Cozy up over the holidays with some festive content from CFC alumni, and check out the latest alumni news – like the exciting announcement about new series The Porter, led by an entirely Black-Canadian creative team that includes alumni director/executive producer Charles Officer, writer/showrunner Marsha Green, with Priscilla White as part of Canada’s first all-Black writers room.

Read on for the latest on CFC alumni.

Blood Quantum

WATCH

FILM

• Horror fan? Then you won’t want to miss Canadian indie horror Anything For Jackson, from producer Bill Marks and executive producer Audrey Cummings, which explores the depths of grief an elderly couple plunges into following the death of their only grandson; now available to watch on Super Channel
• Check out Rotten Tomato’s list of 20 Essential Indigenous Movies from North America, it includes alumni films like:
  • Blood Quantum, from writer/director Jeff Barnaby, executive producer John Christou, starring alumnae Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs;
  • The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, from writers/directors Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn, and producer Lori Lozinski; and
  • Hit TV series Trickster, which counts alumni Tony Elliot (co-creator, writer, executive producer), Zoe Hopkins (writer), Joel Thomas Hynes (actor), Matt Code (producer), Jennifer Kawaja (executive producer), Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith (co-producer), Todor Kobakov (composer) and Kye Meechan (editor) among its cast and crew.
• Ben Lewis stars in Lifetime’s first LGBTQ holiday film, Christmas Setup, directed by Pat Mills

TV

• Did you have a chance to binge the fan-favourite Netflix series Virgin River? CFC’s very own alum Gail Harvey is a director on the series!
• Not sure what to watch or re-watch over the holidays? NOW Magazine put together a list of the 25 best shows of 2020, and we spy some alumni series on the list, like Trickster, Canada’s Drag Race, Schitt’s Creek and Transplant!

DIGITAL

• Tracey Deer and Kathleen Hepburn discuss how we can reset the industry as part of This is the Reset, a series of panel conversations on CBC Arts looking forward at how various artistic disciplines move past the rupture of this year

FLOOD

ALUMNI INDUSTRY NEWS AND UPDATES

• CBC and BET+ partnered to greenlight The Porter (working title), an original drama about railway workers in Canada and the U.S. who formed the world’s first Black union and sparked a civil rights movement, led by an entirely Black-Canadian creative team – including alumni director/executive producer Charles Officer, writer/showrunner Marsha Green, with Priscilla White as part of Canada’s first all-Black writers room
• Alumni series Transplant picked up this CTV hometown hit for a second season after a first season that averaged 5.7 million overall viewers!
• levelFILM has acquired Canadian rights to crime-noir Akilla’s Escape by director Charles Officer, who co-wrote the script with Wendy ‘Motion’ Braithwaite, starring Actors Conservatory alum Shomari Downer
• CFC short film FLOOD, from writer/director Joseph Amenta, producer Daniel Sedore, editor Orlee Buium, with music by composer Stephen Krecklo, is playing as part of Frameline Voices 2021 collection, a curated program of short films and episodic content representing experiences unique to LGBTQ+ people and communities
• Renuka Jeyapalan will be directing the CBC comedy Sort Of, which counts Jennifer Kawaja as an executive producer and stars Actors Conservatory alum Supinder Wraich
• Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers joins National Screen Institute to co-manage the NSI IndigiDocs short documentary training program and will also serve as director advisor for the program
• Aisling Chin-Yee’s No Ordinary Man was named to IndieWire’s Best Undistributed Films of 2020 list
• Annie Bradley is a director on Season 3 of CW/Netflix series In the Dark
• Read: How Letterkenny Got Indigenous Representation So Right (Flare); alumnus Mark Montefiore is an executive producer on the series
• Alumna Jennifer Holness has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the newly launched The Black Academy, an organization created by Shamier Anderson and Stephan James that is dedicated to elevating and celebrating Black Canadian talent
• We’re not surprised to see alumni Warren Sonoda and Samantha Kaine on NOW Magazine’s list of Toronto film heroes of 2020 leading remarkable change
• Tyler Levine is a producer on the upcoming drama All My Puny Sorrows, which was shooting in North Bay in early December, and is co-edited by Orlee Buium
• Several alumni feature projects are set to receive developmental support from Bell Media’s The Harold Greenberg Fund (list below), and alumni Aisling Chin-Yee and Anand Ramayya have joined the Fund’s selection committee as industry jurors
  • Story Option Program
    • The Rule of Three, producer Matthew Cervi and writer Lynne Kamm
  • First to Second Draft
    • Cloud Striker, producer Andrew Currie
    • How and When, producer Jordan Walker, writer/director Jeremy LaLonde
    • Little Sister, producer/director Bruce McDonald, writer Tina Cooper
    • Once Our Land, producer Amber Ripley
    • Pow Wow Summer, producer Amos Adetuyi
    • Spencer and Jesse, producer Leonard Farlinger
  • Second to Third Draft
    • ExMas, producers Heidi Tan and Rebeka Herron, writer Adrianna DiLonardo, director Sarah Rotella
    • Inedia, writer/director Liz Cairns
    • The Narrow Edge, writer/director Kathleen Hepburn
  • Polish and Packaging
    • Bar Mitzvah Boy, producer Tony Wosk
    • Humane, writer/producer Michael Sparaga
    • In Cold Light, producer Mike MacMillan, writer Patrick Whistler
    • Prisoner of Conscience, writer/director Anita Doron
    • Starfall, producer Marie-Claude Poulin
    • Stellar, producer Paula Devonshire

One Night in Miami

ICYMI

CATCH UP ON THESE HIT ALUMNI FILMS AND SERIES:

• Queen of the Morning Calm, from writer/director/producer Gloria Kim, starring Zahra Bentham and Jesse LaVercombe, with music by Stephen Krecklo and editing by Orlee Buium, is now available on iTunes, Apple TV and Vimeo OTT
• One Night in Miami, starring Actors Conservatory alumnus Eli Goree, drops on Prime Video on January 15
• This holiday season, tune in to W Network to catch A Nashville Christmas Carol, directed by Dawn Wilkinson
• Cozy up with Christmas in the Rockies, starring Actors Conservatory alumna Kimberly-Sue Murray, availableon demand on Fox Nation
• Tune in to Private Eyes Season 4 on Global to see Actors Conservatory alumna Supinder Wraich
• Tune in to Season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery on CTV and you’ll see Actors Conservatory alumni Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Gen Rhys and Emily Coutts asLt. Keyla Detmer
• Have you been watching the Season 17 of Grey’s Anatomy? New episodes air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CTV, and star Actors Conservatory alumnus Giacomo Giannotti as Dr. Andrew DeLuca
• Season 9 of Letterkenny, executive produced by Mark Montefiore and featuring Lisa Codrington as Gail, starts streaming Christmas Day on Crave, with seven all-new episodes dropping at once
• Watch all episodes of CFC BLOCKO!,a seven-part doc series and call to action piece from acclaimed creator and CFC alumnus Charles Officer (Akilla’s Escape), produced by Canesugar Mediaworks.

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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