The Canadian Short Screenplay Competition (CSSC) is returning after a 12-year hiatus with a partnership with Yorkton Film Festival in Saskatchewan.

The sixth edition of the CSSC will award the top three screenwriters with cash prizes. They will also receive an option and purchase agreement for their short film scripts from Fun Republic Pictures, led by founder and CEO David Cormican, and a guaranteed distribution deal with Screen Wizards Pictures, according to a release. The screenplays themselves must be no longer than 15 pages.

The grand prize is $1,000, while second and third place winners will receive $500 and $250, respectively. Prizes for the remaining top ten finalists will be awarded will be announced at a later date.

Cormican founded CSSC in 2008 and ran the competition with the Yorkton festival until 2013, instead focusing his efforts solely on producing, he tells Playback Daily.

“I thought revamping and relaunching CSSC would be a nice opportunity for me to look at talent identification and nurturing,” says Cormican, adding that he sees the competition as a training ground for up-and-coming filmmaking teams, with him as a mentor.

The early bird deadline for the competition is Jan. 26, 2025, and the final deadline is March 23. All 13 finalists will be invited to the unveiling of the 2025 CSSC Writers’ Block Crystal Awards, hosted at the 78th Yorkton Film Festival, which runs from May 22 to 24.

DOC Institute sets Breakthrough Lab participants

The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) Institute has set nine participants for its 2025 Breakthrough 2.0 Development Lab, held in partnership with the Black Screen Office and the Canadian Independent Screen Fund.

Mylene Augustene, Kamika Bianca Guerra-Walker, Azra Rashid and Weiye Su were selected by the BSO. Additional participants are Deydra Baptiste, Karen Chapman, Sarah Jones, Stefan Supplice and Ty Tufts.

The Lab was designed to support experienced producers. It begins with two weekend workshops, where participants will hone their pitch packages with support from creative producers, story editors, business affairs experts and trailer editors, according to the program guidelines.

The Lab also includes weekly sessions with broadcasters and funders, as well as business affairs, legal, impact and distribution professionals for two months leading up to the 2025 Hot Docs International Film Festival. At the festival, participants receive an all-access pass.

The lab culminates in the opportunity to pitch projects to receive the DOC Institute Breakthrough Development Award, which comes with a $20,000 cash prize from the Rogers Group of Funds and one of two development deals from the CBC.

Along with Rogers, the lab is sponsored by Ontario Creates and CBC.

Five Canadian short films to screen at Sundance

Three Canadian short films will have their world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

The shorts are among five domestic titles — three Canadian and two coproductions — selected for Sundance’s Short Film Program. A total of 57 shorts were chosen out of 6,244 international submissions, according to a news release.

Among the world premieres is the animated Argentina/Canada coproduction Luz Diabla. The film is written, directed and produced by Gervasio Canda, Paula Boffo and Patricio Plaza with additional producer Courtney Wolfson.

Next is Pasta Negra, a Canada/Venezuela/Italy/Colombia coproduction. The short is directed and produced by Jorge Thielen Armand and written by Mo Scarpelli.

The final world premiere is Platanero, directed by Juan Frank Hernandez, written by Hernandez and Vincent Labelle, and produced by Laurence Ly and Béatrice Moukhaiber.

Are You Scared To Be Yourself Because You Think That You Might Fail? will make its international premiere. The fiction short is written and directed by Bec Pecault and produced by Emily Harris.

Also screening is the animated Inkwo for When the Starving Return, directed by Amanda Strong. Strong co-wrote the short with Bracken Hanuse, Corlett and Richard Van Camp, and co-produced with Maral Mohammadian and Nina Werewka. The short also stars Tantoo Cardinal.

Sundance will take place from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2, 2025, in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Sonic Nursery wins Content London pitch competition

Toronto prodco Sonic Nursery Creative won the Content London Global Entertainment Formats Pitch with The Quiet Game.

The game show format involves 15 contestants facing challenges and obstacles while trying to stay silent, with a decibel meter to catch any sounds.

The pitch session is part of Content London’s three-day Formats & Factual strand and includes a C$55,000 prize for the winner. There were 81 total submissions for this year’s competition.

“We’ve also developed interactive ways for viewers to engage through social media, a family-friendly board game and an app that brings the challenges into the real world for schools and team-building events,” said Sonic Nursery president Kyle Whitelaw in a statement, adding that the format can be adapted to any production size depending on the global market.

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