The National Directors Division (NDD) of the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) announced the 15 filmmakers participating in its Career Pipeline initiative for the Director Market Accelerator delegation at the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF).

Selected Directors all have scripted television series they are seeking to move forward, with a producer attached or at least partial financing secured. Delegation benefits include one-on-one meetings with industry decision-makers, a market preparation session, sessions with pitch-doctor Carole Kirschner, a private reception, discounted festival passes and targeted promotion for each director and their project.

There are two Quebec-based directors in the delegation, including the 2025 Jean-Marc Vallée Bursary – a $5,000 bursary for Quebec-based filmmakers funded by BANFF, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Acess Canada, and the DGC – recipient Alfonso Maiorana (pictured).

Maiorana, whose project is the sole feature at the delegation, will be at the festival with The Last Trombone Player, about a young man who escapes the pressures of family and political upheaval through his love of music.

The other Quebec-based delegate is Arshad Khan, with his project Sana’s Basement Beauty Solutions, which follows a psychiatrist who opens an illegal basement beauty salon.

The delegation includes six from Ontario, including Adrienne Mitchell and her project We’re All Perfectly Fine, which follows a work-obsessed internist at an inner-city hospital who attends group therapy after a meltdown. Next is Allison Murray’s My Lie, which follows a journalist who recants her sexual abuse accusation against her father a decade later.

Paolo Barzman and Rouzbeh Heydari will come to BANFF with the eight-part limited series Hi Jolly, following the true exploits of the first Middle Eastern cowboy.

Sid Santiago Zanforlin’s Gore Bay follows three teen rookie ghost hunters who wake up in the titular town with no memory of how they got there. Rounding out the Ontario delegates is Virginia Abramovich with the dark comedy Tasteless, which follows a foodie influencer who lands a gig co-hosting a cooking show with her nemesis, all while hiding that she has lost her sense of taste and smell.

Four of the delegates hail from B.C., including Jo Marr’s The Murcan’s, which follows the behind-the-scenes of a production. There is also Kate Green’s Iden-tech-al. Loosely based on a true story, the project follows twin sisters venturing into the male-dominated world of tech startups.

Next is Nat Boltt’s The Drift, a miniseries with “multiseason potential,” according to a DGC release. Made in collaboration with Neil Blomkamp, the drama follows a bereaved mother who places herself in grave danger to retrieve her undead son from the afterlife.

Rounding out the B.C. participants is Panta Mosleh with Pass the Salt, which follows a queer Muslim woman and a Jewish woman in Vancouver who unexpectedly fall in love.

There are three Alberta-based delegates set to attend, starting with Berkley Brady’s Halfbreed, based on the memoir of the same name by Métis author, playwright, broadcaster and filmmaker Maria Campbell.

Dylan Pearce’s Above the Line is a half-hour workplace comedy set in a chaotic, small-city film office.

Rounding out the Alberta delegates is Michael Peterson with I Am Herod, a 10 x 30-minute comedy series about a fledgling novelist who joins North America’s largest production of the Passion Play of Jesus Christ in Dinosaur Valley, Alta. The project has already received development funding from YesTV through the Canada Media Fund’s Predevelopment Fund and is part of the 2025 Canadian Comedy Accelerator.

Other delegations will be heading to Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Content Canada during the Toronto International Film Festival, with plans for the European Film Market in Berlin and Series Mania in France for 2026.

The NDD Career Pipeline also includes the Mentor Program and the NDD Director Observer Initiative.

The 46th annual BANFF runs from June 8 to 11 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alta.

Photo by Bishwesh Uprety