All The Wrong Reasons director Gia Milani is the winner of the Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award, announced Tuesday afternoon at the Grolsch Open House in downtown Toronto.

The 28 directors with films in TIFF’s Discovery program were eligible for the award.

The Discovery Award, a $10,000 cash prize, puts the spotlight on the filmmakers themselves, their back stories, and how they have expressed their passion for filmmaking. The award also comes with a package of marketing opportunities to spotlight the winning filmmaker and film globally.

A New Brunswick-based filmmaker, it took Milani five years to make her debut feature All The Wrong Reasons, as the production endured several funding obstacles and creative hurdles, she said. The team also experienced the loss of cast member Cory Monteith recently.

“I think getting around [obstacles] was just being tenacious. I got told ‘no’ a thousand times more than I ever got told yes,” Milani told Playback after receiving the award. “I’m new, and I’m working from a place that doesn’t have a lot of filmmakers, and maybe that was part of it,” she added.

But after she secured an impressive Canadian cast, including Monteith, Emily Hampshire, Kevin Zegers and Karine Vanasse, Telefilm Canada came on board with funding through its Canada Feature Film Fund, adding to the backing Milani received from the province of New Brunswick and the Harold Greenberg Fund.

Milani also took the opportunity to draw attention to New Brunswick’s film industry, calling for the reinstatement of recently cut industry support. “Our tax credit got axed, that was a big part of the exodus from our province,” she explained. “And our film commission is gone – it’s a huge problem in my province. I think if that was reestablished, that certainly would help. I would really like to see that dialogue open again.”

Milani said the prize money from the award will go towards her next feature, Strathcona (working title).

All The Wrong Reasons premiered on Sunday to a packed house at the Toronto International Film Festival.