Corus and the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF) have announced five writers from underrepresented communities for this year’s Corus Apprentice Program: Young Adult Scripted.

They include two Playback 10 to Watch alums: Darren Anthony, a Toronto playwright and screenwriter, and Thornhill, Ont.’s Jadiel Dowlin Lewis, an Emmy-nominated actor and screenwriter. Rounding out the list are Maxine Grossman, a writer, actor and comedian from Toronto; Taylor Hopkins, a multimedia storyteller in Toronto; and Sarah Kelley, an Indigenous filmmaker, writer and actor from the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan nation in Golden Lake, Ont.

The cohort, selected from over 130 submissions, will receive a premium pass to BANFF 2022 as well as complimentary registration and travel to the festival, which runs June 12 to 15 in Banff, Alta. Each recipient will also get a two-week paid internship placement in the writers’ room of a Corus-supported live action television production between June 2022 and June 2023.

Prism Prize announces finalists

Ten Canadian music videos are in the running for the top award at the 2022 Prism Prize. The finalists are up for the $20,000 Grand Prize, which is billed as the largest cash prize in the world for music videos, as well as the $5,000 Audience Award.

The contenders for the prize, set to be announced July 7 in Toronto, include BadBadNotGood with two nominations: for Love Proceeding, directed by Jamal Burger, and for Timid, Intimidating, directed by Winston Hacking.

Other finalists include: Mustafa for Ali, directed by himself; The Beaches’ Blow Up, directed by Alex P. Smith; Khanvict’s Closer, directed by Anjali Nayar; Debby Friday’s Focus, directed by the Canadian artist herself along with Ryan Ermacora; and Simon Leoza’s La nuée, directed by Vincent René-Lortie.

The list is rounded out by: Andy Shauf’s Living Room, directed by Anne Douris; Haviah Mighty’s Protest, directed by Kit Weyman and Chrris Lowe; and Chad VanGaalen’s self-directed Samurai Sword.

SeriesFest lauds Hello (Again)

CBC Gem original short-form series Hello (Again), created by Simu Liu and Nathalie Younglai, won Best Drama Pilot in the Digital Shorts Series (Drama, Comedy) category at the recent 2022 SeriesFest in Denver, Colo.

Teresa M. Ho produced the Toronto-shot series, which made its U.S. premiere at SeriesFest, where executive producer and star Alex Mallari Jr. represented the show in person.

Liu, Younglai and Ho are also executive producers on the rom-com, directed by Melanie Chung. Ho is founder and president of Toronto-based prodco 100 Dragons, which recently appointed industry veteran Christine Tyson as development executive.