Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) is accepting applications for their student scholarship program. Three scholarships valued at $2,000 each will be awarded to one First Nations student, one Inuit student and one Métis student.

APTN’s scholarship program is intended to provide support to First Nation, Inuit and Métis students in a course of studies leading to full-time employment. The award may be applied to academic and/or living costs.

Read more about the eligibility requirements and apply. Deadline is June 28, 2019.

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Run As One: The Journey of the Front Runners from director Erica Daniels (CBC New Indigenous Voices) took home the inaugural Indigenous Film Award at the Manito Ahbee Festival over the weekend. The festival celebrates Indigenous arts, culture and music in Winnipeg.

In Run As One: The Journey of the Front Runners, members of the 1967 Pan Am Games Indigenous torch-running team reunite 50 years later to share their memories and to discuss the injustice and disappointment they faced at the end of their journey.

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Three new films in this week’s NSI Online Short Film Festival from directors Nicole Dorsey, Alyson Richards and Paula Elle.

Arlo Alone

Arlo Alone | Sci-fi/Horror, 16:19, English, ON, 2017 | Director: Nicole Dorsey

A futuristic drama that follows Arlo, a young woman, as she comes to terms with her own loneliness in a world where in-person contact has become a rarity.

A Birthday Story

A Birthday Story | Comedy, 3:02, English, ON, 2017 | Director: Alyson Richards

The tale of twin brothers who fight over each other’s birthday gifts.

Let’s Not Talk About Syria

Let’s Not Talk About Syria | Comedy, 8:38, English, BC, 2017 | Director: Paula Elle

A candid portrait of a modern couple living in an increasingly globalized world.

• • •

Call for films / submit by June 14

We’re accepting films through FilmFreeway until Friday, June 14, 2019. Films chosen during this call period will play in the NSI Online Short Film Festival from June 24 to September 13, 2019.

We accept films released after January 1, 2014. If your film is programmed, you have a chance of winning the A&E Short Filmmakers Award for best film.

All NSI Online Short Film Festival winners receive a complimentary Friend membership for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and are qualified to be nominated for a Canadian Screen Award (if award criteria are met).

Read about the most recent winner.

Your film must be less than 30 mins. Drama, comedy, animation, documentary, sci-fi, horror, music video and experimental are all eligible and must be made by a Canadian writer, director or producer.

Submit your film

The NSI Online Short Film Festival is made possible through the support of Festival Partner Telefilm Canada; Supporting Sponsors Corus Entertainment, CBC Gem, Super Channel; Award Sponsor A&E Television Networks; Industry Partner the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

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A candid portrait of a modern couple living in an increasingly globalized world.

Creative team

Writer/producer: Andrea Shawcross
Director/producer: Paula Elle

Filmmaker’s statement

Andrea Shawcross’ Let’s Not Talk About Syria ignited a powerful, multi-faceted confusion in me. It took hold of my heart, and incited a sort of pang that I acutely understood but had never been able to express.

It confronted a social issue that has widely been accepted as normal: comparison. When we compare, we evaluate if we are okay or not. We use it as a tool to manage our expectations in life. In our daily lives, comparison echos in our consciousness and we cannot escape it. It’s what makes us human. It’s the essence of evolution, so it seems appropriate to compare your feelings, desires, trials and wealth to others. However, the question remains: to what end? When is it healthy and when is it emotionally manipulative?

This film was lovingly made to bring light to how we sometimes marginalize others’ pain, emotionally invalidating them all due to judgements by comparison. I think that’s why I immediately fell in love with Andrea’s script and it’s why we made Let’s Not Talk About Syria. 

About Paula Elle

Paula Elle is a Vancouver-based filmmaker who has built a team of collaborators over her 11 years of set experience. She has worked on all types of shows from TV series, to MOWs, to Steven Spielberg films.

Starting with her own wine short, The International Wine Thief, Paula quickly realized her thrills come from behind the camera. Since then, she hasn’t stopped making films. She believes there is no reason to not be shooting, and there is always a story to tell.

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The tale of twin brothers who fight over each other’s birthday gifts.

Creative team

Writers: Emma Phelan, Alyson Richards
Director: Alyson Richards
Producer: Mike Macmillan

Filmmaker’s statement

A Birthday Story is a loose personification of ‘aggressive’ and ‘passive aggressive.’ And it’s also a story about nostalgia, looking back and interpreting moments from your past with a present lens.

Emma Phelan and I wrote the script a good decade before I decided to pull it out of the drawer and direct it. We used our son as an extra as well our niece and nephew and their friends. And kids grow fast. So, appropriately, a film I tried to craft to have nostalgia already has a crap ton of nostalgia for us.

About Alyson Richards

Alyson Richards co-wrote and directed A Birthday Story, an official selection at New Filmmakers Los Angeles (nominated for best foreign comedy) and the Miami Independent Film Festival. The short won a Remi Award at the Houston International Film Festival and an award of excellence at the One-Reeler Short Film Competition.

She also co-wrote the feature thriller The Sublet which premiered at Whistler Film Festival and was released as The Resident in the UK. Her feature screenplay The Retreat ranked top six in the 2018 Slamdance Screenplay Competition. 

As a producer, her projects include Don’t Talk to Irene (Toronto International Film Festival, Austin Film Festival), Guidance (Toronto International Film Festival, Netflix), Quality Balls (Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Showtime), Living In Your Car (HBO Canada) and Docking (Sundance).

Alyson has been a juror for the international Emmy Awards, a mentor at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) and guest speaker at The University of Toronto and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).

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A futuristic drama that follows Arlo, a young woman, as she comes to terms with her own loneliness in a world where in-person contact has become a rarity.

Creative team

Writer: Katrina Saville
Director: Nicole Dorsey
Producers: Karen Harnisch, Cia Mellegers

Filmmaker’s statement

When Katrina and I first discussed collaborating, her as writer and me to direct, she mentioned a concept she’d been toying with: a glimpse into the future deterioration of in-person contact. I was immediately hooked. What could be more prevalent?

We live in a world connected through wireless communication. We chat through text messages. We have business meetings through Skype. We’re stuck to our devices. I see it all the time when I’m on a bus or train. So, if this is now, what will the future look like?

I love how Arlo Alone explores modernized methods of communication through the experience of one woman. It keeps it personal while tapping into the universal feeling of loneliness and the human need for love. With an unfortunate amount of online dating experiences on my side, I can testify that these disconnected meetings often make you feel more lonely than connected. We need to talk to one another face to face. Nothing can replace the sensation that occurs when you’re in someone’s presence. This film is a testament to that.

About Nicole Dorsey

Nicole Dorsey is a commercial and narrative film director. With a penchant for character-driven material, she aims to present a realist portrayal of the human condition.

Her work has screened internationally, garnering awards in the US and Canada including the Irving Avrich Award for emerging director at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2016, Nicole completed production on her feature, Delta Venus, a collaborative omnibus film, which was spotlighted in NOW Magazine‘s 12 Films We Can’t Wait To See, alongside work by Xavier Dolan and PT Anderson.

She is currently in post-production on her second feature, Black Conflux, which was part of the prestigious WIDC Story Program and was a finalist in Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope screenplay contest. Nicole is also developing an original series with LA-based production company, JASH (Sarah Silverman/Michael Cera), which sold to Fullscreen in the US.

She directed Arlo Alone through Canadian broadcaster Bell Media, which premiered in competition at the Atlanta Film Festival and is a Vimeo Staff Pick. Represented internationally, Nicole has directed commercials for numerous companies, including Nike, Mattel and Nestlé.

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