In Brief: The Chef & the Daruma wins at VIFF Audience Awards

Plus: WIDC selects eight women and non-binary directors for Career Advancement Module and WIFT-AT sets 2024-25 Mentorship Match cohort.

The Vancouver-shot documentary The Chef & the Daruma (Wallop Film; pictured) is among four Canadian winners for this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) Audience Awards.

Directed by Mads K. Baekkevold, the film follows the famous Japanese-born chef Hidekazu Tojo and was named as the winner for the Insights category as part of an announcement last Friday (Oct. 11).

The winner in the Panorama category was Cree filmmaker Jules Arita Koostachin’s drama Angela’s Shadow (ChaKaSteTin Productions). In the Canadian and Indigenous Northern Lights category, Christopher Auchter’s documentary The Stand (NFB) was the audience’s favourite. The award includes a $10,000 Letterboxd marketing campaign.

The final Canadian winner was R.T. Thorne’s post-apocalyptic 40 Acres (Hungry Eyes Media), which won in the Altered States category.

Eight women and non-binary directors selected for WIDC’s career advancement program

Eight women and non-binary directors have been selected for the Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) Career Advancement Module’s fall to winter edition.

The program, presented in collaboration with the St. Johns International Women’s Film Festival and the Reelworld Film Festival+Summit, runs from Oct. 7 to March 2, 2025.

The initiative offers online masterclasses, roundtables and one-on-one coaching to help the directors launch their strategic career plans. They will also receive passes to the host festivals and become part of WIDC alumni, according to a release.

The cohort includes Toronto-based directors Leah Doz, Shetu Modi, Vanessa Sandre and Nedda Sarshar.

Rounding out the cohort is non-binary Halifax-based director Jackie Torrens; Manitoba’s Jessica Landry; Regina’s Marzia Kamyabi and B.C.’s Zeynep Güler-Tuck.

WIFT-AT sets 2024-2025 Mentorship Match cohort

Women in Film and Television Atlantic (WIFT-AT) has set its 2024-25 Mentorship Match cohort.

The program, supported by Telefilm Canada, matches applicants with hand-picked professionals in the industry to improve their skills and industry knowledge through a minimum of four mentorship sessions over eight months. The applicants will also get the opportunity to network with other applicants and mentors through mixer events, according to a release.

Some of the 2024-25 matches include musician and emerging screenwriter Stephanie Beaumont who will be mentored by executive producer Sherry White (Orphan Black); and writer, director and producer Carlee Calver (Skin and Bone), who will be mentored by filmmaker and educator Arianna Martinez (Do I Know You From Somewhere).

Photo by Kaayla Whachell