Everything about Industry News, eh?

Toronto Screenwriting Conference announces Magee Mentorship Award winners and Writers Room participants

From a media release:

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference (TSC) today announced the five winners of the first annual Magee TV Diverse Screenwriters Mentorship Award, a mentorship and bursary program that was created to help emerging and mid-level screenwriters from diverse backgrounds to be mentored, network with other Canadian television professionals and be exposed to other leaders in the field of screen-based writing.

To achieve this objective – each of the five winners including Anil Kamal, Mackenzie Sinclair, Marsha Mason, Maya Bastian and Nadia Alam will receive a complimentary registration for the highly anticipated two-day conference that takes place in Toronto over the weekend of April 22-23. The winners will also join Al Magee, founder of Magee TV, a producer, writer and story editor with a long history of mentorship, for a pre-conference meet up in addition to each receiving a three-month mentorship with Canadian screenwriting professionals that include Alejandro Alcoba, Desmond Sargeant, Duana Taha, Pat Mills and Renuka Jeyapalan. Click HERE to see the bios for the winners and click HERE to see the bios for their chosen mentors.

The winners were chosen by their mentors based on submissions that included the following four criteria: one concept for an original series or feature film, one writing sample, a letter of interest and intent and a letter of reference.

The TSC also announced today the official selection of participants who will join co-creators Ins Choi and Kevin White of CBC’s runaway hit, Kim’s Convenience, in support of this years WGC Writing Room Intensive. Amy Cole, Elize Morgan, Gillian Muller, Jennifer Siddle, Marcia Johnson, Richard Clark, Lisa Rose Snow and Derek Robertson will all work alongside Ins and Kevin in a mock writers room on Thursday, April 20th. The team will then reconvene on stage at the conference for a special session on Saturday, April 22nd where they will finish the process of breaking story in the room in front of the TSC delegates. Click HERE to see the bios for each participant.

The Writing Room Intensive participants were selected through a juried process and all who entered for consideration were required to meet certain qualifications including relevant experience (either past or present) working on a television series as either a story coordinator, staff writer, story editor, producer, executive producer, creator and/or showrunner.

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference runs April 22-23, 2017. Get the latest information—including events and how to register—on the official website.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Announcing the WGC Screenwriting Awards Presenters

From a media release:

The Writers Guild of Canada is pleased to announce the presenters for the 21st annual WGC Screenwriting Awards (held on April 24 at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning’s Koerner Hall in Toronto).

Joining host Laurie Elliott on stage: Pure showrunner Michael Amo with actor Alex Paxton-Beesley, Bellevue co-showrunner Jane Maggs with actor Shawn Doyle, and Second Jen showrunner Jeff Biederman with Second Jen co-creator and actor Amanda Joy.

The WGC Screenwriting Awards are the only awards in Canada to focus solely on screenwriting talent. Finalists include the writers of scripts from Kim’s Convenience, Odd Squad, Letterkenny, X Company, Private Eyes, Wynonna Earp, 19-2, Degrassi: Next Class, Two Lovers and a Bear, Maudie and more. Special awards including the WGC Showrunner Award will also be presented.

The 2017 awards are hosted by screenwriter, stand-up comedian and actor Laurie Elliott, and are written by screenwriter and stand-up comedian Terry McGurrin with Laurie Elliott.

The complete nominees list can be found here.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Proper Television’s Guy O’Sullivan passes away

Very sad news out of Canada’s reality television community. Proper Television’s Guy O’Sullivan, whose company is behind Canada’s Worst Driver and MasterChef Canada, passed away over the weekend. He was 49.

“It is with great sadness that we share the news of the sudden passing of Guy O’Sullivan, President, Proper Television,” the company stated on their Facebook page. “On behalf of everyone at Proper Television, we extend our sincere condolences to his children and family. Guy had a tremendous impact in the Canadian and international television industry, and was adored by his colleagues and staff. Out of respect for the family, no further comments will be made.”

O’Sullivan launched Proper Television in 2004 in Canada after five years at the BBC and has produced some of the most successful unscripted series in Canadian TV, including CBC’s True North Calling, CTV’s MasterChef Canada, Discovery Canada’s Canada’s Worst Driver, Don’t Drive Here and Canada’s Worst Handyman, W Network’s Come Dine with Me Canada and OLN’s Storage Wars Canada.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Win passes to the Toronto Screenwriting Conference

Update: Congratulations to Corrie Clark and Tim Stubinski, who won the free passes to this year’s Toronto Screenwriting Conference. Thanks to everyone who submitted their story.


Want access to veterans of the screenwriting industry who can give you the education and skills development to further your career in writing, producing and directing? The Toronto Screenwriting Conference is for you.

The two-day event weekend event—on April 22 and 23—brings together expert creative talent, authors and speakers specializing in the craft of writing.

Among the highlights is a Writing Room Intensive with Kim’s Convenience showrunners Ins Choi and Kevin White, where participants will write an episode of a comedy series. Also on tap: industry roundtables, and speakers like Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby), AMC Studios co-head Rick Olshansky, Marti Noxon (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce), Adam Reed (Archer), Chris Cantwell and Chris Rogers (Halt and Catch Fire), and Corey Mandell. More speakers and sessions will be announced soon.

TV, eh? is proud to be the exclusive media sponsors for this year’s Toronto Screenwriting Conference, but we’re even more excited to offer our readers the chance to win one of two complimentary passes to the weekend!

Simply comment below telling us why you’d like to attend and we’ll select two winners at random to attend next month’s event. The contest closes Wednesday, April 12, at noon PT/3 p.m. ET.

More information can be found at the TSC website.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Toronto Screenwriting Conference announces Paul Haggis to join as speaker

From a media release:

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference (TSC) announced today that veteran award-winning screenwriter, producer and director, Paul Haggis, will join the roster of speakers for this year’s event taking place on April 22 – 23 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Haggis, an Ontario native, has had a prolific career writing, directing and producing an array of award-winning television and film productions. In 2006, he became the first screenwriter to pen two Oscar-winning feature films back-to-back for Million Dollar Baby (directed by Clint Eastwood) and Crash, a film that he wrote and directed and one that also earned several nominations and awards from other prestigious associations including IFP Spirit Awards, The Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA. Throughout his illustrious career, he has collaborated with some of Hollywood’s leading actors including Oscar Isaac, Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon and Russell Crowe just to name a few. Television credits include Thirtysomething, The Tracey Ullman Show and Due South among others.

Other speakers lined up for the conference so far include Marti Noxon (UnREAL, Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and the highly-anticipated upcoming Sharp Objects, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and starring Amy Adams), Chris Cantwell (Halt & Catch Fire), Chris Rogers (Halt & Catch Fire), Adam Reed (Archer), Rick Olshansky (Co-Head, AMC Studios), Alison Friedman (Director of Development, Color Force), Mark Ceryak (VP of Film and Televison Production, Gran Via Productions), Alex Foster (President of Production, The Middleton Media Group), Katrina Saville(Private Eyes), Courtney Jane Walker (Degrassi), Tracey Deer (Mowhawk Girls), Jennifer Holness (Shoot the Messenger), Kevin White (Kim’s Convenience), Ins Choi(Kim’s Convenience) and Corey Mandell (award-winning playwright and screenwriter).

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference runs April 22-23, 2017. Get the latest information—including events and how to register—on the official website.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail