BravoFACT Announces Award Recipients for February 2 Jury

TORONTO (February 2, 2015) – Bell Media’s BravoFACT (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent) announced today the 15 award recipients from the February 2 jury meeting. Selected from 112 applications, a total of $571,500 was awarded to Canadian filmmakers for the production of short films. As part of the recently announced BravoFACT Year Of The Female Filmmaker initiative, a total of $350,000 was awarded to female-led projects. The jury was anchored by singer, actor, writer, and director Amy Jo Johnson (FLASHPOINT), who is currently in development on her debut feature film, The Space Between. Since its inception in 1995, BravoFACT-supported films have enjoyed success both at home and abroad. Most recently, it was announced that BravoFACT-funded short My Enemy, My Brother is set to make its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. The film is also slated to be presented in the award-winning New York Times OpDocs section, which features short, opinionated documentaries, covering current affairs, contemporary life, and historical subjects. Additionally, two BravoFACT-funded films, Parental Advisory and Bastards have been selected to move on to the second phase of The National Screen Institute Totally Television course – a development training course, supported by Bell Media, where writer/producer have the opportunity to work with the best showrunners and story editors in Canada.   The BravoFACT fund recipients from the February 2, 2015 jury meeting are: The Big Crunch – Dusty Mancinelli (Director/Producer/Writer), Harry Cherniak (Producer)

• After discovering the universe will one day collapse, a young boy has an existential crisis about his place in the world.

Boxing – Aidan Shipley (Director), Grayson Moore (Director), Mackenzie Donaldson (Producer), Katie Boland (Producer)

• A middle-aged woman returns to her kickboxing class following an event that no one seems to want to talk about.

Boy – Connor Jessup (Director/Writer), Ashley Shields-Muir (Producer)

• The ghost of a young boy explores the world, on the day of his death.

Cindy – Bryce Sage (Director/Writer), Marco Bucci (Producer)

• When a precocious girl discovers she is cursed to literally burn any boy she touches, her quest for true love becomes a real trial by fire.

Eden – Patrick Adams (Director), Natalie Urquhart (Producer), Troian Bellisario (Writer)

• After an ecological disaster has left Earth in ruins, a man and woman struggle to survive and procreate against all odds, on a desolate island in Northern British Columbia.

The Epitaph – Ron Murphy (Director), Plato Fountindakis (Producer), Ian Fisher (Writer)

• What would you do if you knew the day you were going to die but not the year?

Flush – Maisie Jacobson (Director), Michael Seater (Producer), Natasha Greenblatt (Writer)

• Two best friends figure out who they are and who they want to be, in real time, in front of the bathroom mirror.

Friends Like Us – Craig Wallace (Director/Writer), Ed McNamara (Producer/Writer)

• A struggling couple that is broke, pregnant, and questioning their love for each other, discovers ultimate success by ripping off their friends.

Green Eyed Monster – Erin Laing (Director/Writer), Philip Kalin-Hadju (Producer)

• The impending threat of three criminals on the lam upends a relationship between two best friends.

In the Room – David Hyde (Director/Producer), Marsha Greene (Writer)

• A black teacher and a white teacher witness the surreal murder of their maybe-racist principal, when an elephant in the room blasts him with the shotgun.

Lost Ones – Eliane Gagnon (Director/Writer), Nicholas Sorbara (Producer)

• A short film that looks at the geographical, emotional, and spiritual separation of individuals from the Y generation.

PYOTR495 – Blake Mawson (Director/Writer), Lyvia Cohen (Producer)

• Set on one evening in present day Moscow, 17 year-old Pyotr is baited by an ultra-nationalist group known for their violent abductions and attacks, bolstered by Russia’s “gay propaganda” law, but Pyotr has a dangerous secret his attackers could never have accounted for.

Shazad – Haya Waseem (Director/Writer), Prionnsias Murphy (Producer)

• Shahzad, an 11-year-old Pakistani Boy who moves to Toronto with his father, has to find his home in a foreign land, only to discover that his native home has become foreign.

Stake – Alyssa Pankiw (Director/Writer), Jason Aita (Producer)

• Stake follows the reunion of Trevor and Vanessa, estranged best friends from high school, ten years after Vanessa ran away to the big city to work for CSIS and left Trevor in their very small home town.

Providing funding for short films since its inception in 1995, BravoFACT awards grants on four cycles per year: two grant cycles per year for scripted shorts via BravoFACT, and two grant cycles for short documentary projects via BravoFACTUAL. The next submission deadline for BravoFACTUAL is April 1, 2015. The next submission deadline for BravoFACT is June 12, 2015. For information about BravoFACT and BravoFACTUAL program requirements, and application guidelines, visit http://bravofact.com.