THE INCREDIBLE L.I.P.S. GOES TO COMICCON AND WINS BEST WEB SERIES AT FOUR FESTIVALS
The Incredible League of Incredibly Practical SuperbHeroes (aka THE INCREDIBLE L.I.P.S.) makes an appearance at Ottawa Comiccon Film Festival. The series has been named BEST WEB SERIES at Vesuvius International Film Festival, Tatras International Film Festival, and Gothamite Monthly Film Awards. The series launched at Ottawa's DiverCity Film Festival.
LENNY CONTINUES ITS FILM FESTIVAL CIRCUIT AT CANADIAN SCREEN AWARD QUALIFYING OAKVILLE FILM FESTIVAL
I'm very pleased to announce that LENNY has been selected for the Oakville Film Festival, an event which qualifies for the Canadian Screen Awards.
The film had its world premiere at the Visioni Corte International Short Film Festival in beautiful Gaeta, Italy. It was also a semi-finalist in the Oscar-qualifying Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival!
The script was also a SEMIFINALIST in the 2019 Screencraft Film Fund competition.
We would not have been able to complete this film without the generous support of the City of Ottawa who awarded us a Cultural Funding grant in 2020.
Huge thanks to my incredible team that helped make this happen!
Check out the trailer!
PULSE IS A FINALIST AT FEMALE VOICES ROCK IN NYC
It was such an honor to be included in this amazing festival, especially as a FINALIST in the script competition. Truly one of the best curated festivals I've ever been to with some great speakers at the panels.
The event was also in a really cool area of Brooklyn that I loved exploring and the networking events were so much fun. Hopefully I'll get to go back!
ALPHABET CITY IS A SEMI-FINALIST AT AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL &
TOP 10% IN THE ACADEMY NICHOLL FELLOWSHIP
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Wildly excited to announce my feature script "Alphabet City" has been ranked in the top 10% of the 2021 Academy Nicholl Fellowship out of a record number of entries. It was also a semi-finalist in the 2018 Austin Film Festival, placing it in the top 2% of 10,581 entries.
The script was also named a quarterfinalist in the PAGE International Screenplay Competition and a semifinalist in the Golden Script Competition
REVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE WINS BEST LGBTQ FEATURE SCRIPT AT MARINA DEL REY AND IS NICHOLL TOP 10%
The script also advanced to the second round of Austin Film Festival, and was a semifinalist in the Filmmatic Drama Screenplay Awards and Inroads Fellowship competition, and finalist in the Oaxaca Film Festival.
I'm very honored that my feature script, REVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE (previously known as POLLY and GUERILLA MEDICINE because titles are hard!) won Best LGBTQ Feature Script at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival and finished in the top 10% of the Academy Nicholl Fellowships. This is one of the most prestigious screenwriting competitions in the world, run by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so to have my script recognized is pretty exciting.
FROM SARAJEVO WINS BEST DIRECTOR AND BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING AT DIGI60 FILMMAKERS FESTIVAL AND IS BROADCAST ON CBC
I'm ecstatic to have been awarded BEST DIRECTOR for "FROM SARAJEVO" at the Digi60 Filmmakers Festival. We also picked up the award for BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING, led by Jaclyn Stewart and featuring Angela Parent, Roy van Hooydonk, Rosalie Turmel, and Eloisa Montes de Oca.
This film was an incredibly sentimental project that reunited me with a friend from Sarajevo, Lejla Bajramovic, who I hadn't seen in almost 25 years.
I also had the opportunity to work with Rosemary Breman, my dance teacher of 13 years, who passed away in 2020. I'm so grateful to have had a chance to do this with her and her students.
We shot this insanely ambitious war film in 17 hours with a $1,200 budget. It takes a truly amazing crew to be able to pull this off and I'm eternally thankful to everyone who made it happen.
LIVE THROUGH THE NIGHT IS IN THE LAUNCH PAD TV PILOT TOP 100 &
COVERFLY RED LIST
After an amazing Top 100 finish in the prestigious Launch Pad TV Pilot Competition, LIVE THROUGH THE NIGHT is now ranked in the top 4% out of over 118,000 projects on Coverfly.
INCREDIBLE L.I.P.S. IS SCREENCRAFT QUARTERFINALIST
I'm thrilled to announce my comedy feature script, THE INCREDIBLE LEAGUE OF INCREDIBLY PRACTICAL SUPERHEROES, has made the quarterfinals of the Screencraft Comedy competition.
WHALE HUNTING IN UTAH IS AN AUSTIN SECOND ROUNDER
I'm incredibly honored my musical comedy WHALE HUNTING IN UTAH advanced as a Second Rounder in the Austin Film Festival Script Competition out of a record breaking 14,648 entries.
I'm also very grateful to the Digi60 Filmmakers' Festival for giving me the opportunity to pitch Polly to a panel of producers, including Sarah Fodey of SandBay Entertainment, Christopher Giroux of Black Fawn Films, Adele Cardamone Martel of CBC, Hoda Elatawi of GAPC, and Michelle Aseltine of Blind Luck Pictures.
DIGI60 PITCH IT COMPETITION
It was such an honor and pleasure to present my work alongside four other super talented writers and filmmakers.
"POLLY" IS A FINALIST AT THE OAXACA FILM FESTIVAL
I'll be heading to Mexico in October with Polly for the Oaxaca Film Festival as a Finalist in the Global Script Challenge. I was accepted into the festival two years ago for The Liberation Front, but I didn't get to go, so I'll be celebrating both scripts this time. Looking forward to an exciting week of roundtables, pitch sessions, and a little sightseeing!
"LENNY" ADVANCES TO SCREENCRAFT SECOND ROUND
We're very excited to announce that our next short film, Lenny, is now in pre-production and the script has advanced to the second round of the Screencraft Film Fund competition.
Lenny is the story of a prisoner of war who befriends a spider to combat the loneliness of isolation.
We have an incredible team working on this project, including our Director of Photographer, Morgana McKenzie, who was recently nominated for two Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards.
Check out this fun video of our star, Eze Leno, meeting his co-star, Casper the Golden Knee Tarantula!
FROM SARAJEVO IS AWARD WINNER AT MIRROR MOUNTAIN
I'm thrilled that FROM SARAJEVO was named Best Local Film at the 2019 Mirror Mountain Film Festival, one of my very favorite festivals.
For more information about the event, you can visit their website at https://mirrormountainfilmfest.com/2019-festival/
Thanks so much to Christopher Rohde & Renuka Bauri for putting on such a great festival. Big thanks to the award sponsors who supported the event: SAW Video, Railbender Tattoo Studio, and Sox City Ottawa. I've never won a tattoo before! Had to celebrate the fancy new socks with my co-producer in crime, Brendan Butt.
Also great to celebrate the screening with an awesome female filmmaker
Maissa Houri-Charron.
DIRTY LOVE WEB SERIES LAUNCHED
I'm so proud to be part of this ground-breaking web series "Dirty Love" that deals with a lot of really important subject matter involving sexual expression.
Thanks so much to the creators, Maissa Houri and Blakely David for having me on board as a guest director. A lot of amazingly talented women working on this, both on camera and behind it.
With over 30,000 views on just one episode, we're thrilled with the popularity it's gained.
Check out this red hot trailer:
FROM SARAJEVO GETS BEST WRITING NOMINATION AT DETROIT SHETOWN
Very happy to announce that Lejla Bajramovic and I have been nominated for "Best Writing" for "From Sarajevo" at the Detroit Shetown Film Festival
It screens at Cinema Detroit for the opening of the festival on Friday September 14th, 2018 7pm-10pm.
This picture marks the first time Leyla and I have seen each other in person in about 25 years. I'm so grateful to have a chance to see her again!
CBC AIRS FROM SARAJEVO
FROM SARAJEVO airs on CBC's Reel Shorts August 4th, 2018. The episode also features a short interview about the making of this film and why it's so personal to me. You can also hear me admit my greatest mistake with the film ;)
You can also check out my first ever radio interview with CBC's Alan Neal on his show "All in a Day" to promote the airing of FROM SARAJEVO on Reel Shorts.
FROM SARAJEVO was shown at Chain New York Film Festival on August 11th, 2018, along with an incredible lineup of films by and about women.
This was such an amazing festival to be a part of, and the organizers truly went above and beyond for the filmmakers.
For more info about the festival, check out:
FROM SARAJEVO HITS NYC'S CHAIN FILM FESTIVAL
SAINT CHARLES PLACE OFFICIAL SELECTION IN ATLANTIC CITY & MIRROR MOUNTAIN
I'm so happy this film was included in the Atlantic City Cinefest. I can't think of a more appropriate place for our little movie.
In other SAINT CHARLES PLACE news, it was so great to be able to join some of my filmmaker friends on stage for the Q & A at the 2017 Mirror Mountain Film Festival.
David Rajsic and I were so excited that Saint Charles Place was nominated for Best Local Film.
DIGI60 ARTICLE
Thanks to Digi60 for this article. Digi60 has played a huge role in my development as a filmmaker, and I'm so grateful to have such an awesome festival in town.
SAINT CHARLES PLACE SELECTED FOR TORONTO INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
HOW MUCH DO I ADORE THIS CREW?!
Jane Hamilton, Heather Head, David Rajsic, Julie Zhu and Caelan Benn and I at the screening of Saint Charles Place at the Toronto Independent Film Festival 2017.
MORAL CODING COMES 3RD AT THE LOS ANGELES INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS AND ADVANCES TO SCREENCRAFT QUARTER-FINALS
I had an awesome time hitting the red carpet at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards in 2015, where my script for Moral Coding finished 3rd.
Also thrilled that Moral Coding was counted among the Quarter Finalists in the 2015 Screencraft Short Script competition
ELECTRIC CASTLES WINS BEST SCREENPLAY AT DIGI60
Very excited to receive the award for Best Screenplay at the Fall 2016 Digi60 Festival. David Rajsic and I could not have asked for a better cast to help us realize this film.
SIERRA LEONE & CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
In 2010 I went to Sierra Leone to produce a documentary about youth entrepreneurship in peace building. I worked with an amazing group of young people who formed the group Artists United for Children and Youth Development (AUCAYD), who used music and dance to help reform the lives of war affected youth.
I was fortunate to have the film play at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner.
Huge thanks to Algonquin College for granting me this incredible opportunity, which remains one of the highlights of my life.
WINGS OF COURAGE LEADS TO MUSEUM IN NEWFOUNDLAND
I was doing archival research for A Nation Soars, a documentary trilogy about aviation in World War 1 with Sound Venture Productions, and one of the greatest highlights how I inadvertently helped create a tribute to WWI Flying Ace, Carl Falkenberg, in Botwood, Newfoundland.
Learning about the pilots who fought for Canada was an incredibly humbling experience. I will never be able to imagine what they went through at such a young age.
Falkenberg features in the film Wings of Courage.
The series is available on CPAC at Drawn to Victory, Wings of Courage, and Flight Path of Heroes