The National Screen Institute – Canada (NSI), in association with Telefilm Canada, has chosen five filmmaking teams for the 2005-2006 NSI Features First Program – a training initiative for filmmakers ready to develop their first or second feature. The teams include participants from Toronto, Yellowknife, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.

The selected participants are:

Bang Bang Baby (Toronto, ON) Larissa Giroux, Producer; Jeffrey St. Jules, Writer/Director

Chroma (Winnipeg, MB) Timo Puolitaipale, Producer; Darren Wall, Director; Ryan Fitzgerald, Writer
Foodland (Winnipeg, MB) Brent Deere, Producer; Adam Smoluk, Writer/Director

The Sun at Midnight (Toronto, ON/Yellowknife NT) Anneli Ekborn, Producer; Kirsten Carthew, Writer/Director
Time to Reap (Saskatoon, SK) Rick Stefanowski, Producer; Torin Stefanson, Director; Teri Armitage, Writer

“The selected teams are enormously enthusiastic about their projects. Their story ideas are wide ranging, demonstrating immense imagination and creativity,” said Program Manager Jim Murphy.

“We’re excited about the prospect of working with these teams to hone their skills and develop their projects for the marketplace,” added Brendon Sawatzky, Manager, NSI Training Programs.

NSI Features First teams have produced a string of award-winning, critically acclaimed films that have debuted at prestigious festivals from Sundance in Utah, to Cinema Jove in Valencia, Spain, to the Toronto International Film Festival, to the Transylvania International Film Festival in Romania, and beyond. They have also gone on to play in commercial theatres across the country and national networks and specialty channels including CBC, Movie Central and The Movie Network.

Facts about NSI Features First

Since its launch in 1997, 10 out of 28 films developed through the program have been produced.

All NSI Features First productions have won or been nominated for industry and festival awards including the Genie Awards, Directors Guild of Canada Awards and Leo Awards, to name a few.

Fetching Cody by the 2002-03 NSI Features First team of Producer, Carolyn Allain and Writer/Director, David Ray had its world premiere at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and also screened at the Calgary International Film Festival. It will be shown at the Whistler Film Festival and has been nominated for a Borsos Award.

On the Corner, by the 2001-02 NSI Features First team of Writer/Director Nathaniel Geary and Producer Wendy Hyman won the “Special Award of the Jury” at the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg, and was screened at the 35th International Film Festival of India.

NSI Features First is an intensive training program for emerging filmmakers working on their first or second feature film. The program emphasizes the professional development of writers, producers and directors, and the final development and packaging of their feature film projects.