SCRIPT READINGS SERIES
DAY ONE: SCRIPT READINGS SERIES
JULY 18, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The Annex Hotel - Wine Bar
296 Brunswick Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 2M7
Supported by Ontario Creates
9:30 AM
Panhandle
Written by A.M. Chester
Logline: When the pandemonium of family life with young children collides
with an anniversary party and a hurricane simultaneously, Emily grapples with a deep, secret loss that renders her helpless.
Synopsis: As she prepares for her parents' 50th anniversary party, Emily struggles with the daily wildness of her three young children and the often funny yet simultaneously infuriating relationship with her husband, as both her family and a hurricane descend on her beachside home. In the middle of her frantic party preparations, she's hit with a loss so deep yet so secret, she struggles to function. It's a look into a woman's life that makes you question stereotypes, family roles, and what love truly means. Comedic yet poignant, Panhandle takes you through the build-up, landfall, and aftermath of a powerful storm.
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Akata
Written by Stephanie Obadare & Caroline Gordon-Elliott
Logline: The daughter of immigrant Nigerian parents comes of age in the Bronx believing there are two types of black people: Nigerians, and everyone else.
Synopsis: Samantha, an optimistic young woman, who has seen her fair
share of life, plunges into depression and contemplates suicide after she fails her first college class. She believes that God saves her from the brink and that God is providing her with a husband, Gabriel, a Nigerian immigrant, living illegally in America. She breaks her vow of sexual abstinence only to find that Gabriel is abusive. Like Akata, which means a lost or wild cat that does not know its way home, Samatha embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
11:45 AM - 1:15 PM
LUNCH BREAK
1:15 PM -2:15 PM
Bougainvillea
Written by Patricia Chica
Logline: When a young Latina bride-to-be is shaken by the sudden encounter with her lost childhood friend, she defies her prearranged life, embarking on a journey toward self-discovery and liberation.
Synopsis: Marisol, a 21-year old Latina-Canadian young woman, has decided to get married to her Egyptian, foreign student boyfriend Ramy so she can escape her overbearing conservative family home. As she prepares for her wedding at the lakeside cottage venue where she spent summers as a child, she reconnects with Celeste, her teenage best friend. Celeste now lives alone in the cabin next door. As soon as they see each other again, their chemistry is undeniable, stirring dormant feelings that Marisol was forced to repress 8 years beforehand when her father forbade their friendship.
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Demon Queen: A Tale of Good and Evil and All In-Between
Written by Suri Parmar
Logline: The Devil tricks a carnival jester into marrying her but struggles to convince their wayward child to take her place and rule the world.
Synopsis: In a mythical, pre-industrial, symbolic representation of our universe, a pious GIRL (15) trains to be a warrior in the service of GOD. When her family is murdered by bandits, she blames the DEVIL and sets out to destroy him. After killing the Devil, she usurps his power, becoming the DEMON QUEEN. It’s a lonely existence so she tricks an amoral jester named FIRST (20’s) into marrying her. As the Demon Queen ages, she is unable to fulfill her immortal duties. Desperately, she tries to convince SECOND (her son) to succeed her and become the Demon King, with the fate of the world at stake.
Facilitated by Lia Cavasotto, Director of Script Development
INDUSTRY GUEST
DANIELA SAIONI
(WGC, IATSE, ACTRA)
DANIELA SAIONI is a screenwriter, story editor, punch-up artist, veteran script supervisor and educator. Between her students and clients, she has shepherded the creation of over 100 original screenplays from concept to completion. In the past two years alone, four first-time writers sold the TV pilot scripts they wrote in her program to notable production companies.
Apart from her own online programs, she has taught at Pacific Screenwriting Program and ScriptFest PEI, and guest story edited at ReelWorld E20 and FEFF. A Top 1% Coverfly writer with numerous honours including Grand Prize - WE Screenplay Diverse Voices 2021 and both Best Screenplay and Best Fresh Voice at Female Eye Film Festival 2019, she is also proud of the growing list of her alumni achievements. A former stand-up comedian and character actress, her talents are varied, but her mission is singular: change the world, one laugh at a time.
INDUSTRY GUEST
KAREN WALTON
SCREENWRITER - EP
KAREN WALTON is a multiple award-winning film and television writer best known for her original debut feature film script, Ginger Snaps (2000) and hit series such as Orphan Black and Queer As Folk. A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre, she is the founding-admin of the celebrated national screenwriting community, inkcanada. Her unique voice and fearless dedication to championing women, outsiders and outliers on screen and off has been recognized by ACTRA, WIFT+ Toronto, the Writers Guild of Canada and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
INDUSTRY GUEST
NATTASHA SHRESTHA
NATTASHA SHRESTHA is a South Asian and Southeast Asian storyteller who writes drama comedy narratives that cut close to the bone. Having been raised internationally in over 5 different countries and continents, she brings a distinct, global and robust POV in screenwriting, seeking to explore the intersection between grief and comedy.
After graduating from UBC and the Vancouver Film School, she’s since been a story editor for multiple shows, films and festivals, including for Reelworld, CBC and the BSO. She’s a writer for Netflix’s Womens in Animation program, the winner of the VAFF x Bell Series development competition. She also recently completed the CFC’s Comedy Story Room Intensive along with the Amazon MGM x Reelworld Writing cohort. She is in development for three of her own original show deals, all in pursuit to celebrate unusual, vulnerable and underrepresented stories on screen.
INDUSTRY GUEST
MAUREEN DOREY-LUKIE
In several decades in the Canadian film and television industry, Maureen has worked as a story editor, consultant, analyst and educator. Her produced film credits include Amal (Richie and Shaun Mehta), In Darkness (David Shamoon, directed by Agnieska Holland), Sharp Corner by Jason Burton, and Nurse, Fighter.Boy (by Charles Officer and Ingrid Veninger); with tv credits for the series Moccasin Flats, Random Passage and On My Mind. She was Story Editor Mentor at the Canadian Film Centre for twenty years and has taught Screenwriting for several years at York University and Humber College. She aims to help writers find their voices, shape their stories and renew their inspiration.
More delegates TBC
DAY TWO: SCRIPT READINGS SERIES
JULY 19, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The Annex Hotel - Wine Bar
296 Brunswick Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 2M7
Supported by Ontario Creates
9:10 AM - 10:10 AM
Citizen Blob
Written by KJ Carter
Logline: A darkly comic, sci-fi 50's, film noir horror, where Citizen Kane meets the Blob. A Faustian tale of Bob Smith, a frustrated accountant who gets entangled in nefarious dealings with his employers, the evil Octo Brothers.
Synopsis: CITIZEN BLOB takes place in a parallel world where hardworking accountant, Bob Smith, is overlooked for yet another promotion, after he saves millions of dollars for the company that he works for, with the help of his sweet but meek colleague Constance Evered. Frustrated, Bob vows to get ahead at any cost, which triggers a strange blue Blob to infect him. The Blob helps Bob command attention; his bosses- the Octo Brothers, promote him. Bob enters a corrupt world of secrets, lies, and politics, where money is exchanged for favours that grease the wheels of the coal and oil industry, with little concern for safety or the public good. Are the Octo Brothers greedy, morally bankrupt industrialists or is there more to them than meets the eye? And what exactly is the Blob and who or what does it ultimately serve?
10:25 AM - 11:25 AM
Nina's '80s
Written by Christine Rodriguez
Logline: In 1980's Montreal, Nina, a Black-mixed-race teen, who loves disco, funk and roller skating, is a pariah at her suburban high school until she discovers Cleo’s Castle where all the cool Black teens gather every Saturday night to escape their everyday troubles.
Synopsis: Eager to escape the predominantly White suburb where she lives, mixed-race Nina is thrilled when she comes across Cleo’s Castle, a roller rink where all the cool Black and mixed-race teens in Montreal hang out. However, she soon learns that she has to prove that she belongs; she has to earn the respect of Black peers who come from various neighbourhoods in the city and a diversity of socio-economic realities. Desperate to fit in, Nina finds the courage to stand up to bullies by participating in the Skate Off so she can erase all doubt about where she belongs. While she forms lasting bonds, she also has to deal with some of the problems that plague the community, providing a look at contemporary issues through the nostalgic lens of disco, funk and roller skating’s golden age.
11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
How Deep is Your Love
Written by Gillian Smith
Logline: The exploration and introspection of an unlikely marriage between Casey - a man struggling with his sexuality, and his best friend Angie - a woman dealing with the effects of sexual abuse as a child.
Synopsis: Best friends, Casey and Angie, marry in a time and place
wherein their love and their personal stories are not accepted. Through a series of drunken events the night they meet, Casey and Angie admit their deepest, darkest secrets to one another: Angie struggles with substance abuse due to molestation as a child; Casey is gay. Revealing their secrets to each other creates a lasting bond that results in marriage. Wedlock, a move, and their newborn child Maggie, force the couple to reflect on the ties that bind and the answer to their lurking demons once and for all.
12:40 PM - 2:10 PM
LUNCH BREAK
2:10 PM - 3:10 PM
The Knife Thrower's Assistant
Written by Joyce Kline
Logline: When a mysterious target girl is hired by the arrogant knife thrower in a Depression era truck circus, their romance leads to an unimaginable act of desperation.
Synopsis: At the height of the Great Depression, desperate runaway Lola sneaks into a travelling truck circus where she learns egotistical knife thrower Zoltan needs a new target girl. Lola fakes experience and, out of desperation, Zoltan hires her. Her creativity and onstage charisma soon challenge his former supremacy. In spite of this, he becomes smitten with his enigmatic new assistant. Though equally attracted to him, Lola keeps her distance, refusing to surrender to his charms or reveal anything of her troubled past. As tensions mount between them, Zoltan uncovers the dark secret she’s been hiding only to be brought down by Lola’s final unimaginable act.
3:25 PM - 4:25 PM
Jupiter
Written by Elise Kibler
Logline: A social climbing, female millennial and a curmudgeonly, old man exploit each other for mutual gain in a gated community.
Synopsis: In order to maintain their respective - though deeply limiting - status-quos, a gold-digging, work-averse young woman and a prickly, well-off senior bachelor find themselves unlikely collaborators in a self-serving scheme to convince his gated golf community that they’re granddaughter and grandfather.
Over the course of the series, they disrupt each other’s lives in almost every way imaginable - forcing a reckoning within themselves and each other. A messy, funny, slapsticky, sexy, druggy, begrudgingly heartfelt journey (and naturally a million hijinks) to rediscover their sense of curiosity about the world and their place in it, ensues.
Facilitated by Lia Cavasotto, Director of Script Development
INDUSTRY GUEST
DANIELA SAIONI
(WGC, IATSE, ACTRA)
DANIELA SAIONI is a screenwriter, story editor, punch-up artist, veteran script supervisor and educator. Between her students and clients, she has shepherded the creation of over 100 original screenplays from concept to completion. In the past two years alone, four first-time writers sold the TV pilot scripts they wrote in her program to notable production companies.
Apart from her own online programs, she has taught at Pacific Screenwriting Program and ScriptFest PEI, and guest story edited at ReelWorld E20 and FEFF. A Top 1% Coverfly writer with numerous honours including Grand Prize - WE Screenplay Diverse Voices 2021 and both Best Screenplay and Best Fresh Voice at Female Eye Film Festival 2019, she is also proud of the growing list of her alumni achievements. A former stand-up comedian and character actress, her talents are varied, but her mission is singular: change the world, one laugh at a time.
INDUSTRY GUEST
ANNIE BRADLEY
DIRECTOR
Raised in the arresting landscapes of Muskoka, Emmy nominated Director Annie Bradley, is known for her striking cinematic work and fierce storytelling and was recently included in The Hollywood Reporter’s inaugural Canadian Women In Entertainment Power List. She is a member of both the DGC and the DGA, an alumna of the Sundance Film Festival, TIFF, the CFC Directors Lab, the TIFF Talent Lab and is currently serving her third term as the Chair of DGC Ontario.
While developing a diverse slate of content via her company, The Heat Mansion, Annie has built a dynamic resume of international directing and writing credits for Channel 4, Hulu, Sky TV, Crave, CBS, CBC, Amazon, CW, Hallmark, Apple TV, Lifetime, TF1, Netflix and served as a Co-Exec Producer and Producing Director on the final season of CW’s In The Dark.
Annie is represented by Carmen Bonnici at Pacific Artists Management and Katy McCaffrey and Greg Pedicin at The Gersh Agency.
INDUSTRY GUEST
KAREN WALTON
SCREENWRITER - EP
KAREN WALTON is a multiple award-winning film and television writer best known for her original debut feature film script, Ginger Snaps (2000) and hit series such as Orphan Black and Queer As Folk. A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre, she is the founding-admin of the celebrated national screenwriting community, inkcanada. Her unique voice and fearless dedication to championing women, outsiders and outliers on screen and off has been recognized by ACTRA, WIFT+ Toronto, the Writers Guild of Canada and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
INDUSTRY GUEST
NATTASHA SHRESTHA
NATTASHA SHRESTHA is a South Asian and Southeast Asian storyteller who writes drama comedy narratives that cut close to the bone. Having been raised internationally in over 5 different countries and continents, she brings a distinct, global and robust POV in screenwriting, seeking to explore the intersection between grief and comedy.
After graduating from UBC and the Vancouver Film School, she’s since been a story editor for multiple shows, films and festivals, including for Reelworld, CBC and the BSO. She’s a writer for Netflix’s Womens in Animation program, the winner of the VAFF x Bell Series development competition. She also recently completed the CFC’s Comedy Story Room Intensive along with the Amazon MGM x Reelworld Writing cohort. She is in development for three of her own original show deals, all in pursuit to celebrate unusual, vulnerable and underrepresented stories on screen.