The new year has been off to a strong start for our residents and alumni: alumni film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open has been on an awards winning streak; a number of alumni projects played at U.S. festivals in January; our Actors Conservatory alumni are getting award nominations and securing roles in major features and TV series; and numerous alumni are scoring funding and being selected for leading industry programs and accelerators. Get all of the details below!

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS

• Acclaimed alumni film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, from alumnae Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (co-writers and co-directors) and Lori Lozinski (producer), saw big wins in January; it took home the Toronto Film Critics Association’s 2019 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, and was named Best Canadian Film and Best B.C. Film by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle (VFCC), and Hepburn and Tailfeathers won Best Director
• Two Actors Conservatory alumni are among the nominees for the 18th Annual ACTRA Awards in Toronto: Cara Ricketts for her role as Mary Handford-Lacroix in Anne with an E and Araya Mengesha for his role as Elijah Handford in Anne with an E

A Rock and a Hard Place

FESTIVAL WATCH

• Alumni films played at the Santa Barbara, Sundance and Slamdance film festivals this January
• Be sure to check out these alumni films if you’re headed to the Toronto Black Film Festival (February 12 to 17, 2020):
  • A Rock and a Hard Place, produced by Ali Mashayekhi, with music by Chris Reineck and editing by James Tracey
  • The Burglar, starring Emmanuel Kabongo, with music by Virginia Kilbertus
  • To Kill a Secret, featuring music by Lora Bidner
• Editors’ Lab alumna Xi Feng edited the short film Clebs, which is in competition at Berlinale in the Generation 14plus programme (February 20 to March 1, 2020)
• Feng has also been selected to participate in Berlinale Talents, the talent development programme for 250 emerging filmmakers and drama series creators from all over the world
• Castle in the Ground, produced by Will Woods and edited by Jorge Weisz, will have its U.S. premiere at SXSW 2020 (March 13 to 21)
• Documentary series Cursed Films, executive produced by Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith and Laura Perlmutter will celebrate its world premiere in the episodic premieres category at SXSW

Andy McQueen (far left) on ‘Coroner’

TELEVISION & WEB SERIES

• Tune in to Coroner season two on CBC to see Actors Conservatory alumnus Andy McQueen as Malik Abed; the second season also features two episodes directed by alumnus Charles Officer and an episode written by Shannon Masters
• Stephen Dunn wrote and directed an episode of Little America, which premiered on Apple TV+ on January 17
• Alumni series Murdoch Mysteries (executive producer Christina Jennings) hit milestone 200th episode on January 13
• Catch CBC Actors Conservatory alumna Zahra Bentham in the new Netflix series Spinning Out, which premiered January 1, 2020
• Transplant, a new series coming to CTV on February 26, features a lot of CFC alumni involvement: Joseph Kay (creator/writer/executive producer); Holly Dale (co-executive producer and director); Sugith Varughese (as senior surgeon Dr. Aajay Singh); Lynne Kamm (writer/co-executive producer); Rachel Langer (writer/co-executive producer); Nikolijne Troubetzkoy (writer/co-executive producer); Anar Ali (writer); Jennifer Engels (writer/co-executive producer); Sarah Glinski (writer); and Tamara Moulin (writer)
• Bell Media greenlit Children Ruin Everything, from New Metric Media; New Metric Media president and CFC alumnus Mark Montefiore serves as an executive producer

FILM

• Actors alumnus Eli Goree stars as Cassius Clay (before he became Muhammad Ali) in the upcoming feature One Night in Miami, Regina King’s directing debut, which began production in early January
• Danishka Esterhazy is set to direct biopic I Was Lorena Bobbitt, part of Lifetime’s 2020 programming slate
• Stella Meghie’s latest feature The Photograph, opens in Canada on February 14, 2020
• Gail Harvey is set to direct Ruby, the first of five movies based on the Ruby Landry novels by V.C. Andrews
• Romance Language, a BravoFACT short produced by Jennifer Shin, was a Vimeo Staff Pick on January 28

Detention Adventure

ALUMNI INDUSTRY NEWS

• Alumnae Jennifer Holness, Lauren Corber, Lori Lozinski and Trish Dolman are among the participants of the inaugural cohort of the BANFF Spark Accelerator for Women in the Business of Media
• A number of alumni projects have been selected to receive support from The Harold Greenberg Fund through its Script Development Program:
  • Places in Between, from Lauren Grant (producer)
  • Out of the Barren, from Trish Dolman and Jennifer Podemski (producers) and Kathleen Hepburn (writer)
  • Oddly Flowers, from Jordan Canning (writer/director) and Marc Tetreault (producer)
  • Your Life is Mine, from Danishka Esterhazy (writer/director) and Judy Holm (producer)
  • Vic and Doc and Duke Go to the Store, from Bruce McDonald (producer, director)
  • Gone Upriver, from Kaare Andrews (director)
  • Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, from Matt Code and Natalie Urquhart (producers)
  • Heidegger, from Pat Mills (writer/director) and Nicole Hilliard-Forde (producer)
  • Jamaica Farewell, from Clement Virgo (writer/director) and Damon D’Oliveira (producer)
  • The Pioneer, from Kyle Mann (producer)
  • North of Normal, from Carly Stone (director) and Kyle Mann (producer)
• Lori Lozinski has been selected as one of six B.C.-based creators who will receive support to undertake the production of her original digital project Colour Study (working title) through the 2019/20 CBC + Creative BC Digital Production Fund
• Mike Peterson and Julie Strifler have been selected to participate in the 20th edition of Rodderdam Lab for producers
• A number of alumni projects received funding from the CMF for development and production, including Detention Adventure, produced by Lauren Corber (LoCo Motion Pictures); The Book of Negroes: The Africville Years, from Conquering Lion Pictures (Damon D’Oliveira and Clement Virgo); and Murdoch Mysteries XIII – Augmented Reality Game, from Shaftesbury (Christina Jennings)
• Liz Levine’s memoir Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End is now available
• Marc Tetreault is a recipient of a grant from RBC and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s MVP Project, which provides support to emerging Canadian musicians and filmmakers for music video creation and production

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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