The makers of such titles as Little Miss Sunshine and The Office will be mingling with local up-and-comers at the 22nd annual Film and Television Forum at the Vancouver International Film Festival, which revealed plans for its industry sideshow on Thursday.

Program director Helen du Toit tells Playback Daily the four-day forum is a good opportunity for filmmakers to get one-on-one time with quality speakers.

‘It’s a really good networking event for the locals in the community… rather than having to go to Berlin or Cannes, they get a lot more personal contact with the speakers, because they’re not fighting for them in the same way,’ she says.

Academy Award-nominated screenwriter David Arata (Children of Men, Spy Game) will lead discussions on how to elevate a script from a promising initial draft to a first-rate shooting script in the forum A Writer’s Journey to the Final Draft. The conference will also feature Little Miss Sunshine producer Ron Yerxa in the session on creative producing, joined by Mary Jane Skalski (The Station Agent).

On the TV side, Emmy winner Paul Lieberstein will share trade secrets from his experiences working as head writer on popular TV series including The Office, The Bernie Mac Show and King of the Hill. Meanwhile, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation director and exec producer Richard Lewis will lead a master class in TV Directing, where he will offer up advice on delivering a vision to the small screen.

The Film and Television Forum takes place Sept. 26-29 at the Rogers Industry Centre in Vancouver.