Producer Daniel Bekerman (pictured) and his company, Scythia Films, have signed with WME for representation.

One of Bekerman’s most recent — and high-profile — projects is Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, which received three BAFTA and two Golden Globe nominations, as well as Oscar nominations for Stan and Strong. The film, which follows Donald Trump’s early real estate career with his mentor Roy Cohn, was also Playback‘s 2024 Film of the Year.

Bekerman co-produced the film, along with Julianne Ford and Ruth Treacy from Ireland’s Tailored Films and Jacob Jarek from Denmark’s Profile Pictures. Abbasi and Louis Tisné also produced. Mongrel Media is the film’s Canadian distributor. 

Another recent series that Bekerman has produced is Endless Cookie, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and follows two half-brothers — one Indian and one white — as they embark on a journey into the urban scene of the 1980s. 

Bekerman has also served as executive producer on Love Me, starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, and My Old Ass, written and directed by Lindsay, Ont.-born Megan Park.

Bekerman founded Scythia Films in 2021. The independent prodco has operations in Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Los Angeles and London.

2025 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts revealed

Prolific Canadian filmmaker Bruce LaBruce and Sandra Rodriguez, a Canadian artist and academic, were among the recipients of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts (GGArts).

The winners, announced this week, will each get a medallion and a cash prize of $25,000 each.

Recipient of a GGArts Artistic Achievement Award, LaBruce is an artist and filmmaker from Southampton, Ont. who consistently challenges conventional ideas about culture, family, sexuality, activism and art, according to the awards. His first feature film, No Skin Off My Ass, was released in 1991 and garnered attention for its exploration of queer sexuality. He has directed numerous features and shorts, including Hustler White (1996), The Raspberry Reich (2004) and Gerontophilia (2013).

Meanwhile, Chile-born, Vancouver-raised artist Rodriguez received the Artistic Achievement Award for making a significant contribution to the diffusion of Canadian artistic innovation on the international stage. In 2016, she was the founder and head of Creative Reality Lab at EyeSteelFilm, where she explored non-fiction futures in VR. Her work as creative director, screenwriter and producer has garnered multiple awards, including a Peabody (DoNotTrack, 2016) and the first Golden Nica award given to a VR project at Ars Electronica (2019).

An Artistic Achievement Award also went to St. Mary’s, Ont.-born artist Kent Monkman. Visual artists Thaddeus Hołownia, Clive Robertson, and Jin-me Yoon also received the Artistic Achievement Award. The Saidye Bronfman Award, which recognizes excellence and innovation in Canadian fine arts and crafts, was granted to Vancouver-born furniture designer Peter Pierobon, and curator Daina Augaitis received the Outstanding Contribution Award.

Nickelodeon orders more PAW Patrol

Nickelodeon has renewed Spin Master’s PAW Patrol and Rubble & Crew for an additional 26 episodes across two seasons for each series. These new orders will carry PAW Patrol into seasons 12 and 13, and Rubble into seasons three and four.

According to recent data from Parrot Analytics, PAW Patrol was the most in-demand Canadian series globally for 2024. The show, which also airs on TVOKids, was 47.4 times more in demand than the average TV series in 2024, ranking at the forefront of long-running series that made up the top of overall demand for Canadian television. Its spinoff series Rubble & Crew also made the top 20 with a demand average of 9.8.

With files from Kidscreen

Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/KristinaBPhotography