Toronto-based filmmaker Lu Asfaha (pictured) has received the feature film award from Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC) for her feature screenplay They Echo.

The award comes with $350,000 worth of in-kind development, production and completion services. The psychological horror film focuses on a young woman who returns home to care for her dying mother, only to be confronted with the ghosts of past familial sins.

Production on the film is expected to begin next summer, a spokesperson for the film told Playback Daily.

They Echo is produced by Toronto-based Snail Mail Media’s Fonna Seidu (VIRGINS!) and co-produced by LaRue Entertainment. Executive producers include Lindsay Blair Goeldner (I Like Movies) and Joe Pirro (Driveways). In June, the film received funding from Telefilm Canada under its Production Program in the low-budget stream.

“Lu’s work deftly utilizes genre to externalize the internal,” said WIDC’s Dr. Carol Whiteman (Rustic Oracle) in a statement, who provides executive producing services as part of the award.

The WIDC Feature Film Award has supported 15 films by Canadian women directors since it was launched in 2009. This includes Kim Albright’s With Love and a Major Organ, adapted from the Julia Lederer play of the same name and produced by Madeleine Davis. Last year’s winner was Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Marjan Hashemi for her dark comedy debut feature, After Love (Gearshift Films).

Asfaha, a 2022 resident of the Canadian Film Centre’s Director’s Lab, also took home the L.A.-based BlueCat Screenplay’s 2022 Feature Award and Fellini Award for best international script for They Echo.

She wrote the screenplay for the 2024 Tubi original My Husband’s Baby for Toronto-based Neshama Entertainment.

 Photo by Roya Del Sol