still needs to convince a potential partner to take that plunge. So the Road Show is more casual and welcoming than a typical pitch environment, with demos and a networking reception following the presentations.

“The bigger the crowd, the more nervous your brain,” says Karan Bhachech, Senior Manager of ARFront, which is developing a software platform that makes it easier for employees to telecommute from job sites. The Road Show “is a good learning and confidence boosting experience.”

That makes the Road Show invaluable to entrepreneurs, even if it doesn’t lead to immediate funding. It fosters intellectual exchange, too. The founder of a small startup will approach problems from a different vantage point than those working in larger organizations. For a company like Corus, that stance is key to the appeal.

“It’s human capital” says Bohm, explaining how Corus’s involvement with IDEABOOST-Network Connect has allowed it to stay ahead of the latest trends in tech, media and digital entertainment. “We’re trying to recruit not just good ideas, but good people. You get exposed to entrepreneurs and people who have a different perspective.”

Those benefits are just as relevant to startups, who are able to learn more about the industries they’re trying to disrupt and refine their products accordingly.

“I think we all believed that [AR and VR] would take off faster than it has,” says Bohm. “Companies that are pitching now are evolving their business model to respond to the market.” That’s particularly true for the startups in IDEABOOST-Network Connect, who often need to learn to be tenacious. “Just because you hear ‘no’ the first time, doesn’t mean it’s ‘no’ forever,” he adds. “As your business changes, make sure you keep in touch with those people that initially said ‘no,’ because you never know when that turns into a ‘yes.’”

“The program helped hone our message, our pitch deck, and connect to people with real advice,” says Shew. “The greatest thing is talking to investment advisors who tell you exactly what people are looking for. They tell you what you need to have.”

“Be concise and know your numbers,” he adds. “As soon as you don’t know your numbers, investors attack you and that breaks down your credibility.”

“When we first started pitching, the idea was clear in our minds, but we had no way of effectively communicating what we were thinking in a way they understood,” says Jonathan Gagne, CEO of MasterpieceVR. “Being a part of the IDEABOOST Accelerator helped us communicate very complex ideas in very simple ways.”

Masterpiece VR is a software suite that allows people to sculpt and paint in virtual reality (VR). The company is hoping to license it as a tool to animators and game developers. In his Road Show pitch, Gagne demonstrated how Masterpiece VR allows 3D modelers to work faster (and with less software training) than current options like Z-Brush, which showcased the evolution of Masterpiece VR as a platform and a company.

“He benchmarked his product against existing products,” says Alexa Roeper, CEO of Penta Medical, which produces a portable laser therapy device. “It made it easy to understand as someone who doesn’t know anything about the space.”

That is ultimately what makes this event so unique. Its 10 startups come from many different fields and so are not competitors in the traditional sense. Instead, everyone is working together to solve the problems of the future – which opens the door for collaboration, one of the IDEABOOST program’s unique value propositions that sets it apart from many startup communities and accelerators.

“I speak to a lot of companies that are one stage before where we’re at,” says Gagne. “Having spent a lot of time there myself, I’m able to transfer that insight from the mentors before me to the next generation that are working to get their idea off the ground.”

“Talking to other people makes [pitching] easier,” says Roeper. “Sometimes people from other industries think differently or analyze their business differently and it’s really, really cool.”

“It’s always useful to see other people present,” adds Gagne. “We can replace our weaknesses with their strengths. Observing others and seeing what works helps us continue to improve.”

The result is a more supportive and nurturing atmosphere that helps young Canadian entrepreneurs thrive in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.

“IDEABOOST helped us connect with entrepreneurs in Toronto and Canada. It has given us a lot of opportunities by which we can groom our own business,” says ARFront’s Bhachech.

“In Canada, you can talk to [investors] more frequently for advice or engage with them more,” concludes Roeper, contrasting IDEABOOST-Network Connect with the faster, more aggressive pace of Silicon Valley. “It’s good to have Canadian investors and have people understand where you’re from.”

Sometimes that conversation leads directly to a round of funding. Sometimes it establishes the groundwork for a future partnership. Either way, the IDEABOOST Road Show offers both access and expertise, generating opportunities for Canadian startups, and then helping them develop the skills they need to capitalize on those opportunities. That brings the best ideas to the fore and paves the way for further innovation.

Photos by Brian de Rivera Simon.

This morning, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) revealed their favourite Canadian shorts and features of 2018. We are proud to share that seven CFC films from 13 alumni were included in this year’s Canada’s Top Ten list.

In the past, TIFF celebrated their most beloved Canadian films of the year through the Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, screening selected works over the course of one week in January. They are changing their strategy this year, offering the Canada’s Top Ten features a chance to have a proper theatrical run at TIFF Bell Lightbox in 2019, with shorts screening in a showcase in the new year.

We look forward to checking out the following alumni projects at TIFF next year!

ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH

This documentary, which looks at humanity’s troubling treatment of Mother Earth, comes from CFC alumnus Nicholas de Pencier and frequent collaborators Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky. TIFF programmer Danis Goulet called the film “a mesmerizing and disturbing rumination on what drives us a species.” In other words, it’s a must-see film for, well, everyone.

FAUVE

Since Sundance 2018, where it won a Special Jury Prize, this short film has been making major waves at film festivals around the world. Produced by outgoing Cineplex Entertainment Film Program resident Evren Boisjoli, Fauve pits two boys against each other as they explore a surface mine.

FIRECRACKERS

Firecrackers is one of the six features in Canada’s Top Ten directed (or co-directed) by a woman. Jasmin Mozaffari’s feature debut follows two friends (Michaela Kurimsky and Karena Evans) as they desperately look for a way out of their oppressive town. The film, which features original music by Slaight Music Residency alumnus Casey MQ, was edited by Simone Smith, and executive produced by Matt Code and Paul Barkin.

GIANT LITTLE ONES

This coming-of-age drama, written and directed by alumnus Keith Behrman, centres on a teenager (Josh Wiggins) and his parents (Maria Bello and Kyle MacLachlan) as they deal with the fallout of “an unexpected incident” at a birthday party. Alumni Daniel Bekerman, Lauren Grant and Brendan Brady worked on the film, serving as executive producer, co-producer and line producer, respectively.

MOUTHPIECE

Iconic Canadian director Patricia Rozema is no stranger to thought-provoking films and this feature is no exception. Based on the award-winning stage play by Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, this drama zooms in on what it means to be a woman, daughter and mother in ways you’d never expect. Brendan Brady also produced this film alongside alumna Jennifer Shin and CFC mentor Christina Piovesan.

PASEO

Editors’ Lab alumnus Matt Hannam (Vox Lux, Wildlife) makes his directorial debut with this short, which has its World Premiere at TIFF 2018. Sarah Gadon stars in the film, which follows a woman as she explores Spain (and herself) to varying results.

WHAT WALAA WANTS

This documentary follows a woman who aims to defy expectations and join the Palestinian Security Forces. Alumnus Matt Code served as a producer on the film, which received the Special Jury Prize for Canadian Feature Documentary at the 2018 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

Keep checking TIFF’s website throughout the year for updates on when these films and the other Canada’s Top Ten selections will be screening. 

If you as a writer do not feel like you are good enough, write authentically and submit to everything. Because inevitably someone will see you. Even if they don’t, then at least you’ll have done something that you love every day.
Joanne Sarazen

L-R: Screenwriter Joanne Sarazen, director Amy Jo Johnson and producer Jessica Adams, all CFC alumnae, on the set of their film, 'Tammy's Always Dying'

In July 2017, playwright-turned-screenwriter Joanne Sarazen joined 17 other talented writers, directors, editors and producers at the CFC’s Cineplex Film Program. They collaborated for five and a half months, along with residents from the CBC Actors Conservatory and Slaight Music Residency. Together, they honed their skills to develop their own original projects,

Fast forward to last week. Sarazen wrapped shooting on her dark mother-daughter comedy, Tammy’s Always Dying– based on the screenplay she developed and workshopped in the Writers’ Lab. Alumnae Amy Jo Johnson directed and Jessica Adams produced, and the film co-stars Academy Award-nominee Felicity Huffman (Transamerica, American Crime, Desperate Housewives) and Anastasia Phillips (Bomb Girls, Reign, Skins).

With this dream team and such impressive momentum, Tammy’s Always Dying promises to be a compelling new feature that’s already generating buzz. We spoke with Sarazen on her transition to screenwriting, the development of Tammy’s Always Dying, and why it’s important for writers to keep going despite rejection.

From Playwright to Screenwriter at the CFC

The CFC was very good for me, for how I think and work. You move from one thing to another to another, so you’re never bored and always focused. You learn to accommodate people and stand up for your ideas. I came into the CFC a playwright and left as a screenwriter, and I am so incredibly grateful for that.
Joanne Sarazen

Joanne Sarazen’s transition from playwright into screenwriter highlights how much the Cineplex Film Program embraces and champions original voices through in-depth, individualized craft and collaborative work.

Before the CFC, she defined herself primarily as a playwright. She’d made two short films and six plays, produced in Montreal, Toronto and Banff, for which she received the Mainline Next Stage Award and nominations for her work in Montreal Fringe Festivals.

In addition to acting and directing for film and theatre, Sarazen also waitressed for 15 years to support herself. Being on the set of Tammy’s Always Dying, she said, was like waitressing, demanding a “strong work ethic” and “an ability to get things done while everybody’s talking to you at the same time."

One year before she applied to the CFC, Sarazen began developing character sketches for Tammy in a writing group with Writers’ Lab alumna Clara Altimas. Altimas recommended Sarazen apply.

“Clara and I talked one night and she said, ‘You should write a feature, because I think this program would be good for you.’ So I took all the pages of stuff I’d been working on and formulated it into a feature. That took a while to write, but I allocated my time between waitressing gigs and came up with a beginning, middle and an end. Because I had written so much about the characters, I knew them well. It became more of a storytelling exercise than a character exercise."

Sarazen applied and was accepted, which then became instrumental to refining her feature. “Because I’m a playwright, some of my first scenes were eight pages long and two people sitting in a room talking. Not terribly dramatic. But when I got into the CFC, by virtue of doing a lot of workshops and being friends with artists, I really liked the table read discussions. I enjoyed defending my ideas and receiving feedback. In particular, program mentor Maureen Dorey gave me specific notes and helped me develop as a visual artist, not just someone good with character and dialogue. She’d always ask me, ‘What does this place look like?’ or ‘How are things being communicated by the landscape in which your characters live?’ That helped me develop and not overwrite."

On Being in the Writers’ Lab

I always felt like I had a community at the CFC. I was searching for that ever since I’d moved to Toronto seven years prior. A community.
Joanne Sarazen

Strong stories with complex characters like Tammy’s Always Dying flourish when a writer meets the right people to take creative risks – exactly what Sarazen sought and received from the Program. The Program, she said, ”wanted to forge relationships to lead us in times of crisis, which was great, but it also made our work better. It made us all better artists."

It also fostered close personal and professional links between Sarazen and her fellow writer-residents, Anna Fahr, Luke Toye and Marni Van Dyk, ties that felt like family. “We got together outside of the program and supported each other immensely. We were kind to and fought for one another. All three of them taught me to value my artistic integrity and supported me throughout this process."

She admitted she was intimidated on day one. “I was looking around at these people who spoke a language I had never learned. I didn’t want anyone to read my work. Yet as soon as our scripts were released and we had our first meeting as writers, there was no competitive nature. It became clear that everyone was there to support one another."

Her fellow residents shared their knowledge as much as the mentors and guests did. Sarazen described one experience with Producers’ Lab resident Natalie Urquart. “I was trying to put together a pitch package when Natalie walked by. She sat with me, even though she had so much to do herself, and showed me how to use various free programs to put together something that could look good. I never felt there was a moment where I was alone."

“Are we really doing this?” Tammy’s Always Dying from Script to Set

The Program enabled Sarazen to polish her screenplay of Tammy. It’s the story of 35 year-old Catherine, who keeps talking her self-destructive mother, Tammy, out of committing suicide every month when the welfare cheque runs out.

This routine allows Tammy to hold on to her daughter, but it leaves Catherine feeling like it’s her one skill in life. When Tammy is diagnosed with terminal cancer, however, the possibility of life without her mother becomes very real – and so does Catherine’s desire to flee. Will she stay and trust the woman who’s always let her down, or find the courage to live her own life?

Take a peek at the teaser Sarazen screened of Tammy’s Always Dying in December 2017:

TAMMY'S ALWAYS DYING - From Writer Joanne Sarazen from Canadian Film Centre on Vimeo.

After the first table read in Fall 2017, Sarazen’s fellow Directors’ Lab resident, Amy Jo Johnson, came over. Sarazen recalls that Johnson understood “the root theme of the film right away. She left me alone for a while, but then kept hinting that maybe we could work together. Then she asked if she could pass the script to her producer, Jessica [Adams]."

Sarazen said yes. She valued how much Johnson “connected to the story, and how as time went on, she seemed to be the perfect person to make the film.” As Sarazen notes, Johnson “never would have heard it, if it hadn’t been for the table read at the CFC."

So shortly after the Program ended, Sarazen, Johnson and Adams sat down, looked at each other and said, “Are we really going to do this?” They already knew the answer was an unequivocal yes.

The rest, as they say, is history. They powered on set in Hamilton, Ontario, being three “Type-As,” as Sarazen half-joked. The film was produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Tajj Film Distribution, NABET 700-M UNIFOR and Eggplant Picture & Sound. Commissioned by Bell Media’s Crave and CBC Films, it was developed with the assistance of The Harold Greenberg Fund and the CFC.

Have a Profound Love of Writing

In mid-November, the team started shooting Tammy. They were done by December 5. The experience created a strong, kind team. ”We get along really well,” Sarazen said. “We’re incredibly professional, but then we can turn it off and make jokes. We have a great connection and are having a blast.” She added, “Every day on set I am incredibly grateful that a story I wrote has inspired so much commitment from such a variety of people."

Her humility here and throughout our interview underscores her obvious talent, which resulted in a highly unusual accelerated path from stack of notes to rough draft to on-set wrap – and all in two years.

This success also speaks to Sarazen’s focus, craft and persistence as an artist. When asked what piece of advice she’d give other writers, she said, “Have a profound love of writing. It’s one of the few art forms you can do alone. That requires so much patience and self-motivation. You must truly, truly love it. Because you could have your screenplay made in a year or get rejected five years in a row – which I did, too. Find the joy and the love of it. Because if you have that, then whether the success comes or it doesn’t, at least you’ll spend a short period of time every day doing something you love."

Congratulations to Sarazen, Johnson and Adams on this well-deserved success. Keep an eye out for Tammy’s Always Dying, which, given its pace so far, will likely be coming to screens near you soon!

If you’re an aspiring director, editor, producer or writer, applications for the Cineplex Film Program will open soon - learn more about the program here.

On Tuesday, December 11, a sold-out crowd gathered at TIFF Bell Lightbox to celebrate the achievements of the 19 talented filmmakers completing our 2018 Cineplex Film Program. 

The 2018 Cineplex Film Program Showcase offers these filmmakers – five writers, five directors, five producers, and four editors – an opportunity to screen their work in front of an industry audience, and to celebrate the five months of intensive work on their craft and storytelling.

Kathryn Emslie, CFC’s Chief Programs Officer (pictured below), noted in her opening remarks that every year’s Showcase is unique. They are programmed to spotlight the distinctive talent of each year’s residents. This year, writers showcased short teasers for the feature project they developed while in the program, while directors screened narrative short films with their voice and vision as creators on display. Each short was produced by a producer in the Program; the producers also generated atmospheric reels on what guides and inspires them. The editors' talent and skill shines through across the evening in the 15 pieces screened.

Showcases offer every resident the opportunity to introduce their narrative and stylistic approaches (including playful segments on editors’ must-haves in the suite). Samples of the work then live on each of the resident’s CFC profile page. The work produced in the program then acts as a type of “calling card” for each filmmaker, evidencing their cinematic skills and their creative vision. Productions shot within the program also feature music exclusively created by our Slaight Music Residency, and often feature actors from the CBC Actors Conservatory.

Smart industry professionals and executives know not to miss these events, which offer a sneak peek at the next generation of talent coming up. Showcases draw numerous other program alumni, mentors and industry guests, as well as the residents’ cast, crew and family members, who all join in the experience.

In 2018, the Cineplex Film Program – the CFC’s signature program – is celebrating its thirtieth year. As CFC CEO Slawko Klymkiw noted, the Program has contributed significantly to the CFC and the wider Canadian talent pool since its start, and has been a strong economic driver of Ontario’s, Canada’s and the world’s screen-based entertainment industries.

Klymkiw was especially pleased to announce that Cineplex renewed their funding of this cornerstone Program. As a result, future generations of this talent will continue to benefit from the outstanding mentorship, business acumen, networking and close, bespoke attention to craft and collaboration that are the Program’s hallmarks.

Program alumni, as Erica Proudlock, CFC’s Executive in Charge of Programs and Talent, described, are among Canada’s most successful – “original voices and innovative storytellers” that lead us to a “matrix of captivating stories.” 

For example, at this year’s Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) Awards, three of the five nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film were from this Program: Molly McGlynn from the Writers’ Lab (Mary Goes Round); Miranda de Pencier from the Producers’ Lab (The Grizzlies); and Directors’ Lab alumnus Keith Behrman for Giant Little Ones, which was also selected as one of Canada’s Top Ten by the Toronto International Film Festival.

Proudlock also shared the great news that the Programs’ editors have been active behind the screen and in the industry, including four appointments, all women, to the Canadian Cinema Editors Association.

Erin Burke, speaking before the screening begins.

Erin Burke, CFC’s Associate Director, Programs & Content, emphasized the power of storytelling and noted “the talent we are celebrating tonight have power – through their work.” She shared that the Program does more than support talent. It also shepherds 15 feature film projects into development every year during the Program’s five months, overseeing more than 300 hours of production and hundreds more in post. Last year alone, five features developed in the Program have gone to camera, with three more poised to greenlight – a “pretty great track record of getting work produced and seen,” which Burke stressed is “a big part of why we do what we do."

One recent example of project success and alumni collaboration is the much-buzzed-about upcoming feature, Tammy’s Always Dying, featured in The Hollywood Reporter. It began as a feature script developed during writer Joanne Sarazen’s time in last year’s Writers’ Lab. Here, she met Amy Jo Johnson, a resident in the Directors’ Lab, who expressed a strong desire to direct the feature from Sarazen’s script. Johnson then connected Sarazen with producer Jessica Adams, alumna of the 2014 Producers’ Lab. One short year later, they not only had two stars cast (Felicity Huffman and Anastasia Phillips), but they also just wrapped shooting. Read our longer profile of Sarazen and the film.

A hearty round of applause to all of the filmmakers who gifted us with their stories and insights last night. We can’t wait to see what’s next! As Emslie said, our founder, Norman Jewison, created both the CFC and this Program 30 years ago: “It’s been an amazing adventure, one that is far from over,” and in fact, she added, “We’re just getting started."

Congratulations to the 2018 Cineplex Film Program Residents!

The 2018 Writers' Lab: Julia Rowland, Murry Peeters, Sina Gilani, Laurel Brady, Brooke Banning.

The 2018 Directors' Lab: Julia Hart, Karen Chapman, Isa Benn, Joseph Amenta, Kim Albright.

The 2018 Producers' Lab: Daniel Sedore, Elizabeth Melanson, Samantha Kaine, Alexandra Roberts, Evren Boisjoli.

The 2018 Editors' Lab: Lee Walker, Christopher Malanchen, Orlee Buium, Ben Allan.

If you couldn't snag a seat at Tuesday's Showcase, take a look at the pieces here:

2018 Film Showcase from Canadian Film Centre on Vimeo.

Enjoy a selection of the evening's photos on Flickr.

Applications for the 2019 Cineplex Film Program will open soon, so if you’re a film director, editor, producer and/or writer, we invite you to learn more about the program. If it’s what you’re seeking for the next stage of your career, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to see when applications open – and then apply!

All photos (except top) by Sam Santos/George Pimentel Photography.