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

The program provides mentorship and coaching for mid-career filmmakers, focusing on scripted content development. It is presented with the support of Telefilm Canada and in collaboration with the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival and the Reelworld Film Festival.

Participants will take part in workshops to build and launch a strategic career plan during the program, which coincides with both film festivals, and runs through October and November. Follow-up career coaching will extend through January 2024, according to a news release.

WIDC co-creator and producer, Dr. Carol Whiteman, is the lead mentor and facilitates the module and follow-up coaching.

The cohort for the fall edition includes four Ontario-based filmmakers and four from British Columbia.

The four Ontario filmmakers include Richmond Hill-based Shonna Foster, who made her directorial debut with the short film Residue at the Reelworld Film Festival. Foster is currently developing her first feature film and several other projects, including a short film with the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

Toronto writer-director and academic Kathleen Cummins is developing the historical fiction project The Cailín Exodus, which looks at the 19th century Irish female emigration. Cummins recently completed the short doc Leaning Into the Lens, with an all-female crew.

Michelle D’Alessandro Hatt, based in Toronto and South River, Ont., is developing her first feature, a revenge drama titled Brave Army Redux.

Ottawa writer-director-producer Émilie Martel is currently developing the drama series Hauteur, which is centred on teenagers rock climbing, as well as a coming-of-age feature based on the book Perdue au bord de la Baie d’Hudson. Martel’s projects include the eight-part Gang de hockey and a one-off documentary Alias Marie-Soleil, both for French-language broadcaster TFO.

The B.C.-based filmmakers all hail from Vancouver, including Eva Tavares, who created and directed the theatre-documentary hybrid Where Women Gather, wrote and produced Hijack, and is writer-director of the short A Little Vacation, which is being developed into a series.

Martina Monro is developing the script for her feature Nice Jewish Girl. Monro is also a writer and co-producer for the CBC series One More Time, which premieres in January 2024, as well as the Netflix show You Me Her.

Biracial Chinese-Canadian writer-director Rosie Choo Pidcock’s debut short Esther & Sai received distribution on Air Canada and is currently in series development Pidcock is in post-production on her second film, Sorry For Your Cost.

Rounding out this edition’s participants is writer-director Teresa Alfeld, whose directing credits include the feature doc Doug and the Slugs and Me for CBC. Alfeld is currently developing a comedy series based on her short Charlie Gauvin.

The St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival runs from Oct. 17 to 21, while the Reelworld Film Festival will be held from Nov. 1 to 7.

Photos courtesy Women In the Director’s Chair