Shohreh Aghdashloo is an Iranian and American actress. She has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Satellite Award, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award.
Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. is an American actor. Born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, he had his stage debut at the age of 17, in a school production of You Can't Take It with You. Shortly after he successfully auditioned for the Broadway play Take a Giant Step. Gossett would go on acting on stage. One of these plays was A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, and in 1961 he made his debut on screen in its film adaptation. From thereon, Gossett added to his resume many roles in films and television, as well as releasing music. In 1977, Gossett gained wide recognition for his role of Fiddler in the popular miniseries Roots for which he won "Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series" at the Emmy Awards.
Aunjanue L. Ellis is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous films, including Men of Honor (2000), Undercover Brother (2002), Ray (2004), Freedomland (2006), The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), The Help (2011), The Birth of a Nation (2016), and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018). For her portrayal of Oracene Price in the sports drama King Richard (2021), she was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Critics' Choice Award. In 2023, Ellis played Isabel Wilkerson in the drama film Origin.
Ana Celia de Armas Caso is a Cuban and Spanish actress. She began her career in Cuba with a leading role in the romantic drama Una rosa de Francia (2006). At the age of 18, she moved to Madrid, Spain, and starred in the popular drama El Internado for six seasons from 2007 to 2010.
Sergio Navarretta is a Canadian film director, who draws inspiration from Italian cinema. Navarretta is best known for The Cuban, and his first feature film Looking for Angelina, based on the true-life story of Angelina Napolitano. The International Women of the World in Bologna, Italy presented Navarretta with a special award on September 18, 2010, for his work on Looking For Angelina. Navarretta is a co-founder of S.N.A.P. Films Inc., along with his partner Alessandra Piccione.
Alessandra Piccione is a Canadian screenwriter and producer, known for her work on the films Looking for Angelina, The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship, and The Cuban. She completed her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto, and her Master of Arts in literature at the University of Victoria, with high distinction.
The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) is an annual film festival held in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 2001, the festival is held the first weekend of December and includes juried competitive sections, the Borsos Awards, and the Pandora Audience Award. A conference for the Canadian film industry, known as the Whistler Summit, is organised in connection with the film festival.
Rosewater is a 2014 American political drama film written, directed and produced by Jon Stewart, based on the memoir Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy. It recounts Bahari's 2009 imprisonment by Iran, connected to an interview he participated in on The Daily Show that same year; Iranian authorities presented the interview as evidence that he was in communication with an American spy. Due to the content of the film, Stewart has been accused by Iran's state TV of being funded by Zionists and working with the CIA. The film was released in theaters on November 14, 2014.
Muazana "Ana" Golja is a Canadian actress and singer. She is known for playing Zoë Rivas in the teen dramas Degrassi: Next Class and Degrassi: The Next Generation and Ariana Berlin in the TV movie Full Out.
Abbas Kiarostami: A Report is a 2013 documentary film about the Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, produced and directed by Bahman Maghsoudlou. Out of the documentaries Maghsoudlou has made, this is the first of feature length.
Septembers of Shiraz is a 2015 American drama film directed by Wayne Blair and written by Hanna Weg. It is based on the 2007 novel The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer. The film stars Adrien Brody, Salma Hayek, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Anthony Azizi, Bashar Rahal and Alon Aboutboul. The film was released on June 24, 2016, by Momentum Pictures.
The Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) is a cultural, charitable organization whose mission is to recognize and celebrate the art of cinema by showcasing Canadian and International films and filmmakers. When the festival first took place, it had 1,000 people in attendance and screened 20 films over the course of 2 days.
The Promise is a 2016 American epic historical war drama film directed by Terry George, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Robin Swicord. Set in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, the film stars Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale. The plot is about a love triangle that develops between Mikael (Isaac), an Armenian medical student, Chris (Bale), an American journalist, and Ana, an Armenian-born woman raised in France, immediately before and during the Armenian genocide.
Smitty is a 2012 American family drama film directed by David Mickey Evans and starring Mira Sorvino, Peter Fonda and Louis Gossett Jr.
Wasp Network is a 2019 spy thriller film written and directed by Olivier Assayas, based on the book The Last Soldiers of the Cold War by Fernando Morais. It stars Penélope Cruz, Édgar Ramírez, Gael García Bernal, Ana de Armas and Wagner Moura. It tells the true story of Cuban spies in American territory during the 1990s.
A Simple Wedding is a 2018 American romantic comedy film directed by Sara Zandieh and starring Tara Grammy, Christopher O'Shea, Rita Wilson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Maz Jobrani and Houshang Touzie.
Renfield is a 2023 American action comedy horror film directed and produced by Chris McKay, and written by Ryan Ridley from a story by Robert Kirkman, who also served as producer. Inspired by characters from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the film stars Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez, and Nicolas Cage.
The Borsos Competition is the main awards program for Canadian feature films screening at the annual Whistler Film Festival. Introduced for the first time in 2004, the juried competition presents six awards annually to honour films, actors, screenplays, directors, cinematographers and editors in Canadian cinema.
The Color Purple is an upcoming American musical coming-of-age period drama film directed by Blitz Bazawule from a screenplay by Marcus Gardley, based on the stage musical of the same name, which in turn is based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker. It is the second film adaptation of the novel, following the 1985 film directed by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg and Quincy Jones return to produce this version, along with the stage musical's producers Scott Sanders and Oprah Winfrey, the latter of whom also starred in the 1985 film as Sofia. The film stars Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Aunjanue Ellis, and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi. Barrino and Brooks both reprise their roles from productions of the stage musical.
Celiana Cárdenas is a Mexican-Canadian cinematographer. She is most noted for her work on the film The Cuban, for which she won the Borsos Competition award for Best Cinematography in a Canadian Film at the 2019 Whistler Film Festival, and the television series Diggstown, for which she received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Photography in a Drama Program or Series at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021.
