By Adam Till

In Toronto Film School’s first year as a Designated Partner for Telefilm’s ‘Talent To Watch’ Program, Telefilm has selected both of Toronto Film School’s submitted projects to receive grants!  Ho Che Anderson’s feature ‘Le Corbeau’ (produced by Mohammed Hassan) and Laura Bergeron’s web series ‘Meilleur Avant’ (produced by Maxime Robin) will both receive the six-figure grants from Telefilm, provided they execute pre-production per Telefilm’s requirements.  Congratulations to both teams, a great start for Toronto Film School as a partner school!

2015 Grad Andrew DiPardo’s latest film Decades Apart has finished post-production and will be released on Amazon on August 17^th.  Andrew once again wrote and directed the film, this time co-writing with fellow 2015 Grad Gilbert T. Laberge.  The film is about a woman transported from 1953 to 2018 through an old-fashioned phone booth, and is based in part on DiPardo’s feeling that he himself was ‘born in the wrong time’.  Decades Apart is being produced by Falls Park Entertainment and Sharp Shooter Productions. Read more about Andrew and the making of his film here.

And as he finishes up production on the penultimate season of Schitt’s Creek, Executive Producer In Residence Andrew Barnsley will begin production on a new sitcom this fall.  Jann, created by and starring Jann Arden, will begin shooting in Calgary this October, with plans to air on CTV early 2019.  Eight-time Juno Award winner Arden will play a fictionalized version of herself, as a newly single singer-songwriter trying to revive her career.

And 2015 Grad Alex Karakatsanis has been hired by Melo Productions as the head writer on their reality series Gym Wars.  The show is currently in pre-production and involves three personal trainers taking their clients from Average Jane/Joe to elite athlete, as measured by weekly competitions.  Karakatsanis recently wrote a trailer for the show that has since been produced and will be used for promotion.

Adam Till is the Program Director of the Writing For Film & Television Diploma at Toronto Film School as well as a producer and writer, known for Billable Hours (2006), Perfect Sisters (2014) and Too Late to Say Goodbye (2009).