Director

Tasha Hubbard (Cree)

Hubbard is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and an associate professor in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native Studies. Her NFB documentary Two Worlds Colliding won a Gemini and a Golden Sheaf Award. She has also directed the short film 7 Minutes, and the feature docs Birth of a Family, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, which won 14 awards, including the CSA for best documentary and Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs 2019. She is a founding director of the International Buffalo Relations Institute. Her documentary Singing Back the Buffalo won three awards and was nominated for four others.

Director

Robert Adetuyi

Adetuyi is a screenwriter and director known for dance and action films. His writing credits include Stomp the Yard, Code Name: The Cleaner, Honey: Rise Up and Dance, and Trouble Sleeping. He wrote and directed Turn It Up, You Got Served: Beat the World, and directed Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack, Trouble Sleeping and Stand!, which won two ACTRA awards. 

Directors

Brenda Michell (Wet'suwet'en)

Brenda Mitchell is Tsakë ze’ K‑eltiy (a hereditary chief) of the Unist'ot'en Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation. In addition to participating in Wet’suwet’en governance, she has worked in post-secondary education for the Lake Babine Nation Band for decades, and is currently a resident Elder, language teacher and addictions counselor. Yintah is her first documentary. 

Jennifer Wickham (Wet'suwet'en)

A member of the Cas Yikh (Grizzly House) of the Gidimt’en (Bear/Wolf) Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, Wickham is a poet, youth advocate, and a committed land defender and activist whose work includes language and culture revitalization. She has worked as Media Coordinator for Gidimt’en Checkpoint since 2018. Yintah is her first documentary. 

Michael Toledano

Michael Toledano is a journalist, photographer, and documentarian whose work focuses on environmental pollution and Indigenous land defense. His reporting has appeared on Al Jazeera America, VICE, Ricochet, Upworthy, Rabble, and other outlets. His footage has appeared on CBC News, CTV, CP24, CityNews, APTN, and Democracy Now. Yintah is his first feature documentary. 

Director

Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis)

Danis Goulet is an award-winning Cree/Métis filmmaker from La Ronge, SK, now based in Toronto. Her films have screened at festivals worldwide including Sundance, Berlinale, TIFF, and MoMA. She has directed numerous short films, including Wapawekka, Barefoot, Wakening, Blind Spot, and others. Night Raiders was her first feature film. It premiered at TIFF 2021 and went on to win 14 awards, including six CSAs. She has also directed episodes of Reservation Dogs and North of North. 

Director

Barry Avrich

Prolific producer, director, and writer Avrich has made many acclaimed documentaries including The Last Mogul, Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky, David Foster: Off the Record, and Oscar Peterson: Black + White, for which he won a best direction CSA, and The Road Between Us, which won TIFF’s People’s Choice Documentary Award. Avrich has authored three books, and produced and directed several film adaptations of theatrical productions.

Director

Nisha Pahuja

Pahuja is a documentary filmmaker who has directed, written and produced award-winning and internationally acclaimed films for over two decades. Her documentary The World Before Her won the prize for Best Canadian Feature at Hot Docs in 2012. To Kill a Tiger won over 20 awards, including three CSAs, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Director

Jason Loftus

Jason Loftus is a documentary filmmaker who has produced such films as Avenues of Escape and Human Harvest, an investigation of the human organ trade. He has also directed his own feature documentaries, most notably Eternal Spring in 2022, which garnered many awards and was Canada’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. 

Director

Sturla Gunnarsson

Born in Iceland and raised in Vancouver, Gunnarsson earned an Oscar nomination for his debut feature doc, After the Axe. His films include Beowulf and Grendel, Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie and Monsoon, and he has directed hit TV shows such as Motive, Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Art of More, and most recently Schitt’s Creek and Ransom.

Director

Robin Spry

A notable figure in the development of the English-Canadian film industry, Spry joined the National Film Board in 1964 and went on to direct many cinéma-vérité documentaries focusing on social issues, such as Flowers on a One-Way Street and Action: The October Crisis of 1970. His first feature was Prologue, which won a BAFTA and was the first Canadian film to be invited to the Venice Film Festival. His feature credits include One Man, Drying Up the Streets, Suzanne, and Keeping Track, among others.  

Director

Jacob Tierney

A prolific actor, writer, director and producer, Tierney has appeared in over 50 feature films and TV shows. His feature directorial debut was Twist, which was nominated for four Genies, winning one. He also wrote and directed The Trotsky (which won two Genies) and Good Neighbours, and directed Preggoland. He wrote and directed episodes of the hit series Letterkenny and Shoresy, and starred in both. 

Director

Rob Stewart

Stewart was an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, whose docs Sharkwater and Revolution earned awards at festivals worldwide. A tireless activist, Stewart was credited with saving a third of the world’s sharks. He tragically passed away in 2017, while filming Sharkwater: Extinction, which was completed posthumously and premiered at TIFF 2018.

Director

Don McKellar

A Member of the Order of Canada, McKellar is a prolific writer, filmmaker and actor whose work has garnered numerous awards. He wrote Highway 61, The Red Violin, and Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, and he wrote, directed and starred in Childstar and Last Night (which won the Prix de la jeunesse at the Cannes film festival). As an actor, he has starred in films such as Meditation Park and David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future. McKellar has also worked extensively in television, directing the series Sensitive Skin, as well as creating and showrunning The Sympathizer with Park Chan-wook.