WIFT-T is pleased to announce the five projects and 11 participants selected for the 2016 Development Incubator program. This national initiative, with support from Presenting Partners NBC Universal and Telefilm Canada, is designed to kick start market-driven feature films and support the next generation of Canadian feature film professionals. The selected participants are: Vince Buda (producer), Kulbinder Saran Caldwell (producer), Donna Davies (producer), Caitlin Grabham (producer), Teresa M. Ho (producer), Jasmin Mozaffari (writer), Charleen Phelps (writer), Liz Strange (writer), Sanjay Talreja (writer), Emily Weedon (writer), and Rayne Zukerman (producer).
This intensive four-day program immerses participants in key aspects of feature film development, including writing, financing, distribution and pitching through a series of small group sessions and one-on-one consultations with creative and business experts, including producers, development executives and dedicated story editors. This year’s instructors include: executive producer Marina Cordoni (MCE), story editor Jamie Gaetz, and acquisitions and broadcast sales executive Caroline Habib (Mongrel Media).
Team: 13 Kinds of Casual Sex (Romantic Comedy)
Teresa M. Ho – Producer
With over 20 years’ of experience in the film and television industry, Teresa recently created and launched a web series pilot, Nobody’s Home, and is currently producing two short films in 2024 with first time directors Andrew Pope (Laundry Day) and Sean Bell (Tidal Lock). Previously, she managed multiple units on NBC Universal’s Heroes Reborn, worked as an indie producer for eight years on Shaftesbury’s Murdoch Mysteries, The Moblees, and The Listener, and has worked in production accounting roles for several US studios and independent Canadian production companies including: Pebblehut, Shaftesbury and Sarrazin-Couture Entertainment.
Emily Weedon – Writer
Emily likes to say she’s a “method writer” who brings her personal experiences to the page, including growing up in a log cabin without electricity, paging at the Ontario Legislature, slaving in the graphics sweatshops of many art departments, teaching piano on-set, taking a three-day train ride to Texas, mixing concrete by hand, and a really sketchy bus station shawarma in Palmyra, Syria. Currently, she is in post-production on BravoFACT’s Chateau Laurier. Together with writing partner, Kent Staines, Emily has co-written pitches for dozens of creative projects and is producing a pilot script with producer Gub Neal of The Fall.
Team: Chasing Shadows (Thriller/ Mystery)
Kulbinder Saran Caldwell – Producer
Kulbinder is a tireless community supporter, passionate about helping others through culturally diverse non-profits and charities. Through her published work and websites she created a community of strong, independent women, celebrating diversity and equality. She founded a music video production company in Vancouver called REALLIFE Pictures, which evolved into REALLIFEpics. She is currently supporting productions including the Toronto feature Brown Girl in the Ring: The Prequel and web-series Anarkali. Kulbinder is creating a voice for diversity in the film community, turning the spotlight on women and people of colour who want to bring their stories to the big screen.
Vince Buda – Producer
Vince Buda is a film and television producer committed to creating Canadian content that can foster the industry and its talent domestically, as well as be marketable internationally. Having started his career as a PA on Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, he moved up the ranks in the entertainment industries with credits that include VFX coordinator on the feature Tron Legacy, as well as various productions for CBC-TV’s Factual Entertainment. With over 30 credits to his name his most recent projects include production manager on the Big Brother Canada series and producer on the feature Brown Girl Begins.
Sanjay Talreja – Writer
Sanjay is a writer and director whose work has appeared in Canada, the US and India. Sanjay wrote and directed the dramatic feature Surkhaab (The Flightless Bird) which screened at festivals and won awards, including Best Director (foreign language feature) at The London International Film Festival. Sanjay’s script Unfinished was selected for the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab in 2024 in India. In addition, Sanjay has directed a documentary for the NFB, worked as a story producer at CBC, received funding from the Ontario and Canada Arts Councils and the Sundance Documentary Fund. Sanjay believes in creating work that reflects a dynamic world that comes from a humanistic perspective.
Team: Firecrackers (Coming of Age Drama)
Caitlin Grabham – Producer
Caitlin graduated from Ryerson University’s Film Studies program where she received the Norman Jewison Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. During her final year she produced Jasmin Mozaffari’s short film Firecrackers. The film premiered at theToronto International Film Festival and played across Canada and internationally at numerous film festivals. Firecrackers can be seen on the CBC through their Canadian Reflections Program. Caitlin has also produced the short film, Wave, which had its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival and its international premier at the BAFTA qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival. Her most recent short, sleep on the tracks, is currently in post-production.
Jasmin Mozaffari – Writer
Jasmin graduated from the Ryerson Film Studies Program where she received the Graeme Bird Memorial Award for Creativity in Film and the Norman Jewison Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. Her short film Firecrackers premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and screened at the Air Canada enRoute Film Festival, and other festivals across Canada and Europe. Jasmin’s short, Wave, screened at the Vancouver International Film and Aesthetica Short Film Festival in 2024 and will screen at the Breakthroughs Film Festival in 2024. In 2024, Jasmin was also a recipient of the Irving Avrich Fund, awarded by TIFF to 10 emerging Canadian filmmakers.
Team: The Truth Fairy (Family)
Rayne Zukerman – Producer
Rayne is VP of development at Indian Grove Productions Ltd. A lawyer by training, Rayne has progressively shifted into the more creative side of things co-producing the Global TV drama Remedy and the series King, for Showcase. Rayne is the founder of the francophone production company Zazie Films Inc. She produced the series La Tournee des Cafes for TFO and the feature film Le Divan du Monde, which had theatrical releases in Montreal and Quebec. Rayne also produced the short film Champagne, which had its world premiere at TIFF. Rayne has worked for production companies Entertainment One, Barna Alper Productions, and Muse Entertainment.
Charleen Phelps – Writer
Charleen is a writer, health consultant and educator with 40 years’ of nursing experience specializing in psychiatry, mental health and seniors care. She has spent time as a Coroner doing death investigation, corrections nurse, private clinician, educator and Legal Nurse Consultant. Charleen has had several screenplays optioned and under consideration in the US market. She is currently working on bringing the play “Emerge” to the stage after a successful professional reading by Theatre One in Nanaimo, B.C., and is also working on a thriller screenplay.
Team: Thicker Than Water (Drama)
Donna Davies – Producer
Donna Davies has written, directed and produced dozens of award winning films dealing mainly with sub-culture topics. Notable works include: the short drama A Space for Sara, Pretty Bloody— a feminist look at women in the horror genre, the Shadow Hunter series, Kitchen Goddess, and the multi-award winning Nightmare Factory, a foray into the world of Hollywood’s top make-up FX artists. Her most recent feature documentary, Fanarchy, is now airing on HBO, TMN, and Movie Central in Canada and EPIX and Netflix in the US Donna is currently developing two feature films and a dramatic TV series.
Liz Strange – Writer
Liz is an author and screenwriter, as well as the founder and festival director of the Limestone Genre Expo. She writes in various genres, from mystery to horror for her novels, and action, drama and fantasy for her screenplays. She is a member of SF Canada and active in many author conventions. Her screenplays have placed in international screenplay competitions. Her influences are David Lynch, Clive Barker, Luc Besson and Shane Black. At present she has ten novels in print and two screenplay projects in development.
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