Maya Annik Bedward is a filmmaker and Breakthroughs Alumni who is making the transition from short to feature-length films. Maya is a Jamaican-Québecoise filmmaker currently based in Toronto. After completing her MA in International Communications from the University of Leeds, she launched Third Culture Media with support from the Michaëlle Jean Foundation. Her films have screened at festivals across North America and Europe, and sold to Air Canada and the CBC.

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You can’t keep Jessica Hinkson down, nor do we want to. As the co-creater, executive producer, and co-star of the multi-award winning short film Jessica Jessica (winner of the Audience Choice Award at BFF 2018) Ms. Hinkson has had quite a successful run with her film and other incredible ventures. This month she sits down to talk to us and tell us all about the making of Jessica Jessica and what's in store for her next!

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The 2018 edition of TIFF has just gotten underway, and we couldn’t be more excited to see that its clear breakaway star is a young director who we happen to know and love. Jasmin Mozaffari, a BFF alum whose short film FIRECRACKERS screened at our fest in 2014, went on to direct a feature adaptation of her film, which is premiering at this year’s festival to unanimously rave reviews.

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We at Breakthroughs Film Festival are thrilled to introduce our brand-new Executive Director, Mariam Zaidi, who will lead us in championing the work of emerging women filmmakers. That is, and has been our mandate here at BFF for the last seven years, and we are just getting started.

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I recently sat down with Toronto-based director Lisa Rideout. I had just programmed her film Take A Walk on the Wildside for WIFT-T’s Showcase and was excited to meet the person behind the camera. Around the same time, she joined BFF as a panellist at our Breakthrough To Your Audience panel. With four films under her belt and a Canadian Screen Award for Wildside, I was curious to hear what motivations were behind her work, and what our BFFs might be able to learn from her experience. Here’s what she shared with me.

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By Hannah Donegan

Sarah Kolasky is a Toronto based award-winning actor, writer, producer and the former chair of the Breakthroughs Film Film Festival. Her first feature film, Great Great Great, is a dark comedy in which she starred, as well as produced and co-wrote with Adam Garnet Jones. Together they received a 2018 Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for the film, which premiered at the 2017 Canadian Film Fest and won Best Feature, Best Screenplay, and Best Performance in a Feature (for Sarah Kolasky). The Globe and Mail selected it as one of the Top 10 Canadian Films of 2017. She also produced and acted in the short film, Liar, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX.

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There is a moment that I can remember where I sat, slumped in front of my laptop screen cursing the day I chose to become a filmmaker. The frustration of festival rejection letters, the continuous search for funding, heck even the accelerated flurry of social events that seem to be a prerequisite, had me feeling blue and uninspired.

It was on this day that a TIFF.net article entitled ‘Rejection is How You Become a Filmmaker’ was passed on to me by another aspiring screenwriter. It was written by Molly McGlynn, a first-time feature director and recent TIFF acceptee.

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I was introduced to Vivek Shraya’s work at my local library, the nerd-chic librarian gushing so hard over the trans artist’s work and style that I felt compelled to check her out. I picked up her latest novel, She Of The Mountains, idly wondering if it would live up to the hype. I had been going through a ‘break’ with my partner of almost three years and had been pleading with the heavens for some guidance, or a sign of what lay ahead. My salvation came in the form of Shraya’s alt-lit hybrid narrative, which gave me more than guidance, it gave me hope and reflection on the path that love winds around our collective hearts.

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Canadian actress-turned-director Nadia Litz has a clear passion for films and a sly sense of humor. Her work tends towards a dark surrealism but always with a sincere depth of being. Inspired by filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch and Eric Rohmer, Litz is becoming known for her focus on female protagonists and her innovative casting – such as hiring Pamela Anderson to play the hardboiled model ‘Signe’ in her warmly received feature film ‘The People Garden’. Haunting and stylish, yet rooted in the reality of emotion, Litz’s films have gained her international attention and homegrown love.

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Erika Lust is a Stockholm-born, Barcelona-based filmmaker who writes and directs what she calls ‘ethical porn’. When you watch her films, you encounter people who are beautiful, simply because they are real people having real sex with one another. It’s explicit as they come, but also has a wicked sense of humour. Cinematically, Lust knows what she is doing. Many of her films have actors in a unique setting and bathed in gorgeous light.

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A feature documentary about the powerful allure of a universal myth, Ali Weinstein’s ‘Mermaids’ is set to premiere at Hot Docs on April 28. The film follows five women who actively participate in the growing ‘mermaiding’ subculture, finding empowerment through donning tails and letting their imaginations run free.

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Of Syrian and Palestinian descent, Montreal born Ruba Nadda is known for her strong female lead characters who often find themselves involved in subtle and complicated narratives. She's never shied away from issues of race and diversity, starting with her first feature ‘Sabah’, in which a Muslim woman falls in love with a Canadian – against her family’s wishes.

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February is upon us and our submission portal is officially OPEN. This year we are excited to open our festival up to any emerging female director (no feature films on your resume yet!), with a special ‘New Generation’ category for women 18-30. The programming team is looking forward to seeing what you are all up to!

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We’re gearing up for our annual fundraiser on December 8th so we thought, what better time to start a monthly newsletter? You’ll get this baby delivered to your inbox every month and it will be packed full of filmmaker interviews, interesting film festivals to check out, and of course Breakthroughs submission info and upcoming deadlines.

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