Blink49 Studios has bolstered its scripted team in Los Angeles on the heels of the launch of its Canadian unscripted division. The Toronto and L.A.-based studio has hired Lindsay Tolbert (pictured left) as VP, scripted television, and promoted Alix Steerman (pictured right) to manager, scripted television. Both positions report to Carolyn Newman, EVP, global scripted programming. Tolbert is the latest Entertainment One (eOne) veteran to join the John Morayniss-led studio, where she worked as director of development. She most recently held the role of VP of development at Cedar Park Entertainment, overseeing film and TV projects.

Steerman was previously television co-ordinator at L.A.-based management and production company Circle of Confusion. She first joined Blink49 in January as scripted television co-ordinator. Blink49 has several scripted projects in the works, including the Hallmark Channel original series Ride, produced with SEVEN24 Films, and upcoming CTV series Sight Unseen with Sisters Troubetzkoy Productions.

The studio has also inked partnerships with a number of Canadian talent, including Lilly Singh (A Little Late with Lilly Singh) and her prodco Unicorn Island Productions, Sheri Elwood (Moonshine) and Ben Sokolowski (The Walking Dead: World Beyond). It launched an unscripted division, led by former eOne execs Toby Dormer and Allison Brough, earlier this week.

RBC Emerging Indigenous Filmmaker Award launches

RBC has unveiled a new award to support emerging Indigenous filmmakers looking to fund a current or upcoming project, gain additional training or further their careers. Applications are now open for the RBC Emerging Indigenous Filmmaker Award, which is powered by the National Screen Institute and will honour a filmmaker who has an inspired vision for their project and/or career.

One recipient will be awarded $7,500 and two hours of mentorship and advice from acclaimed filmmaker and award advisor, Sonya Ballantyne, a Swampy Cree writer, director and sensitivity consultant based in Winnipeg. She is the also founder and creative director of the Code Breaker Films.

Applications are open until Oct. 14 and capped at a maximum of 75. An external industry selection committee will choose 25 applicants for a short list, from which a second selection committee made up of independent screen professionals and the award advisor will choose five candidates for an interview.

Alanis Obomsawin short set for world premiere

The world premiere of documentary maker Alanis Obomsawin’s Upstairs with David Amram is among the five shorts the National Film Board of Canada will screen at the International First Peoples Festival, which runs Aug. 9 to 18 in Montreal. Obomsawin’s Bill Reid Remembers will also make its Quebec premiere in its original English version at the festival, where the NFB’s Alanis Obomsawin Theatre will host two master classes organized by the festival on Aug. 11.

Other NFB shorts screening at the festival include Courtney Montour’s Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again, which will be screened in Kahnawake, the home community of both the director and the film’s protagonist; Arctic Song by Germaine Arnattaujuq (Arnaktauyok), Neil Christopher, and Louise Flaherty; and Florent Vollant: I Dream in Innu (Florent Vollant: Je rêve en innu), by Nicolas Renaud.

The festival’s opening night programming includes the Canadian films Onyionhwentsïio’ by Nicolas Renaud, Joe Buffalo by Amar Chebib and Rose by Roxann Whitebean.

With files from Victoria Ahearn