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SPEAKER SESSIONS
1:00pm to 3:00pm ET
Melissa moderates this popular industry know-how event. She shares her in-depth celebrity advice and experiences. Joining the sessions are industry experts in producing, writing, directing, and much, much, more!
NETWORKING & ROUNDTABLES
3:15pm to 5:00pm ET
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She is the face and force behind Out There with Melissa DiMarco, which is one of the country's longest-running comedy/variety series, also syndicated in international markets. For over 15 years, Melissa has produced ground-breaking television with a trademark for innovative shows. She has created hundreds of hours of content for networks including Rogers Media, Global, CHCH, FOX, and Out TV.
As an experienced content creator from all sides: writing, directing, showrunning, editing and on-camera. Highlights include: An Evening with Oliver Stone, Out There with Melissa DiMarco, Dreamseekers, Confessions of a Go-To-Girl, and Star Wars: Jedi Challenges. As an actor/host, Melissa has also interviewed hundreds of A-list celebrities from Brad Pitt and George Clooney to Julia Roberts and Lady Gaga. Melissa has long acted in a number of North America’s most memorable productions. She starred in the Emmy-winning drama, Degrassi: The Next Generation, CBC's Riverdale, as well as films like Red Green’s Duct Tape Forever and Hustle: The Pete Rose Story.
Melissa and her production company Out There Productions Inc. has won the U.S. International Film and Video Festival’s Outstanding Achievement in Creative Excellence Award, and has been nominated for 2 Banff Rockie Awards for Best TV and Variety Show and 2 Canadian Comedy Awards for Best Writing and Best TV Series.
Our Past Speakers and Networking Guests
Director
Peter Wellington is a Canadian award winning film and television director. Peter's first film, Joes So Mean to Josephine, won the prestigious Claude Jutra Award for direction at the 1996 Gemini Awards. His follow-up feature, Luck, took home the Best Narrative Feature Prize at the 2004 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. In addition to directing, Peter also wrote both features. His latest film Cottage Country was released in 2012 and starred Malin Akerman, Tyler Labine and Lucy Punch.
In television, Peter directed all three full seasons of the internationally acclaimed Slings & Arrows (2003-2007), garnering him two Directors Guild of Canada Awards and a Gemini for Best Direction. Peter directed the pilots for Above Asking (2007), and 18-To-Life (2009). His episodic directing credits include Being Erica (2008), The Firm (2012), The L.A. Complex (2012), Saving Hope (2012 - 2014), Rookie Blue (2010 - 2014), Kim's Convenience (2016-2021), and most recently, Run the Burbs (2021).
Editor
Cathy Gulkin is one of Canada’s foremost picture editors. Educated at the prestigious London Film School in England, she has been working in Toronto since 1978. She edits documentaries, drama, comedy and children’s programmes.
In 2019 she won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Editing in a Documentary for You Are Here: A Come From Away Story. In 2016 she won Best Editing awards from the Directors Guild of Canada and the Canadian Cinema Editors for Guantanamo’s Child. She was most recently nominated for a 2020 Canadian Cinema Editors award for Margaret Atwood: A Word After A Word After A Word is Power. Cathy has cut 4 CSA & 8 Genie nominated and/or award-winning short and feature length documentaries including: My Millenial Life, Shadowmaker, Forbidden Love, and Paul Strand: Under the Dark Cloth. She won a Gemini for Cry of the Ancestors and Best Editing at the Atlantic Film Festival for Forbidden Love.
Cinematographer
Matt Bendo is an award-winning Cinematographer based out of Toronto, who has been nominated 7 times for a Canadian Society of Cinematographers Award. He’s a three time winner for “Lamborghini - Storm” in 2017, “Kombat Arts - Legacy” in 2018, and “A Dog Cried Wolf” in 2020.
His maverick approach to lighting creates an upending visual style that has set him apart from his peers and has drawn the attention of sites like Cinema5D where Bendo has discussed his innovative cinematography techniques.
Passionate about world building, he strives to create powerful work that delivers chills. His experience as a Producer, Director, Editor, and Visual Effects Artist, enhance his abilities as a Cinematographer.
He is accomplished in a variety of cinematic styles, having shot narrative, music videos, and commercials, some of which have amassed millions of views. His commercial work includes brands such as Coca Cola, Jack Daniels, Honda, and Microsoft.
Director, Producer
Award-winning Director and Producer Alfons Adetuyi creates successful cross-cultural films and television series.
Alfons has produced and/or directed over 100 hours of prime-time features, documentaries, dramas and lifestyle series selling to over 60 countries. His company Inner City Films (ICF) specializes in international co-productions and initiated the Canada/South Africa Treaty.
Alfons has been featured in Indie Wire‘s ‘Shadow and Act’ Filmmakers to Watch, and named one of 2018’s Top 30 Black Directors by blackfilm.com. His recent rom-com LOVE JACKED streams on Netflix worldwide, and previous dramatic feature HIGH CHICAGO premiered at Reelworld, receiving Canadian Feature and Audience Choice Awards.
Actress, Producer, Writer, Director
Trish Rainone is the co-creator of the comedy series My Roommate's an Escort. After filming two seasons of the series, she wrote, directed and starred in a short film about infertility called Milk (on Amazon Prime US and UK). She then joined the cast of PINK IS IN! for season one as Nikki, "Top Dog" Picano and co-directed season two.
Trish is one half of 180 Sisterhood Productions and the Co-Founder of the Sault Film Festival. Credits on screen include, the Netflix Original series V-Wars, (Cassie) My Roommate's an Escort (Heather), Pink Is In (Top Dog), A Christmas Letter (Waitress Sally) and an upcoming Paramount film not yet announced. Producing credits include the award-winning feature film End Flux and the CBC MOW A Christmas Letter.
Photographer: Alexa LeClair Photography
Creative Director
FEARLESS
Matkai Burmaster is the co-founder of the Fearless streaming service and a self-made filmmaker behind So That Happened, It's Complicated, Stripped and Committed. Matkai is proudly LGBTQ and is a vocal activist for the inclusion of LGBTQ, female, Black, Indigenous and Disabled perspectives in the film industry.
He is also an ACTRA member and works with various local and national arts and film initiatives. Matkai lives in Toronto with his husband and cat and you can often find him supporting local small businesses and events.
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Daryl
Ledwon
Actor, Mandy Representative
MANDY.COM
Daryl has been in the Film and Television industry for years both in front and behind the camera. As an actor, he has worked on various television programs such as Unexpected Killer, MurderBoard, Paranormal Survivor and Killer Affair as well as indie films like A Song for Us, Snowed Inn and others. A theatre performer, he has been in many plays and musicals across Canada. He also regularly consults with production companies and casting directors to source talent and crew as the Canadian representative for Mandy.com.
Actress, Writer, Producer
Victoria is a writer, producer, actor, comedian who hails from Edmonton, AB but now calls Toronto home. Dedicated to creating new comedic content featuring women, for screen and stage, Victoria is the writer of the series Brennan & Victoria Make Rent (Fearless), Three Quarters, the short films Backtrack, The Independent (Winners of Audience Choice, 48 Hr Film Fest) Snake King (Isolation Film Fest), Stalled, Gone Wild, and Green.
She was a featured screenwriter/producer in the 2018 Women On Screen program, and 2020 WIFT Scripted Series Incubator. Victoria is Co-Founder and Executive Producer of the women’s film cooperative, Counterbalance Collective where she produced 9 films in its inaugural year. Victoria also performs stage comedy around North America with her duo Two Girls One Trench Coat. As an actor you can see her on Amazon as the lead of the feature Space & Time.
Series Producer
Marike is a Series Producer, Writer and Story Editor for lifestyle and reality competition series.
She has over 25 years experience in Canadian non-fiction television.
Her credits include series producing for MasterChef Canada, CBC Gem's Best in Miniatures, and The Great Canadian Baking Show, the Canadian version of runaway UK hit Great British Bake Off.
Editor
Orlee Buium is a Toronto-based film editor who has spent the last 15 years balancing her love of film with her passion for the outdoors. She is a 2018 alumni of the Editors’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre where she had the opportunity to hone her craft through collaboration with many up and coming filmmakers. Prior to this she completed a BFA in Film Production and Screenwriting at York University. During this time, she edited several short films, one of which won a CCE Student Merit Award.
Orlee has several films presently in theatres including Michael McGowan’s ALL MY PUNY SORROWS and Zoe Hopkin’s RUN WOMAN RUN. Orlee’s work on ALL MY PUNY SORROWS recently won BEST EDITING IN A FEATURE FILM at the CANADIAN SCREEN AWARDS 2022 and the DGC AWARD FOR BEST EDITING 2021. Orlee was also nominated for a DGC AWARD FOR BEST EDITING IN 2020 for her work on QUEEN OF THE MORNING CALM.
Producer, Writer
Producer Heidi Lasi is committed to creating film and television programming that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Her documentary The Oasis Affair played at festivals across North America and won the Best Documentary Award at the Open World Toronto Film Festival. Her documentary Brothel Justice has over three million views on YouTube. She won the Best Writer Award at TVO Telefest for her short film Trenton Nation and her production The Bytowners won the Galaxi Award for Best Drama.
At her company Pelee Entertainment, they believe in the inspiring and transformative power of storytelling and the strength of diversity. They work in partnership with producers and creators in Canada and around the world with the mission to create thoughtful and compelling entertainment.
They are currently developing The Tom Tyler Mysteries, based on the books by Maureen Jennings (Murdoch Mysteries) with UK-based partners. They are also developing Meeshelle Neal’s queer scifi feature film Sweet Release; Penny Eizenga’s feature Pretend to Sleep starring Sheila McCarthy with prodco Woods Entertainment (The Kid Detective) and distributor Game Theory (Alice); and, Dead Reckoning based on the Governor General's Literary Awards-nominated book by Carys Cragg.
Adam
Pal
Director, Writer, Producer
Twenty-five years ago, Adam Pal was coined, ‘a small-town boy with worldwide gusto’ doing live shows from Toronto to China, Las Vegas to Israel. Pal was willing to do anything in the business. “If all the world’s a stage, I am the best boy key grip” -Pal
Pal is the owner/operator of Glass Ceiling Productions, producer, and creator of 4 short union films, producer of digital content, online radio shows, national tv, theatre content and social media.
Pal has taken time to create short stories and is reviewing publishers for a partnership to promote his Novella, Novelette, and said short stories.
Production Assistant
Jamal Alexander is a Toronto-based Production Assistant who's worked on the sets of dozens of TV and Film productions.
His list of credits includes Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, Suits, Kim's Convenience, CBC's Coroner, Hulu's Y The Last Man, Netflix's Ginny & Georgia, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and more.
Note that speaker lineup is subject to cancellation or change due to professional commitments.