Welcome back to a new and exciting term at the Toronto Film School. Let’s especially welcome all of our new students who have travelled from all over the world to be a part of our cutting edge Film Production program, film culture and partake in all that our rich city has to offer. Let’s make them feel welcome and at home, and part of the team.

Congratulations go out to all of our graduating students who are now part of our prestigious alumni, and our colleagues. We wish you all success and know you will go on to big things. Once a member of Toronto Film School, always a member of Toronto Film School. You’re welcome back anytime, please keep in touch and share your success stories with us.

With the arrival of the new year we continue our transition to our revised and updated curriculum. The first batch of students experiencing this new program have completed term 1 and will be entering term 2 where they will continue to tackle the new program head-on. The faculty and I are excited to offer you the most up to date program available, and look forward to hearing your continued feedback.

2016 will also be a big year for the City of Toronto as productions slated for in and around the city have begun to reveal themselves. The Film Commission Office predicts a very productive year with numerous feature films– homegrown as well as various co-productions and projects from visiting countries—as well as a slew of television shows and series slated for production.

There are many returning familiars such as Orphan Black and Reign to keep us busy, as well Post Production Companies are benefiting with the likes of Penny Dreadful and Vikings. Our Canadian films continue to astound and impress critically around the world like the recently Golden Globe Nominated Room, which was up for best picture and best actress. The Irish-Canadian film is about a young boy who spends most of his childhood locked away in a single room with no human contact except that of his young mother. The film won the people’s choice award at this past September’s TIFF, which in recent years usually indicated the film would have an outstanding award season including a potential Oscar Best Picture nomination.

Other recent Canadian films making noise around the world are Guy Maddin’s new surrealist film Forbidden Room, Deepa Mehta’s Beeba Boys and Atom Egoyan’s Remember. Best of luck to our Canadian filmmakers! We just love to celebrate Canadian film around here and one of the ways we do that is with our friends at REEL CANADA who host events across the country on what is known as National Canadian Film Day every April. I will fill you in with more details and how you can participate as the events get closer.

I’d like to welcome a new instructor to our folds, Jeffrey St. Jules whose recent film Bang Bang Baby was winner of the Best First Canadian Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014, as well winner of the Claude Jutra Award at the Canadian Screen Awards and winner of the Best Independent Feature at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Jeffrey is slated to teach our newly minted Advanced Directing Techniques course. Jeffrey was also awarded the Jackson-Triggs award for Best Emerging Canadian Filmmaker and also became the first Canadian film director ever admitted to the Cannes Film Festival’s residency program for emerging filmmakers. Jeffery will prove to be a great addition to our Toronto Film School family and you the students, will benefit greatly from his experience. Please join us in welcoming him to the team.

As always our continuing dedication to bringing exciting fieldtrips and events has been hugely successful. Recently these trips have taken place at various film locations, like equipment manufacturers, various exhibits, and our ongoing visits with the municipal courts where we are able to attend live proceedings as part of the Copyrights and Clearances course, which is always a highlight as well as our own Pino Halili’s Post City Sound fieldtrip and demonstration which has been very well received. A thank you to all our instructors who help assist and facilitate these fantastic events. As always, keep your eyes fixed to the various bulletin boards, where I will post upcoming events, too numerous to include here.

But, I will take a moment and mention TIFF and the Higher Learning program which we attend regularly. Currently at TIFF Bell Lightbox is Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, which runs until Jan. 17. At this festival you will have opportunities to partake in various exhibits, showings and the Conversations series, this time with Keifer Sutherland and Tatiana Maslany.

Another interesting project on the go is our conversations with  Art with Impact, which promotes mental wellness by creating space for young people to learn and connect through art and media. We will be submitting some short films them for festival inclusion to as well as work on a few other exciting opportunities are available. Again look to the bulletin boards for further information as it comes up. Another fabulous opportunity for our students is with “REALLIFEpictures”, which supports Women of Colour (WOC) filmmakers by raising awareness of their projects, coaching them and making authentic connections. As these discussions continue I will let you know how you can become involved.

As always take care, work hard, play hard and stay in the picture.

Written by Christopher Lane, an instructor of the Film Production Diploma Program at Toronto Film School. Lane is a writer, producer and director who has been working in the film industry for more than 20 years.