This November, more alumni films made their rounds on the festival circuit, there are new alumni films and TV shows to binge, and lots of exciting industry updates that showcase how busy our alumni are keeping across all corners of the business.

Read on for the latest on CFC alumni.

LOLA’S WAKE

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS

Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival Awards

• CFC short film LOLA’S WAKE, written/directed by Tricia Hagoriles, produced by Erin Byrnes, edited by Rick Bartram, with music by Kat Burns, won the WIFT-T Film Award from the Reel Asian Film Festival

Reelworld Film Festival Awards

• Fifth Wave Cohort One alum Alison Duke was awarded the Standout Short Film Writer award for her film Promise Me

The South Western International Film Festival

• No Ordinary Man, from co-director/writer Aisling Chin-Yee, took home the Audience Choice Award at SWIFF

The Crystal Award

• The Crystal Award honourees have been unveiled by WIFT-T, and among them are two CFC alumnae: Marsha Greene, who will receive the Creative Excellence Award, and Jennifer Kawaja, who will receive the Mentorship Award; the Awards Gala will be held virtually on Monday, December 1, 2020

People’s Choice Awards

• Wynonna Earp, which has seen tons of alumni involvement over the years, including star Varun Saranga, picked up the 2020 E! People’s Choice Awards’ best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show

2020 Governor General’s Innovation Awards

• IDEABOOST alum Maayan Ziv was awarded the Governor General’s Innovation Award for her app Access Now.

Sugar Daddy

FESTIVALS

Alumni projects continue to screen at a number of festivals home and abroad this fall:

Whistler Film Festival
December 1-20, 2020

Feature Films (all eligible for the Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature):

• WFF’s online festival will debut with the World premiere of Sugar Daddy, an eye-opening look at an aspiring musician who agrees to provide dinner companionship to older men for money, featuring Actors Conservatory alumnus Andy McQueen, produced by Lauren Grant and Lori Lozinski, and edited by Christine Armstrong
• In theatre programming kicks off with the World Premiere of In Her City, which captures the pulse of young urban women coping with various challenges in today’s modern world across three cities – Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, with music by Suad Bushnaq
• World premiere of Indian Road Trip, a humorous First Nations road trip with scams, hidden loot and all kinds of funny hijinks, starring Actors Conservatory alumnus Ajuawak Kapashesit, executive produced by Andrew Currie
• The Corruption of Divine Providence, line produced by Jennifer Mesich, co-edited by Orlee Buium
• Death of a Ladies’ Man, produced by Corey Marr and Marie-Claude Poulin, edited by Matt Lyon, with Bobby Theodore as story consultant
• Little Orphans, starring Andy McQueen and executive produced by Sherry White
• The Canadian premiere of Between Waves, from co-writer/director Virginia Abramovich, producer Alex Jordan, editor Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, with music by Stephen Krecklo

Short Films:

• 4 North A, written and co-directed by Jordan Canning
• March, featuring Libby Osler
• You Will Still Be Here Tomorrow, from writer/director Michael Hanley, starring Jonathan Watton and Eric Peterson, produced by Rebeka Herron and Heidi Tan, edited by Pauline Decroix
• On Falling, from writer/director Josephine Anderson

Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival
December 4-12, 2020

• CFC short film JALA, from director/co-writer Teyama Alkamli, writer Georgina Beaty, producer Shant Joshi, editor Xi Feng, with music by Simon Poole, is premiering at MISAFF in the Canadian Spectrum program

Regent Park Film Festival
November 26th – 29th 2020

• Fifth Wave Cohort One alum Ngardy Conteh George’s film Mr. Jane and Finch was part of the opening night presentation “Being Black in Toronto + Talkback Panel” of the 18^th annual Regent Park Film Festival

Queen of the Morning Calm

WATCH

FILM

• 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, will be available on Friday, December 4 to rent or buy on iTunes, Apple TV and Vimeo OTT
• One Night in Miami, starring Actors Conservatory alumnus Eli Goree, drops on Prime Video on January 15
• The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, which counts Trish Dolman as a producer and Charles Officer as narrator, is playing select theatres across Canada
• The Christmas Setup, directed by Pat Mills and starring Ben Lewis, will air December 12 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime and is Lifetime’s first Christmas movie centered on a LGBTQ+ holiday romance
• This holiday season, tune in to W Network to catch A Nashville Christmas Carol, directed by Dawn Wilkinson
• Looking for more festive offerings? Cozy up with Christmas in the Rockies, starring Actors Conservatory alumna Kimberly-Sue Murray,on demand on Fox Nation, starting November 26

• Read/Watch: ‘Why Moonstruck is the Movie We Need Right Now’ (Seattle Times); directed by CFC Founder Norman Jewison

TV

• Tune in to Private Eyes Season 4 on Global, and you’ll see Actors Conservatory alumna Supinder Wraich has joined the cast in a recurring role!
• 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
• Have you been tuning in to The Sounds and Trickster on CBC? So have we. We’re so proud that both series feature CFC alumni in front of and behind the lens. The Sounds is directed by Peter Stebbings and stars Emily Piggford, and Trickster 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.

DIGITAL

• Check out the Canadian animated web series, My Pride: The Series, which follows the journey of a queer, disabled lioness struggling to heal her broken world, and features an original score and end credit song “Once in a Dream” by Slaight Music Lab alumni duo In the City – Ashley Jane and Timon Wientzek
• 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. The series features short personal conversations with six Black CFC alumni/creators, including director/executive producer Clement Virgo (RUDE, The Book of Negroes, Greenleaf); producer Lea Marin (What is Democracy?, Unarmed Verses); writer/co-executive producer Shernold Edwards (A Day Late and a Dollar Short, Haven, Anne With An E); executive producer/media executive Joan Jenkinson (Songs of Freedom, Inside the Mind of Leonardo, Soul); director Dawn Wilkinson (How to Get Away with Murder, Locke & Key); and actor Cara Ricketts (Anne with an E, Far Cry New Dawn)

LISTEN

• Music duo The Darcys, featuring CFC Slaight music alum Jason Couse, has launched their new album, Fear & Loneliness; listen to it here
• New music from Slaight Music alum Michael Peter Olsen: “Falling Forward” and “Cloud Parade”, and stay tuned for Michael’s forthcoming debut album Yearning Flow, which will be released on January 15, 2021, or pre-order now via Bandcamp

ALUMNI INDUSTRY NEWS AND UPDATES

• Bell Media Prime Time TV Program alumna Lisa Codrington has been named one of Playback’s 10 to Watch for her talent as a writer
• Incredible news from the DGC! Warren P. Sonoda has been elected President of the DGC, and Tracey Deer has been elected 1^st Vice-President! It will be wonderful to see the talented creators and CFC alumni lead the charge at the DGC as the Canadian film and TV industry continues to transform
• Joan Jenkinson has been appointed the inaugural executive director of the Black Screen Office (BSO), and Jennifer Holness has been appointed the inaugural Chair
• Vertical Entertainment acquired the U.S. distribution rights Akilla’s Escape, co-written/directed by Charles Officer, co-written by Wendy Motion Brathwaite, starring Shomari Downer, with casting by Nicole Hilliard Forde
• Stephen Dunn is set to write and direct the movie adaptation of Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s upcoming novel, Yes, Daddy, with Amazon Studios; the book follows an ambitious young man who is lured by an older, successful playwright into a dizzying world of wealth and an idyllic Hamptons home where things take a nightmarish turn. Stephen is currently developing and attached to direct an update of Queer As Folk with Peacock, and is writing on the 9/11 remembrance series The Day The World Came To Town
• Liz Cairns has been selected as one of eight directors set to attend Women in the Director’s Chair’s (WIDC) 2020 Story & Leadership program, where she will work on thriller Inedia, which is slated to go to camera in fall 2021
• Season 4 of alumni series Slasher, Slasher: Flesh & Blood, created by Aaron Martin, is headed to streamer Shudder and is expected to release in 2021
• Medical drama Nurses – featuring loads of alumni involvement – from Jordan Canning, Ken Girotti, Grant Harvey, Sherry White (directors); Laura Good (wrier); Humberly González, Varun Saranga, Andy McQueen and Vlad Alexis (actors); Tassie Cameron (executive producer); and John Nicholls (editor), has been picked up by NBC in the U.S. and will be added to their primetime, launching on December 7
• I am Syd Stone, a six-part digital series produced and co-written by Gharrett Patrick Paon, has been acquired for distribution by levelFILM
• Damon D’Oliveira (Conquering Lion Pictures) and Jennifer Holness (Hungry Eyes Media) have joined the CMPA’s Board of Directors
• Ryan Cooper, producer on Alter Boys, one of the TV series projects selected for the CFC/Netflix Project Development Accelerator, has been named one of Playback’s 10 to Watch
• Haya Waseem has signed with Epoch Films for U.S. representation spanning commercials, branded content and music videos
• IDEABOOST alum Mariel Marshall was featured in a panel organized by the High Commission of Canada, National Arts Council entitled “The Arts Byte Back: Arts in an Alternative Digital Space,” where artists from Canada and Singapore shared insights on how the global pandemic has affected the way they practice and engage participants online
• Fifth Wave member Amintro finalized a partnership with TechServe to develop and teach older adults digital literacy workshops and was featured in a webinar focused on helping seniors build social connections through technology
• Fifth Wave resident Peeps facilitated a digital round table for Magazines Canada on building audience appreciation for independent media
• IDEABOOST alum Xesto launched their shoe sizing app
• Fifth Wave member Phlywheel launched a new product – Brand Personality Cards – to help take the guesswork out of how to craft your brand’s personality

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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