2022

James Luscombe is a Content Analyst in the Feature Film department at Telefilm Canada. Previously he worked as a script analyst for the CFC and The Harold Greenberg Fund, and as Development Executive for Lumanity Films and Shaftesbury Films.

Originally from La Ronge, Saskatchewan, Goulet moved to Toronto in the early 2000s to work as a casting coordinator, but opted to return to school to study filmmaking after being asked to cast a “Pocahontas type” for an American television pilot, convincing her that Indigenous people needed more creative control over their own stories. She has directed a number of films, including Spin (2004),[Divided by Zero (2006), Wapawekka (2010), Barefoot (2012), Wakening (2013), and Night Raiders (2021) – inspired by Indigenous resistance movements.

Goulet has served for a number of years as artistic director of the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival. In its year-end review of Canadian film and television in 2021, the trade magazine Playback named Goulet the Director of the Year. Screening: Night Raiders: Set in a dystopian version of North America in the year 2044, the film centres on Niska (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers), a Cree woman who joins a resistance movement to the military government in order to save her daughter. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZC_MimYhos

Martin Edralin is a Toronto-based filmmaker. Martin’s work has screened at international film festivals including TIFF, Sundance, and Locarno. His films include Hole (2014), winner of the Grand Prize at Clermont-Ferrand and a Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short; Emma (2016), a TIFF Canada’s Top Ten selection; and Building History: The Story Of Benjamin Brown (2016), a Heritage Toronto Public History Award nominee. His feature film debut, Islands, was supported by Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch funding program in 2018, and premiered in 2021. The film tells the story of Joshua, a timid, middle-aged Filipino immigrant in Canada has lived in the comfort of his parents care his entire life. When his mother suddenly passes and his father’s health declines, he quits his job to look after his father full-time despite his inexperience taking care of anyone, including himself.

Indigenous rising star, Joshua Odjick, hails from Ottawa, Ontario and was raised by a single mother in Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, a First Nation community located in Maniwaki, Quebec. He is of Algonquin-Anishinabe and Cree heritage, belongs to the Deer clan and recognized in ceremony as ‘Nabigabow’ (he who replaces the first).

He was recently awarded both a Canadian Screen Award (2022) and Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award (2022) for Best Supporting Actor for the multi-award winning feature film Wildhood.

Joshua is described as the “scene-stealing Joshua Odjick” (Salon, Gary M. Kramer) in Wildhood, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and has gone on to screen at many festivals worldwide. Wildhood (filmed in both English and Mi’kmaq), follows the journey of ‘Link’ (Phillip Lewitski) as he tries to locate his mother who abandoned him when he was young. At the start of his travels, ‘Link’ meets pow wow dancer ‘Pasmay’ (Joshua Odjick) who joins him on his journey of identity, community and love in the land where he belongs.