Roman Kroitor was a Canadian filmmaker who was known as a pioneer of Cinéma vérité, as the co-founder of IMAX, and as the creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic 3D animation system. He was also the original inspiration for The Force. His prodigious output garnered numerous awards, including two BAFTA Awards, three Cannes Film Festival awards, and two Oscar nominations.
Laura Kightlinger is an American actress, stand-up comedian, writer, and producer. She was a writer and consulting producer on Will & Grace, while also occasionally appearing on the show as the character Nurse Sheila. She was also a writer on the CBS series 2 Broke Girls. Kightlinger also played the title role in the TV show The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, which she created, wrote, and executive produced. Since 2019, she's appeared in critically acclaimed television series, including PEN15, and Curb Your Enthusiasm appearing alongside Larry David, Albert Brooks, and Lucy Liu.
David Newsom is an American actor, producer and fine-art photographer. He is best known for his various critically acclaimed appearances in American television and for his work in 2005 and 2006 with Viggo Mortensen and Perceval Press.
René Balcer is a Canadian-American television writer, director, producer, and showrunner.
Toronto After Dark Film Festival is a showcase of horror, sci-fi, action and cult cinema held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival premieres a diverse selection of feature-length and short-films from around the world including new works from Asia, Europe and North America.
Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of The Iron Giant and Secondhand Lions.
Colin Archibald Low was a Canadian animation and documentary filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was known as a pioneer, one of Canada's most important filmmakers, and was regularly referred to as "the gentleman genius". His numerous honors include five BAFTA awards, eight Cannes Film Festival awards, and six Academy Award nominations.
Kris Lefcoe is a film director and writer based in New York City. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in philosophy, before attending Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre as a Director Resident. Many of Lefcoe's films are dark comedies about contemporary culture.
Clement Virgo is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director who runs the production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, with producer Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo is best known for co-writing and directing an adaptation of the novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (2015), a six-part miniseries that aired on CBC Television in Canada and BET in the United States.
Maureen Judge is a Canadian Screen Awards (CSA) winning filmmaker and television producer. Much of her work is documentary and explores themes of love, betrayal and acceptance in the context of the modern family, with the most recent films focusing on the dreams and challenges of contemporary youth.
Barney Cheng is a Taiwanese-American actor, director, writer and producer.
Chris Jones is a British filmmaker, author, film director, screenwriter and educator, who has written books on becoming a film-maker. Jones was educated at Bournemouth Film School, and made his feature film director debut at the age of 21 with The Runner (1992). He owns the film company called Living Spirit.
Open Your Eyes is a 2008 short film written and directed by Susan Cohen.
Christian Filippella is a producer, cinematographer and director, current member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Television Academy (ATAS/NATAS).
TheFilmSchool is a non-profit film program located in Seattle, Washington, that focuses on intensive training in screenwriting and directing. TheFilmSchool's mission statement 'to elevate the art of cinematic storytelling' guides the curriculum to heavily emphasize character, structure, and understanding the principles of storytelling. The program was founded in 2003 by Stewart Stern, John Jacobsen, Rick Stevenson, Warren Etheredge, and Tom Skerritt.
Bertha Bay-Sa Pan is a Taiwanese-American Director, Writer and Producer. Born in New Jersey and raised in Taiwan, Pan was educated at Boston University and the Columbia University Graduate Film School receiving a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Directing, while working as a Sales Executive in Film Distribution. Pan's graduate thesis short film at Columbia University, entitled "Face," garnered various awards from Film Festivals worldwide, including the Director's Guild Award for Best Asian American Student Filmmaker and the Polo Ralph Lauren Award for Best Screenplay.
Lindsey Dryden is a British film director, producer and writer.
Ann Shin is a filmmaker and writer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Lisa Jackson is a Canadian Screen Award and Genie Award-winning Canadian and Anishinaabe filmmaker. Her films have been broadcast on APTN and Knowledge Network, as well as CBC's ZeD, Canadian Reflections and Newsworld and have screened at festivals including HotDocs, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Melbourne, Worldwide Short Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.
Andrew "Andy" Cohen is a three-time Emmy nominated independent filmmaker and journalist. The founder of AC Films Inc, Cohen has directed, written, and produced feature-length and short-form films. He produced and co-wrote his first film in 1996, Gaylen Ross' Dealers Among Dealers, about the New York City diamond business. Cohen would later co-write and produce Ross' 2008 documentary Killing Kasztner on the life and assassination of Rezso Kasztner.
