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Catching up with the 2012 10 to Watch

By Rodrigo Cokting
January 4, 2013

As the industry gets its feet wet in 2013, we thought it would be a great time to follow up on some of the people that were included in Playback‘s 2012 10 to Watch. The feature, which showcased some of the most promising members for the future of the industry, to no surprise, was one of the most viewed stories on the website last year. 

If the projects of the 10 to Watch are any indication, 2013 is going to shape up to be an outstanding year.

Avi Federgreen
After being named Playback‘s inaugural New Establishment pick, Avi Federgreen has not slowed down. The production and distribution mogul, recently exec produced 30 Ghosts, a documentary from director Sean Cisterna. Meanwhile IndieCan, Federgreen’s distributon company, released The Ballad of Hugh, a documentary directed by Marco DiFelice that opened at NXNE 2012 and saw a theatrical release in October. Finally, Federgreen’s production company River Valley Films developed two more projects: Raising Hell and From the Womb to the Cradle: Stories of Adoption. Starting February, Federgreen will begin teaching a course based on his upcoming book Indie Producing – What They Don’t Teach You in Film School.

Mark Montefiore
Toronto-based producer Mark Montefiore seems to have a busy 2013 ahead of him, with a slew of film and TV projects lined up . Cas & Dylan, Jason Priestley’s directorial debut starring Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss and TIFF Rising Star, Tatiana Maslany is close to completion. Montefiore is hoping for a TIFF World Premiere followed by a theatrical release. And once that project is complete, Montefiore is looking forward to developing the Playback Summit Pitch Winner Ramingtons: Men of Steel, an R-rated comedy based on the the occupation of male dancers. On the small screen, Montefiore warns that networks should be looking forward to his projects . “I’ve been developing [some great new comedies] with tremendous writers both here and south of the border,” Montefiore said.

Patrick Tarr
After a busy 2012, that included writing for  CBC’s upcoming Cracked and the wrapping up of the production for The Colony, starring Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Zegers, Toronto-based screenwriter Patrick Tarr is looking forward to the near future. He’s currently working on a dramatic survival story with Colony co-writer Jeff Renfroe and producer Paul Barkin. The screenplay promises to explore similar themes to The Colony and is among one of several TV and feature projects Tarr is juggling in 2013.

Dev Singh
It wasn’t an easy path to go from a VFX guy to film editor but Dev Singh seems to have carved the way to a stacked slate of editing projects. Picture Day, one of the films Singh recently edited was the winner of the Best Canadian Film award at the Whistler Film Festival, while Tatiana Maslany was awarded Best Performance. As for what’s next? Singh is close to finishing his work on The Birder, a comedy starring Tom Cavanagh and Mark Rendall, and already has his next project lined up: the sci-fi epic The Last Druid: Garm Wars.

Mark De Angelis
Bill and Sons Towing, the web series Mark De Angelis co-created and produced is carrying its media buzz into 2013. The 10-part series was recently unveiled as a First Round Selection for L.A. WebFest 2013. De Angelis is also currently in development with Breakthrough Film & Television on a new original half-hour comedy.

Calum deHartog
After securing funding through BravoFACT!, deHartog completed the short film Overwatch which he describes as an enhanced version of Cops. And Cracked, inspired by deHartog’s experiences as a police officer, is slated to premiere on CBC on Jan. 8 at 9 p.m. DeHartog is also writing the first draft of Inferno, based on the 2012 shooting on Danzig street in Scarborough, and is continuing development for Running out of Dog, a short noir story written by Dennis Lehane (Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, Shutter Island).

Michelle Ouellet
Through Sociable Films, the company Ouellet founded in 2011 alongside Ali Liebert and Nicholas Carella , Ouellet completed three projects in 2012: the feature film Afterparty, the TV-web series The True Heroines and the short film This Feels Nice. As for 2013, Ouellet plans to dedicate herself to developing release plans for the projects, looking into using an interactive release strategy that connects the movie-goer to the process and to the people involved in making the movie.

Lisa Jackson
After her Genie Award-winning short Savage screened in Berlinale and SXSW in 2010, Vancouver’s Lisa Jackson is ready to hit the festival circuit again in 2013 with Snare and How A People Live. The former is a short film commenting on the issue of violence against aboriginal women, while the latter is a one-hour documentary. Jackson is also developing a script for her feature film Mush Hole.

David Cormican
David Cormican, the Saskatchewan-native producer has some busy days ahead of him. Mind’s Eye, where Cormican works, recently delivered 13 Eerie, which played in horror festivals globally and is now awaiting release. Also on Mind Eye’s plate is the sci-fi film Stranded starring Christian Slater and directed by Roger Christian, currently in its final days of post-production. Finally, the production company is teaming up with Telefilm to continue development of two new films for the near future: the feature adaptation of Canada’s own superhero Captain Canuck; and zombie film Flatline.