TORONTO – The National Directors Division (NDD) of the Directors Guild of Canada announced its selections today for the latest program in the NDD’s Career Pipeline initiative: the Director Market Accelerator delegation at Hot Docs. Directors selected for this delegation will receive a wide array of benefits and opportunities at the upcoming Hot Docs Festival 2025, running from April 24th to May 4th, 2025.
Selected Directors all have active projects they are seeking to move forward at Hot Docs with a producer attached and at least partial financing secured. Delegation benefits include project feedback direct from the Hot Docs industry team, a market preparation consultation session with renowned pitch-doctor Carole Kirschner, an exclusive pre-arranged networking session with decision makers, a private reception and discounted festival passes.
“We are thrilled to have this tremendous, talented group of documentary Directors attending Hot Docs as part of the DGC delegation,” said NDD Chair Zach Lipovsky. “The NDD’s market accelerator will offer these filmmakers concrete ways to move their projects forward, from pitch to production, and help build them a pathway upward through the industry.”
The delegation is comprised of filmmakers from every region of Canada:
|
Teresa Alfeld |
British Columbia |
|
Nika Belianina |
Ontario |
|
Katia Café-Febrissy |
Ontario |
|
Kevin Fitzgerald |
British Columbia |
|
Matt Gallagher |
Ontario |
|
Noam Gonick |
Manitoba |
|
Elizabeta Lazebnik |
Ontario |
|
Liz Marshall |
British Columbia |
|
Sergio Navarretta |
Ontario |
|
Carmen Pollard |
Ontario |
|
Alison Reid |
Ontario |
|
Troy Scott |
British Columbia |
|
Megan Wennberg |
Nova Scotia |
|
Adrian Wills |
Quebec |
|
Francine Zuckerman |
Ontario |
The inaugural DGC Directors Hot Docs delegation is part of the NDD Career Pipeline, aiming to build a pathway for DGC Directors upward through the industry and to help advance careers. Upcoming Delegations of DGC Directors will also be announced for the Banff World Media Festival and Content Canada during TIFF, with international plans for EFM in Berlin and Series Mania in France for 2026.
NDD Career Pipeline also includes the ongoing NDD Director Mentor Program and the NDD Director Observer Initiative. The mentor program is a framework for pairing emerging DGC Directors with DGC Director mentors, providing 12 monthly sessions over the calendar year. The Observer Initiative is 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.
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