The National Screen Institute has announced the teams chosen to develop their features through the NSI Features First training program. The project is presented in association with Telefilm.

The projects and creatives chosen for the 10-month development program are:

People I Hate
Naomi Ward (writer/director), Urmi Bardhan (producer) (Mississauga/Toronto)
Hoping to jump start her slacker life, Madeleine Bent moves cross country and develops an unlikely bond with a cagey co-worker.

Wisteria
A.J. Bond (writer/director), Amy Belling (producer) (Toronto/Vancouver)
A psychological horror about a young woman struggling to maintain her sanity while working as a wildfire lookout at an isolated 100-foot tall fire tower in the remote wilderness. The appearance of a mysterious feral child in the forest awakens a dark secret from her past that threatens to push her over the edge.

Sarnia
Matt Ferguson (writer/director), Jillian Ruby (producer) (Toronto)
An animated feature film set on the Ontario/Michigan border at the turn of the last century. When the year 2000 hits, lonely Y2K tester Daniel Gordon finds himself without a job, a purpose or direction. But when Daniel begins to notice glitches in the world around him, he becomes sucked into a surreal world of haunting specters, mechanical bug creatures and Y2K survivalists.

Sarnia is the first animated feature to be chosen for the program.

The Teplitskys are Furious
Sarah Lazarovic (writer/director), Luke Bryant (producer) (Toronto)
Sam Teplitsky, an increasingly uptight baby boomer, must rethink his entire life when his wife leaves him, his suburban house floods, and he’s forced to move in with his downtown daughter and her boyfriend. Daughter and boyfriend become Sam’s unintentional mentors, and he theirs, all of them discovering that what they thought they wanted might not be what they want at all.

More info on the Features First program can be found here.