SpringBoard Industry Event:

Tom Hastings

Based in Toronto, Tom leads the commissioning strategy for Paramount+ Canadian originals. An industry veteran and former Director of Drama at Bell Media, Tom has extensive and long-standing relationships with Canada’s independent production and literary communities and is especially known for his respected relationships with Canadian writers, producers and agents. Tom also holds a doctorate degree, having obtained his Ph.D. in English Literature.

Paramount+ is a global digital subscription video streaming service from Paramount that features a mountain of premium entertainment for audiences of all ages. Internationally, the streaming service features an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including SHOWTIME®, BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel™, in addition to a robust offering of premier local content. The service is currently live in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia, Italy, Ireland and South Korea.

Paige Murray

Paige Murray has worked at the CBC for over twelve years within the television content areas. She is currently Executive in Charge of Development, Drama on the Scripted Content team. In this role, Paige oversees the development of one-hour drama series and actively looks for creators and stories that reflect the spectrum of the Canadian experience to entertain and enlighten CBC audiences. Additionally, Paige currently sits on the board of Regent Park Film Festival and the advisory board of The Future of Film Showcase.

Georgia Shearman

Georgia Shearman is a Development Executive for Bell Media’s Original Programming department in Toronto, Canada. Georgia works with industry writers and partners on the development of new scripted projects for Bell Media’s Original Programming slate.

Previously, Georgia was the lead development and production executive for Circle Blue Entertainment where she developed a slate of both scripted and unscripted TV projects, features and documentaries, and served as the production executive on three seasons of Diggstown (CBC/BET+), as well as several feature films. Prior to that, Georgia has worked in a variety of roles both across physical production and development.

Teri Snelgrove

Teri Snelgrove is a producer at the BC & Yukon Studio. Most recently, she produced WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) (Jules Arita Koostachin), A Motorcycle Saved My Life (Lori Lozinski) and Into Light (Sheona McDonald). With Shirley Vercruysse, Teri coproduced Someone Like Me by Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor, and the animated projects Two Apples (Bahram Javahery) and Zeb’s Spider (Alicia Eisen and Sophie Jarvis).

She is currently working with Brishkay Ahmed on the feature doc In the Room, and with Wahid Ibn Reza on the animation The Last Glacier. She is the co-producer on Lyana Patrick’s feature doc, Nechako and she has a number of excellent documentary projects in development. Teri is a Newfoundlander, and a graduate of the film/video program at Emily Carr University. She holds a Master’s Degree from the GLS program at Simon Fraser University.

Independent Film Financing Panelist: Mathew Parry

Mathew’s primary responsibilities lie within the Development Team where he oversees a number of programs including the Project Development Fund, and other partnership programs with external organizations supporting film and TV development. Mathew has a Master’s degree in history, and is also a graduate of the Documentary Film Production program at Langara College.

Jennifer Chen

Jennifer Chen is the head of Channel Zero Studios, managing international series and feature-length content from script to screen. She was formerly the VP of Programming for the suite of Channel Zero’s networks managing acquisitions, scheduling and original programming (Wynonna Earp S1, Tiny Talent Time S1-3, Spin Off S1) for CHCH, Silver Screen Classics and Rewind. She began her film and television career in international sales at the CFC and then at Ouat Media, specializing in the acquisition and sale of short films including Oscar-winning titles.

Jennifer currently sits on the board of Women in Film and Television – Toronto (WIFT-T). She’s an avid Francophile since her cinema studies at the Sorbonne, where her love for the culinary arts in many cuisines flourished. She holds a joint MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern and York’s Schulich.

Independent Film Financing Panelist: Patrice Ramsay

Patrice Ramsay is the Senior Manager of Independent Production at British Columbia’s Knowledge Network. Her portfolio includes the pre-licensing of documentary productions and managing Knowledge Network’s broadcaster envelope from the Canada Media Fund. Recent Executive Producer credits include Subterranean, Part of the Pack, Dancing with Mom, and Search and Rescue North Shore.

Hilary Hart

Hilary’s career in film began in short film distribution at Ouat Media, before moving onto the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), working in development, administration and distribution. While at the CFC she contributed to an online film magazine, The Seventh Art, where she managed a Live Directors Series, which brought prominent directors to Toronto to screen and discuss their work. She then worked for three years in talent management, before partnering in 2018 with Will Woods to create Game Theory Films, a Toronto based independent film distribution company where she serves as Co-President.

To date Game Theory’s catalogue includes over 50 titles released theatrically and on VOD in the Canadian marketplace, including last year’s TIFF Platform Prize winner Riceboy Sleeps and upcoming TIFF 2023 titles Seagrass, In Flames, and Humanist Vampire Seeks Consenting Suicidal Person. Hilary is a Berlinale Talents alumnus, voting member of the Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television, and in 2022 was named one of The Globe and Mail’s 22 Most Influential People in Canadian Film.

Adam Garnet Jones

Adam Garnet Jones is Cree-Métis from Edmonton, although he attended High School in Victoria. For 14 years, Adam worked as a writer/director/producer of feature films and TV. In 2018, he shifted toward content development and advocacy for Indigenous creators founding the role of Indigenous Initiatives Lead at Telefilm Canada and the Canada Media Fund (CMF.) In that role, Adam helped Telefilm and the CMF implement Indigenous Pathways and Protocols into their funding systems, and guided the creation and implementation of a historic new fund for Indigenous feature filmmakers.

Now, Adam is delighted to lead his team as Director of TV Content and Special Events at APTN. In his role, Adam is responsible for setting the direction of the network’s programming, and helping to nurture Indigenous TV series and feature films. This year, he has been proud of his work on Little Bird (winner of the audience award at Series Mania in Cannes) Bones of Crows and the live National broadcast commemorating the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Kevin Eastwood  

Kevin is an award-winning writer, director and producer. His credits as a producer include the award-winning documentaries Part of the Pack (VFF 2022), Haida Modern (VFF 2020), Haida Gwaii: On The Edge Of The World, and Eco-Pirate: The Story Of Paul Watson, the feature films Preggoland, Fido, and The Delicate Art of Parking, the Gemini Award-winning CTV movie, Elijah, and the CBC series The Romeo Section.

Other credits include being the series director on two critically-acclaimed, award-winning documentary series, British Columbia: An Untold History and Emergency Room: Life + Death At VGH, as well as writing and directing the CBC documentaries, Humboldt: The New Season and After The Sirens (both nominated for Best Documentary Program at the Canadian Screen Awards).

Honing The Arc Panelist: Don McKellar

Don McKellar was born on 17th August 1963 in Toronto, Canada. Beginning his career in the theatre he moved into feature films writing the screenplay for Bruce McDonald’s film ‘Roadkill’ (1989). McKellar made his directorial debut in 1992 with two short films, Blue (starring David Cronenberg) and Bloody Nose, then in 1998 completed Last Night, his feature directing debut (which he also wrote and starred in), for which he won the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival.

He has continued directing with his TV series Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays and Michael: Every Day, and 2 series of Sensitive Skin (in which he also starred) and the films The Grand Seduction and Through Black Spruce. He has numerous screenwriting credits to his name including the screen adaptation of Blindness from Nobel Prize–winning author José Saramago’s novel, co-writing the critically acclaimed Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, and Red Violin. He has currently returned to writing, adapting the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for HBO’s drama series The Sympathizer, starring Robert Downey Jr and Sandra Oh and directed by Park Chan-wook.

Honing The Arc Panelist: Cody Lightning

Cody Lightning is a world-class, generation-defining actor, iconic for his performance as Little Viktor in 1998’s Smoke Signals. Hailing from Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis, Alberta, Canada, Cody began acting at age 5 in the film Geronimo. Since, he has become one of Hollywood’s most active Indigenous actors, best known for his roles in Smoke Signals, Johnny Depp’s directorial debut The Brave, Rian Johnson’s Brick, and many, many more.

In 2023, Cody will star in Marvel’s upcoming ECHO series. His debut feature film as a writer/director, Hey Viktor! will debut on CRAVE in 2024. In recent years, Lightning has taken on greater creative responsibilities, including producing, directing, and writing, focusing on projects that highlight how fucking hilarious Indigenous people are.

Christine Haebler Producer

In the film business since 1983, Christine Haebler started off in production on various big-budget US studio films. She then moved into producing in 1995 and earned a Best Motion Picture Genie nomination for Hard Core Logo. The film was picked up by Quentin Tarantino for distribution through Miramax. She teamed up with Trish Dolman and Screen Siren Pictures to produce Daydream Nation (2010) starring Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas and Andie MacDowell, followed by Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014) with Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Christopher Plummer, Jean Reno and Stellan Skarsgård. She developed and produced the multi-award-winning feature film Indian Horse (2018), an adaptation of Richard Wagamese’s own award-winning novel. The film was executive produced by Clint Eastwood. Christine also produced the 10-part TV mini-series Terminal City for Channel 4 and the 5-part kids miniseries Clue for Hasbro. She recently produced French Exit, the feature adaptation of Canadian author Patrick DeWitt’s acclaimed novel with Elevation Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges. She produced Dev Patel’s directorial debut that he also stars in for Netflix entitled Monkey Man, which will be released in Dec 2022. 

Her latest project that she produced and developed entitled BONES OF CROWS, is a dramatic miniseries and feature film from Indigenous filmmaker and playwright Marie Clements, for the CBC and Fifth Season which premiered at TIFF 2022. The film has won 32 awards to date. The series Premiered on CBC on Sept 20th 2023. She is also currently Exec Producing a feature Doc entitled 500 DAYS IN THE WILD by Dianne Whelan for Paramount + to be distributed in 2025.

James Weyman Producer BARN 12 INC.

James Weyman is a veteran producer, filmmaker, consultant and production executive with a track record for supporting new creative and entrepreneurial talent. As President of Barn 12 Inc., he is is developing and producing a slate of film and TV projects in partnership with like-minded creators for a global audience. Currently in the market is the award-winning “I Used To Be Funny” starring Rachel Sennott (“Shiva Baby”, “The Idol”), the feature debut of writer/director Ally Pankiw (“Feel Good”; “Black Mirror”) that premiered at SXSW in March, 2023 and will be released in 2024 by Utopia and Level Film in North America, with world sales by Magnify.  Projects in development include the psychological thriller “Walled In” with Valerie Buhagiar (“Carmen”) attached to direct, and Michael McNamara’s feature music documentary “On Bass”, a celebration of the electric bass guitar and the bass players who changed popular music. In association with Markham Street Films, James was Co-Producer on TV documentary “A User’s Guide to the Voice” for the CBC, and Executive Producer on “Level 16” with writer/director Danishka Esterhazy (“Ginny and Georgia”; “I Was Loreena Bobbitt”). In his previous career as Manager of Industry Development at the OMDC/Ontario Creates, James managed a $20 million portfolio of funds to support the cultural industries in Ontario, created programs and initiatives to grow independent business in the sector, and invested over $100 million in film development and production, including titles such as Oscar-nominated “The Breadwinner” and Oscar winner “Room”.

Dianne Whelan Director. Writer, Producer | 500 Days in the Wild

Dianne Whelan is an award winning Canadian Documentary filmmaker, and accomplished photographer, artist, storyteller, author and public speaker.

Dianne is the first person ever to complete a five-year, 24,000 km ecological and reconciliation pilgrimage on the world’s longest trail. In August of 2021, she completed the land and water trails of the Trans Canada Trail spanning from coast to coast to coast. Traversing on land and water, using only her own strength in snowshoes, cross country skis, bike, canoe, and of course walking.

500 Days in the Wild is the journey for her latest documentary film and upcoming book.

In partnership with Elevation Pictures, 500 Days in the Wild will have a Canadian theatrical release beginning in March 2024, and will be available to view on Paramount+ Canada.

Other work from Dianne, is her feature length documentary, and book, 40 Days at Base Camp shot on Mt Everest.

You can also find her 3 part series on CBC Gem entitled The Beacon Project,  a series of multimedia creations in collaboration with Indigenous communities along The Great Trail. A companion piece to the feature documentary 500 Days in the Wild.

Lauren Davis, Director of Program Modernization

Lauren has held a number of management positions within the television, feature film, business affairs and process management teams. Using her industry knowledge and experience across departments, Lauren works with internal and external industry stakeholders to improve program performance in terms of equitable access, sustainability, and authentic storytelling.

Kajsa Erickson TELEFILM Manager of the Talent Fund

As Manager of the Talent Fund with Telefilm Canada, Kajsa Erickson works with companies, family foundations, and philanthropists – those who wish to make private investments in support of emerging Canadian filmmakers from diverse backgrounds – all across Canada. Before starting with Telefilm in 2021, she spent the past 20 years in arts leadership roles with organizations such as the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Kajsa was born and raised in Victoria, and now lives and works in Calgary.