Tag Archives: Industry News

Industry News

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

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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.

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Industry News

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.

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Featured, Industry News

Win passes to the Toronto Screenwriting Conference

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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.

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Industry News

Link: Updating Cancon rules for Internet age comes with political baggage

From Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Updating Cancon rules for Internet age comes with political baggage
Ever since the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission first decided to exempt “new media” from regulation back in 1999, federal jurisdiction over content delivered via the Internet has proved mainly theoretical. If Ottawa wanted to intervene to make Canadian programming more discoverable online, it would certainly help if the government asserted its role by updating the Broadcasting Act, last revised in 1991. And if the government wanted Internet service providers, who don’t compensate the content creators who help build their profits, to contribute to the system, it would definitely need a whole new law – because in 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that ISPs are not broadcasters. Continue reading. 

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Industry News

Emerald Code, a new series about girls and STEM, gets the green light

From a media release:

Leading production company Shaftesbury, along with its digital studio Smokebomb Entertainment and branded entertainment agency shift2, welcome Shaw Rocket Fund as a partner on multi-platform digital series Emerald Code (20 x 3 mins), going into production this Spring. Shaw Rocket Fund joins an exciting roster of previously announced partners including Ubisoft and Let’s Talk Science. The series, aimed at inspiring and empowering girls 8-12 to pursue their interests in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects in school and in life, will star newcomers, and real-life best friends, Anwen O’Driscoll and Star Slade, and will be directed by Michael Seater (Life with Derek, Murdoch Mysteries). A companion docu-series is also in the works (10 x 3 mins) that will celebrate real-life kid heroes of coding.

Emerald Code follows 15-year-old Simone Lang who, after discovering web design and programming at summer camp, is amazed at everything she can create by herself with science and technology. Inspiring her friends to do the same, Simone and her pals soon realize that they have tons of ideas and inventions that can make their lives easier, more connected, and more fun. They navigate the complicated and confusing world of high school by learning new skills and exchanging ideas in order to create unique and useful tools. Soon, Simone and friends are solving problems, coming up with wild schemes, and most importantly, cracking the code to living an awesome high school life!

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