The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) has announced the 14 films listed for the 2020 DGC Discovery Award, highlighting emerging directors to watch during festival season.
The films will be screened at HotDocs, Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF), Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Festival du nouveau Cinema (FNC), Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), ImagineNative, St-John’s International Women’s Film Festival (SJIWFF), as well as the Reelworld Film Festival, highlighting the work of racially diverse and Indigenous filmmakers.
Among this year’s finalists are Métis Cree director Loretta Todd’s Monkey Beach, a supernatural mystery starring Adam Beach and Nathaniel Arcand, which will open VIFF later this month. Filmed in Kitimat, BC, Todd’s first narrative feature is an adaptation of the Eden Robinson novel. Tracey Deer’s Beans, a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the 1990 Oka Crisis is also nominated, as is Helen Shaver’s Happy Place. The TV veteran’s first feature is a film adaptation of Pamela Mala Sinha’s play about a group of women staying at an in-patient facility who have all attempted suicide. It features a cast that includes Sheila McCarthy, Clark Backo, Liisa Repo-
The full list of 2020 Discovery Award Long list films, includes:
- Oksana Karpovych, Don’t Worry The Doors Will Open
- Nathalie Bibeau, The Walrus and the Whistleblower
- Helen Shaver, Happy Place
- Dusty Mancinelli & Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Violation
- Michelle Latimer, An Inconvenient Indian
- Loretta Todd, Monkey Beach
- Tracey Deer, Beans
- Alberic Aurteneche, La Contemplation du mystere
- Aisling Chin-Yee, Chayse Joynt, No Ordinary Man
- Ariel Nasr, The Forbidden Reel
- Ruth Lawrence, Little Orphans
- Gloria Ui Young Kim, Queen of the Morning Calm
- Will Prosper, Kenbe la, Until We Win
- Caleb Ryan, Vagrant
The Discovery Award Jury is chaired by Michael Peterson with members Jasmin Mozaffari, John Bolton, JJ Neepin, Ngardy Conteh George and Robert Budreau.
The 19th edition of the DGC Awards will be presented Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020 via Zoom.
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