David F. Mewa (MTV’s Hip Hop My House, HGTV Canada’s Scott’s Vacation House Rules) has been tapped as the showrunner for next month’s inaugural Legacy Awards put on by the Black Academy, organizers announced Thursday (Sept. 1). Tanisha Scott will be the creative director, head choreographer and co-multi camera director for the show, which is being produced by Boat Rocker’s Insight Productions along with the Black Academy founders Shamier Anderson (pictured left) and Stephan James (pictured right) under their banner Bay Mills Studios.

Jordan Rudder (2022 JUNO Awards) is talent producer for the 90-minute telecast, which will be hosted by Anderson and James. It will air Sept. 25 from Toronto’s History music venue on CBC and CBC Gem as part of a three-year partnership. In a statement, Mewa said he thinks “Canadians will be very inspired by what they see” from the first major Canadian award show to celebrate and showcase Black talent, adding: “It’s going to be seismic.”

The preliminary lineup of presenters and performers includes former Canadian governor-general Michaëlle Jean; recording artists Jully Black, Deborah Cox, Kardinal Offishall and Savannah Ré; comedian King Bach; and writers Amanda Parris and Kathleen Newman-Bremang.

WFF welcomes new board members and manager of operations

The Whistler Film Festival Society (WFF) has elected four new board of directors members for three-year terms and hired Erin Mussolum as manager of operations. The new board members, who were confirmed at the annual general meeting on Aug. 24, are: Tracey Friesen, managing VP, BC Producers Branch, CMPA; Karla Laird, director, member services and communications, UBCP/ACTRA; Kerry Moraes-Suguiyama, executive in charge of Indigenous language production (National), APTN; and Steven Thibault, COO, Bron Media Corporation.

They join the current board of directors, which includes: Susan Brouse, independent consultant (chair); Ann Chiasson, managing broker, Remax Sea to Sky Real Estate (vice-chair); Roger Soane, president and CEO, Whistler Sport Legacies (secretary); Daniel Cruz, managing director, Capital Market Entrepreneur, Wawel Capital Corp. (treasurer); Shauna Hardy, founder, WFF; Nathaniel Lyman of Chandler Fogden Aldous Law Corporation; and Rob Larson, business agent, Directors Guild of Canada-BC (re-elected).

Mussolum joins as manager of operations after recently completing her tenure as the co-executive director of Vancouver’s Crazy8s Film Society. A seasoned producer, she’s worked at national outlets such as CBC, Bravo!, CTV, Vision TV, Global, Knowledge Network, Corus, PBS and YouTube. She is also president of Chickadee Creative Works, where she provides corporate communications to the film and television industries.

Quebec to take the spotlight at La Rochelle

About 20 Quebec producers, distributors and creatives plan to attend next month’s La Rochelle Fiction Festival in France as the province takes the spotlight as this year’s guest of honour.

Three Quebec series are in official competition in the Foreign Francophone Fiction category at the festival, running Sept. 13 to 18: Moi non plus, written by Catherine-Anne Toupin and Karina Goma, directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud and produced by Encore Télévision; Trapped, written by François Pagé, directed by Yannick Savard and produced by Duo Productions; and Pour toi Flora, written and directed by Sonia Bonspille Boileau and produced by Nish Média.

Zone3’s The Mort-Terrain and St Laurent TV’s Copier-Coller will be presented in the Rendez-vous de la création francophone during La Rochelle. Meanwhile, Dominique Simard (Encore Television), Hugo d’Astous (Duo Production) and André Béraud (Radio-Canada) will take part in a discussion on new opportunities for coproductions between France and Quebec. And Radio-Canada will present the upcoming Quebec series for the 2022-2023 season.