Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC) has announced the eight women directors that will participate in the 2023 spring/summer session of the WIDC Career Advancement Module (CAM).

With support from Telefilm Canada, CAM is presented in collaboration with the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival and Toronto’s Female Eye Film Festival. The program, which offers career coaching for mid-level filmmakers and scripted content development, runs from March through July, according to a news release.

CAM will also include passes to both festivals’ in-person and online offerings and workshop sessions to structure a career plan, with follow-up career coaching which extends through summer. The program is facilitated by WIDC co-creator Dr. Carol Whiteman.

This session’s participants include four Toronto-based creators: writer Samantha Wan, actor and writer Murry Peeters, writer Vanessa Magic and Palestinian-Canadian writer-director Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller.

Wan is Reelworld Film Festival’s 2018 Trailblazer Award-winner, and is best known as a co-creator of CSA-nominated comedy Second Jen. She is developing her feature film drama, Think of Me. Peeters who appeared in NBC’s Taken and is a WGC award-nominated writer (The Parker Andersons and Amelia Parker), is developing the concept short, Dear God.

Magic is an alum of the WBD Access x Canadian Academy Writers Program, developing the feature film Memories In Dreams. Al-Hamaydeh Miller, whose short film Feeling Fine was awarded Best Actor in a Short Film at the Berlin Indie Film Festival, is developing the coming-of-age feature film Waves/’Amwaj for WIDC.

The B.C.-based filmmakers selected to participate include Afghan-Canadian writer-director Brishkay Ahmed, Brazilian director-writer Bruna Arbex, as well as Australian-Canadian writer-director Paradox Delilah.

Ahmed, whose feature documentary In The Rumbling Belly of Motherland won the Best Feature and Outstanding Producer award at Reelworld, is further developing the feature film drama, Sama’s Here There. Arbex, whose shorts Ceri-se and This is a Period Piece can be found on streaming platforms such as CBC Gem and Tello Films, is developing the concept short film drama Exulansis. Meanwhile, Delilah’s 6-part web series Dentists has screened at over 40 film festivals and is developing the feature horror, Girls Trip.

Closing out the list of participants is Newfoundland’s Brianna Russell. The 2022 RBC Michelle Jackson Emerging Filmmaker Award winner for her short film Poster Child is further developing her feature film of the same name.

The event will kick off with an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in-service led by scholar and filmmaker Dr. Dorothy Cucw-la7 Christian as well as Vision TV co-founder and WIDC alumna, Dr. Rita Shelton Deverell, a member of the Order of Canada. Award-winning Indigenous filmmakers Gail Maurice (Rosie) as well as Dr. Jules Koostachin (Broken Angel) will join a series of Zoom round tables to offer insights as well as networking opportunities, said the release.

Further guests including digital media and marketing mentor, Annelise Larson and industry executives from Telefilm, CBC, Bell Media, Independent Production Fund, and more.

Photos courtesy of WIDC. L-R: Brianna Russell, Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller, Murry Peeters, Bruna Arbex, Samantha Wan, Vanessa Magic, Brishkay Ahmed, Paradox Delilah