DGC ANNOUNCES INAUGURAL DIRECTORS MENTOR COHORT

Directors Guild pairs 13 Directors Mentees with Director Mentors

 

TORONTO – The National Directors Division (NDD) of the Directors Guild of Canada has announced the pairings for the Guild’s 2025 DGC Director Mentorship Program. This represents the Guild’s first mentor / mentee cohort. 

“We are thrilled with the phenomenal group of DGC Directors who’ve stepped forward as mentors and congratulate the selected mentees,” said NDD Chair Zach Lipovsky. “This cohort represents both the breadth and depth of talent in the Guild, and also the willingness of seasoned Directors to lend their time and wisdom to fellow filmmakers.”

 

Mentors	Mentees
Clement Virgo, Ontario	Alison Murray, Ontario
Tim Southam, Quebec	Aisling Chin-Yee, Quebec
Jon Cassar, LA	Zarrar Kahn, Ontario
Rob Cohen, LA	Kyle Rideout, BC
Rachel Leiterman, BC	Kylie Hitchcock, Alberta
Norma Bailey, Manitoba	Isabelle A. Girard, Quebec
Michael Nankin, BC	Anjali Nayar, Quebec
Heather Hawthorn Doyle, BC	Hayley Gray, BC
Kathleen Hepburn, BC	Christopher Yip, Ontario
Michael Kennedy, Ontario	Virginia Abramovich, Ontario
David Frazee, BC	Kevin Eastwood, BC
Carl Bessai, Ontario	Shelagh Carter, Manitoba
Jordan Canning, Ontario	Brianne Nord-Stewart, BC

 

Mentors and mentees will meet monthly for 1-on-1 meetings as well as group sessions over the course of the first 8 months of 2025. This gives the selected Mentees extensive and unprecedented access to powerhouse filmmakers at the top of their careers and will help propel them and their projects forward. Also participating in the group sessions are Atom Egoyan, Deepa Mehta, Molly McGlynn, Ken Girotti, Deborah Chow, and Rachel Talalay.

This program is one of three NDD initiatives that aim to build a pathway for DGC Directors upwards through the industry and to help advance careers.

The second initiative is the NDD Director Observer Initiative, a framework to easily enable producers to discover new talent and invest in the future of their production through an on-set placement of a Director Observer (sometimes called a ‘Shadow’). DGC Directors with upcoming shows and producers are encouraged to reach out to access the DGC’s services to facilitate.

The third initiative in the NDD’s career pipeline strategy is the upcoming Director Market Accelerator – launching in 2025. This initiative will strive to highlight and connect cohorts of DGC Directors at National and International industry markets. 

 

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