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Winners

Director Biography – Jabbari Omar Weekes, Tichaon Tapambwa, Phil Witmer

Cb90851bd5 headshot

I am an emerging Caribbean director based in Toronto who is focused on creating slice-of-life and fantasy stories within the diasporic community.

Director Statement

NEXT STOP, a four-part anthology series, was made out of a desire to show the day-to-day chaos of living Black in Toronto. The stories we would often come across online were either highly-animated parody videos or overly-serious dramas. So the question was always, “What about the people in-between?” Where were the ‘mandem’ with heavy Toronto accents but could also be silly, serious, and everything in-between? People like us.

Throughout the show’s episodes, characters get into petty arguments about the best TTC station Jamaican Patties or existential crises about finding a job with a liveable wage. What ties them together is the idea of, yes, the silly and serious, but also survival amidst the rising costs of this city. With NEXT STOP, we can express these concerns with a laugh.

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    • Finalists

    Features

    • Documentary that portrays the way in which punishment is present in our lives. Through eight environments you will be able to observe punishments that occur in societies, between people, in areas, times or specific situations (Violence, Confinement, Violence against Women, State Terrorism, Sexual Violence, Suicide, Institutional Violence and Discrimination).

      How many ways to punish do you know?

    Director – Gonzalo Collado

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  • The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step out of the frame.
    – Salman Rushdie
    Director – Ion Sova

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    • Shorts

    • A woman artist, struggling with a mental illness following her mother’s death, tries to overcome society’s judgment and the obstacles caused by her health condition, to regain custody of her daughter.

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  • Lin is a college student who has a severe hearing impairment, but she has a fantastic talent for reading lip languages. She is famous in the paparazzi industry, and also she served as an “intelligence analyst” for a paparazzi company in her spare time, reading out the information from a large number of videos taken by the paparazzi, and finding out the valuable clues…One day, Lin and her new paparazzo partner Zhou photographed a popular Chinese actress Lulu who’s coming to Hollywood to attend the red carpet of Oscar. But unexpectedly Lulu’s luxuries diamond necklace which she will wear it to Oscar and values more than twenty million dollars mysteriously disappeared in her villa. Only 48 hours before Oscar, Lin tries to find clues from the video that they had photographed in these few days. But at the same time… Danger is closing to her…

    Director Biography – Tanxuan Shi

    Tanxuan Shi completed his MFA in filmmaking from New York Film Academy. He directed the first commercial short Misdirection in New Academic Style at Beijing Film Academy and devoted himself to explore the localization of “Movie Universal” during his postgraduate stage in Hollywood. His film Lip Reader: Game of Detective won the “Best New Chinese Filmmaker Award” at the 23rd LA Shorts Los Angeles International Short Film Festival which is certified by the Academy Award.

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  • The movie narrates the story of Alla who lives in a dormitory. She happens to find out that the guard of the dorm has abused one of her friends. Alla decides to inform those in charge of the dormitory so that the guard is fired. However, the guard doesn’t sit still and tries to cause trouble for her. Things get worse for her and her friends till something happens that no one has expected.

    Director Biography – pourya osati

    Born in 1991
    Graduated from the director of the film from the Iran Broadcasting University
    Making several short documentary and story short films
    Winner of numerous awards from national and international festivals

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  • A mute boy realizes his mother’s illegitimate relationship. He tries to tell his father about it, but his father doesn’t pay attention to him. His only companion is his favorite superhero doll. He has no choice but to become a superhero to save…

    Director Biography – Elyas Askarpour

    Born 1986 in Mazandaran, Iran. 2011- BA in Particle Physics, Mazandaran University. 2015- BA in cinema, Iranian Youth Cinema Society. An interest in cinema led Askarpour to begin studying editing and after effect and work in short film and documentaries. He graduated of cinema in IYCS. His first short film, Frame 2017. To date, he has made four independent short films and work as a Editor and after effect supervising in many projects. Now he teaching cinema in IYCS.
    Frame 2017 Selected in Five Continents International Film Festival and South Cinematographic Academy Film & Arts and won award in Apadana Film Festival.

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  • The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step out of the frame.
    – Salman Rushdie
    Director – Ion Sova

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  • A woman called Roya is at a point where she finds herself risking her marriage, daughter, and job.

    Director – Mina Sadat Hosseini

    Ratings
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  • A son pushes at the bounds of his relationship with his mother as he unpicks the psychological consequences of the childhood sexual abuse he suffered.
    In a bold and heartfelt cinematic letter to his mother, the filmmaker Amin Maher reveals the most painful of childhood secrets. The film explores gender confusion, sexuality, guilt, fantasy and repression in relation with violence and identity. “Letter to my Mother” is a means for survival, a way to stand and speak up and to understand. It is an attempt to break taboos and push boundaries – both social and personal, and to create life and art out of the darkest experiences. There are times when cinema itself seems implicated in this difficult story, charting abuse that began at the exact time he was appearing in Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten (2002) which featured the real-life relationship between his mother and Amin.

    Director Biography – Amin Maher

    Short Biography: Amin*a Maher (b. Tehran, 1992) is an Iranian queer filmmaker whose works deal with the themes of gender and sexual violence in relation to political power and social taboos. He began his cinematic activity, as the main actor in Abbas Kiarostami’s “Ten” which featured the real-life relationship between his mother and Amin and was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes International Film Festival. Since then he has acted on multiple Films worldwide. His first short film was Sweet Gin and Cold Wine, followed by Orange and One Window Will Suffice. His short film, Letter to my mother was selected at numerous film festivals around the world including 36th Kasseler Dokfest, 34th Mix Milano Film Festival and 15th Shorts México. The film won several awards including the best short documentary on Human Right at Venice Intercultural Film Festival and Award of Recognition at Impact Docs Award. Maher currently studies his MA in directing at Babelsberg University Konrad Wolf.

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  • Feelings change quickly. Love becomes loss only to become love again. Ionuț and Călin have recently broken up. When they accidentally meet again, their feelings resurface, along with the tensions that drove them apart. Two men coming from different worlds, a relationship that takes them beyond their own limits.

    Director Biography – Sorin Poamă

    In 2007 Sorin graduated from the National University of Theatre and Cinematography in Bucharest, where he studied Acting. In 2010 he co-wrote with Vera Ion an autobiographical theatre play: “Ich Clown” the story of a young Romanian actor immigrating to Germany to work as a street artist. In 2010, alongside writer Vera Ion, he founded and started teaching in the “Write Yourself” workshop in Bucharest where participants write scripts documenting their personal stories. Here, Sorin started to direct short films, following stories developed in the workshop. In 2015, “A girl I went to school with” won the Villa Kult Residency Award at the Next IFF in Bucharest. In August 2016 Sorin is selected for the Sarajevo Talent Campus. In 2018 “Ionuț and Călin” is selected in the National Competition at the Transilvania IFF in Cluj and Next IFF in Bucharest where it receives the Award for Best Romanian Short Film. In 2019 Ionut and Calin was selected to be screened at the Cannes Court Metrage and received an Official Selection from the PÖFF Shorts Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn and the Pride Pictures Film Festival in Karlsruhe. It was also selected in competition at the Este Film Festival 2019 in Sibiu and the Gay Film Nights Film Festival in Cluj.

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  • The story is about a teenage girl named Delaram who has Down syndrome, and because of the genetic disorder that has caused her particular appearance and limited verbal expression; normal children and society think of her as mentally retarded. Delaram wants their judgments that, in her view, have created a border between them, to be removed.

    Director Biography – behrad sahebgharani

    34 years old resident of Iran – Tehran. Graduated in film directing and I am Iranian filmmaker ,
    in the Screenwriting class mr Asghar Farhadi , I was Joe’s art And I saw specialized writing training ,
    I work in the field of screenwriting, directing and editing cinema

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  • After attending a presentation at school, Alex, Claire’s son seems disturbed. In seeking to know more about the mysterious speaker, Claire will discover family secrets buried long ago .

    Director Biography – Valérie Lecomte

    Valérie Lecomte wrote, directed, played in and co-produced ‘Claire de Lune’, her first Canadian short film. She had already written, directed, played in and produced a short film, in Paris, before immigrating to Canada. Now French and Canadian, she created Iridis Production with a co-producer, in Toronto, their goal being to keep on producing bilingual films, embracing French and Canadian cultures.
    Filmography:
    À Coeur ouvert (2005)
    Claire de Lune (2020)

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    • Web Series

    • Lin is a college student who has a severe hearing impairment, but she has a fantastic talent for reading lip languages. She is famous in the paparazzi industry, and also she served as an “intelligence analyst” for a paparazzi company in her spare time, reading out the information from a large number of videos taken by the paparazzi, and finding out the valuable clues…One day, Lin and her new paparazzo partner Zhou photographed a popular Chinese actress Lulu who’s coming to Hollywood to attend the red carpet of Oscar. But unexpectedly Lulu’s luxuries diamond necklace which she will wear it to Oscar and values more than twenty million dollars mysteriously disappeared in her villa. Only 48 hours before Oscar, Lin tries to find clues from the video that they had photographed in these few days. But at the same time… Danger is closing to her…

    Director Biography – Tanxuan Shi

    Tanxuan Shi completed his MFA in filmmaking from New York Film Academy. He directed the first commercial short Misdirection in New Academic Style at Beijing Film Academy and devoted himself to explore the localization of “Movie Universal” during his postgraduate stage in Hollywood. His film Lip Reader: Game of Detective won the “Best New Chinese Filmmaker Award” at the 23rd LA Shorts Los Angeles International Short Film Festival which is certified by the Academy Award.

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  • The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step out of the frame.
    – Salman Rushdie
    Director – Ion Sova

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  • Director Biography – Jabbari Omar Weekes, Tichaon Tapambwa, Phil Witmer

    Cb90851bd5 headshot

    I am an emerging Caribbean director based in Toronto who is focused on creating slice-of-life and fantasy stories within the diasporic community.

    Director Statement

    NEXT STOP, a four-part anthology series, was made out of a desire to show the day-to-day chaos of living Black in Toronto. The stories we would often come across online were either highly-animated parody videos or overly-serious dramas. So the question was always, “What about the people in-between?” Where were the ‘mandem’ with heavy Toronto accents but could also be silly, serious, and everything in-between? People like us.

    Throughout the show’s episodes, characters get into petty arguments about the best TTC station Jamaican Patties or existential crises about finding a job with a liveable wage. What ties them together is the idea of, yes, the silly and serious, but also survival amidst the rising costs of this city. With NEXT STOP, we can express these concerns with a laugh.

    '>

  • Caitlynn was born and raised in the Georgia suburbs and received her bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Performance Studies with an acting concentration. After college, Caitlynn moved to Atlanta to pursue a career in film, both behind and in front of the camera. After dipping her toe into many different departments, Caitlynn joined IATSE 479 as an set electrician and continues to book work on union sets. Simultaneously, she looks for independent projects to explore her passion for directing and pursue opportunities to practice different roles in the film industry. With the release of “The Unsuperheroes” web series, Caitlynn made her debut as an indie director, and hopes to pursue other directing opportunities while maintaining her career as a union electrician.

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    • Music Videos

    • Lin is a college student who has a severe hearing impairment, but she has a fantastic talent for reading lip languages. She is famous in the paparazzi industry, and also she served as an “intelligence analyst” for a paparazzi company in her spare time, reading out the information from a large number of videos taken by the paparazzi, and finding out the valuable clues…One day, Lin and her new paparazzo partner Zhou photographed a popular Chinese actress Lulu who’s coming to Hollywood to attend the red carpet of Oscar. But unexpectedly Lulu’s luxuries diamond necklace which she will wear it to Oscar and values more than twenty million dollars mysteriously disappeared in her villa. Only 48 hours before Oscar, Lin tries to find clues from the video that they had photographed in these few days. But at the same time… Danger is closing to her…

    Director Biography – Tanxuan Shi

    Tanxuan Shi completed his MFA in filmmaking from New York Film Academy. He directed the first commercial short Misdirection in New Academic Style at Beijing Film Academy and devoted himself to explore the localization of “Movie Universal” during his postgraduate stage in Hollywood. His film Lip Reader: Game of Detective won the “Best New Chinese Filmmaker Award” at the 23rd LA Shorts Los Angeles International Short Film Festival which is certified by the Academy Award.

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  • The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step out of the frame.
    – Salman Rushdie
    Director – Ion Sova

    '>
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