Here’s our final alumni roundup of 2019. Read on for the latest successes and updates from our alumni and check back in the New Year for more updates!
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
- The Schitt’s Creek cast, which includes Actors Conservatory alumna Annie Murphy, was nominated for a 2020 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
- Warren P. Sonoda won a 2019 British Academy Children’s Award (International Live Action) for his directorial work on Odd Squad
- Secret Location (co-founded by alumnus James Milward) will receive the Outstanding Media Innovation Award as one of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s Special Awards 2020
- Suad Bushnaq was nominated for Best Original Score – Short Film (Live Action) at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for her work on A Very Important Appointment
Falling
FESTIVAL WATCH
- Falling, produced by Daniel Bekerman, will be the closing night film at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, which runs from Thursday, January 23 to Sunday, February 2, 2020, and Hey Lady!, co-directed by Sarah Polley, will premiere in the Indie Episodic section
- A number of alumni films screened at Whistler Film Festival earlier this month
Kimberly-Sue Murray with Adrian Holmes in ‘V-Wars’ (photo credit: Netflix)
TELEVISION & WEB SERIES
- Catch two alumni in the new Netflix series V Wars (premiered December 5, 2019): Kimberly-Sue Murray plays the recurring role of Danika Dubov and Emmanuel Kabongo plays Jack Fields
- Vincenzo Natali is set to direct and executive produce the upcoming Amazon adaptation of the William Gibson novel The Peripheral, Steve Hoban will also executive produce
- The Communist’s Daughter, an upcoming CBC original digital series, is produced by alumni companies LoCo Motion Pictures (Lauren Corber)
- New medical drama, Nurses, executive produced by Tassie Cameron, premieres on January 6, 2020 on Global
- Season 5 of the Baroness von Sketch Show will see Vivieno Caldinelli as a director and Sally Karam as a supervising producer and executive producer
- Mark Razlaff directed an upcoming episode of Sesame Street (as part of their 50th season), which airs in early 2020
- Catch two holiday specials directed by David Weaver on W Network (Corus) as part of Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas programming, Christmas Town and It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
- The final season of hit CBC series Schitt’s Creek, starring alumna Annie Murphy, premieres January 7, 2020
- Burden of Truth returns for Season 3 on January 8 on CBC; several alumni were involved in the first two seasons as directors, writers, producers, editors and actors. Look out for more alumni work in Season 3!
Canadian Strain
FILM
- Production wrapped the week of November 18 on Reem Morsi’s feature film debut Hysteria, which she wrote, directed and produced
- Pacific Northwest Pictures acquired the Canadian distribution rights to alumni film Canadian Strain, written and directed by Geordie Sabbagh (set for release in early 2020), and Glass House Distribution picked up the U.S. rights
- Production began on November 18 on Lindsay Gossling’s feature directorial debut, 13 Minutes, starring Trace Adkins, Thora Birch, Peter Facinelli, Anne Heche and Paz Vega
- Several alumni are set to work on the upcoming feature The Retreat: Alyson Richards (writer/producer), Lauren Grant (producer), Pat Mills (director), starring Sarah Allen
- Gravitas Ventures picked up the U.S. distribution rights to Aisling Chin-Yee’s The Rest of Us (story editor Mark Van de Ven, production manager/actor Brendan Brady, executive producer Damon D’Oliveira, and producers Emma Fleury and William Woods)
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
ALUMNI INDUSTRY NEWS
- Critically acclaimed alumni film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, co-written and co-directed by Kathleen Hepburn and produced by Lori Lozinski, was named one of Canada’s Top Ten films of 2019 by TIFF
- Christina Jennings (founder and CEO of Shaftesbury; CFC alumna; Chair of CFC’s Board of Directors); was appointed to the Order of Canada (Member) on Thursday, November 21
- Natalie Krill was selected as one of Whistler Film Festival’s Stars to Watch finalists for 2019
- Two alumnae were selected to participate in Women in the Director’s Chair’s annual script development and director mentoring program, Story & Leadership: Kim Albright, who will work on her feature debut With Love and a Major Organ (set to go to camera next year); and Sarah Galea-Davis, who will work on her debut feature drama The Players
- Two alumni projects made the shortlist for this year’s NSI Totally Television: Nuclear, from Blain Watters (writer) and The Reign of Durga, from Mark Ratzlaff (producer)
- Alumni production Letterkenny (Mark Montefiore, New Metric Media) received funding for its fifth and sixth seasons from The Bell Fund
- Anthony Del Col teams up with Ubisoft, Audible to pen Assassin’s Creed audio drama, set to launch February 2020
Alumni! Do you have news to share? Want to update your alumni profile? Get in touch anytime at alumni@cfccreates.com.
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