The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) has unveiled the participants for three of its talent programs, including Power Pitch, Doc Lab and the MPPIA Short Film Award pitch competition.

This year’s participants for the Power Pitch program, which is designed to help producers with feature projects “fine-tune” their packaging and pitching skills, include four British Columbia-based filmmakers and one from Alberta.

The B.C.-based participants include Jeremy Lutter with the project Giltrude’s Dwelling, Mariya Miloshevych with Guardian, Oscar Wolfgang with Ginger and Sunny Mohajer with Becoming Odella.

Alberta’s Hrachya Tokmajyan completes the lineup with the project Children of Ar.

The pitch program will end with WFF’s Power Pitch Competition on Nov. 30, with the winner receiving a $36,000 prize package that includes a $25,000 post-production credit from Company 3, a $10,000 lighting and grip production credit and a $1,000 cash prize from William F. White International (WFW).

The jury for the program includes Kristen Figeroid, president of international sales and distribution at Neon, and Sharon Stevens, VP of programming at Hollywood Suite. Power Pitch is supported by Creative BC, Company 3, and WFW.

Ten participants have been selected for the two-phase Doc Lab project development and industry immersion program for documentary filmmakers, which is delivered online and in-person. The program, supported by Creative BC and Knowledge Network, kicked off with the multi-day online phase on Nov. 6, and will be followed by attendance in person at the Whistler Film Festival + Content Summit for a three-day doc immersion experience. The second phase is a three-month long mentorship program that begins in January 2024.

The cohort includes five B.C.-based participants: Cassie De Colling (Listen), Giovanna Morales Vargas (Women of Reggaeton), Katy Tooth (Nailin’ the Coffin), Marlene Castaños Ortega (Good to Go), and Suzanne Jolly (A Wilder Way).

Two of the participants are Alberta-based, including Anna Cooley (300 Million BC), and Sally Bishop (Cowgirl Confidential). Newfoundland and Labrador-based Andrew Pyne (Rinks for Rails: A Newfoundland Hockey Story), Ontario-based Issa Shah (The Ninth Month) and Manitoba-based Duc Anh Quan Luong (Tailor Made) round out the list of participants.

The program is facilitated and mentored by Lynn Booth, executive producer and CEO at Make Believe Media, with consultation and mentorship from documentary filmmakers Selwyn Jacobs and Julia Ivanova.

This year’s MPPIA Short Film Award pitch competition cohort includes five participants. The program is an initiative of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of British Columbia (MPPIA), Creative BC and the WFF, and provides one B.C.-based filmmaker with the opportunity to develop their directing career by “realizing a unique creative vision in a short film project.” The competition’s winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and in-kind support valued up to $100,000.

The participants include Sasha Duncan (easybake), Gloria Mercer (Out on the Water), Kay Shioma Metchie (Split Ends), Tony Mirza (The Sound of Silence), and David Vassiliev (Works Great on Girls).

The three talent programs are among several programs that the WFF has run this year to support more than 70 participants, including the Screenwriters Lab, Producers Lab, and Indigenous Filmmakers Fellowship, which were announced earlier.

This year’s hybrid WFF will run from Nov. 29 to Dec. 17, with the Content Summit taking place from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2.

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