The 2022 75th Anniversary Festival

Steve Allen is a principal partner, founding member and a Producer and Director with the Wavelength Entertainment Group and is responsible for major decisions on key issues for the Wavelength Entertainment Group of companies. 

Steve has worked in the television industry as a Director and/or Director of Photography on commercials and documentary series since 2001 for History Television, Discovery Channel, Discovery Military, The Smithsonian Channel US, A&E Biography, and TLC. In 2009 he won the Showcase best Photography award In 2005 for Worksafe Saskatchewan's Hospital commercial. 

He was nominated for a Canadian Society of Cinematographers C.S.C. Award for Best Cinematography for his work on the documentary Escape from Iran, which was also nominated for a Gemini Award. He was nominated for a Showcase Award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary for the series Crime Stories. He has also been nominated for a Showcase Award for Best Visual Effects.

Cam Bennett is Executive Producer at Bell MTS TV in Winnipeg. Working with community producers, Bell MTS creates local content for TV1 and supports and licenses new documentary and lifestyle series that reflect the people and places of Manitoba. 

Prior to joining Bell MTS, Cam was an independent writer/director in documentary and lifestyle television. 

Select credits include Gemini-nominated As Seen on TV/The K-Tel Story, Avrocar: Saucer Secrets from The Past, Recreating Eden, Magnificent Obsessions, and The Sharing Circle. 

His work has aired on CBC, CTV, Global, Discovery, History U.K., The Sci-Fi Network, and APTN. Most recently Cam has directed episodes of the Eagle Vision series Taken for APTN and CBC. 

Founder of EyeSteelFilm in Montreal, Daniel has been a central figure in the international documentary community for over 25 years. His process-driven and hyper-personal approach, as director, as producer and as educator, have had a profound influence on a generation of documentary filmmakers. 

His documentary I AM THE BLUES received two Canadian Screen Awards in 2017 for Best Feature Documentary and Best Cinematography; the film also won two Golden Sheaf Awards for Best Director and Best Film. 

Daniel is an Associate Professor at the Mel Hoppeinheim School of Cinema and the principal investigator for the Concordia Research Chair in Interactive Filmmaking.

Valerie Creighton is an industry leader in arts, culture and media, recognized for reenergizing some of the country’s most important organizations in the sector over the last 35 years.  Currently serving as President and CEO of the Canada Media Fund, Valerie positions Canadian programming at the forefront in world markets advocating successful, innovative Canadian content and software applications for current and emerging digital platforms. 

Valerie has taken part in foreign trade missions and is regularly called upon to present the CMF model internationally.  Valerie was invested into the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2016 and the Order of Canada in 2019. She was recognized in 2017 by Women in Television and Film Vancouver for her major contribution to promoting gender equality in media, was bestowed the Honorary Maverick Award at the 2017 Female Eye Film Festival and received C21’s 2020 Content Canada Impact Award. 

Most recently in October 2021, she was named by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the 20 Most Powerful Women in Global Entertainment. Valerie holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Saskatchewan, has served on a variety of regional, national, and international juries and boards and has produced radio dramas for the CBC in Saskatchewan, where she owns and operates the Red Horse Ranch. 

As City Saskatchewan’s Program Manager, Will Dixon oversees the development and production of original homegrown programming for the Rogers owned station.

Prior to this position, Will spent three years as a Regional Development Executive for the premium pay television network Super Channel. 

Before that Will worked primarily in TV production spending almost twenty years writing, directing, story editing, and producing series and movies everywhere from Toronto to Vancouver to Montreal to Edmonton to Regina to Los Angeles, including Guitarman, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, Earth: Final Conflict, and The Outer Limits.

Ursula has been with the National Screen Institute since 2004 and is a manager of programs and development. She is currently working on training initiatives including EAVE On Demand Access Program, NSI Business for Producers and NSI New Northern Voices. She also oversees the mentorship, development and delivery of projects for TELUS STORYHIVE.

In 2013 Ursula was honoured to receive the YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Circle of Inspiration Award along with colleagues Lisa Meeches and Melissa Kajpust for their contribution to CBC New Indigenous Voices.

In 2019, Ursula was nominated for the Winnipeg Arts Council Making a Difference award which celebrates contributions to the growth and development of the arts in Winnipeg.  

Instrumental in helping the National Screen Institute develop and deliver culturally sensitive film and television training to emerging Indigenous content creators, Ursula previously managed CBC New Indigenous Voices, NSI IndigiDocs and NSI Aboriginal Journalism. She also coordinated NSI Global Marketing, NSI Totally Television, NSI Aboriginal Cultural Trade Initiative and NSI Pitch to Win! Ursula is secretary of the NSI Board of Directors.  

Charlotte Engel is a producer and a former broadcaster with over 25 years of experience in film and television. 

While at CBC, she oversaw CBC’s cutting edge documentary strands Firsthand and CBC Docs POV. She specialized in bringing unique voices and unforgettable stories to CBC. Many of these documentaries won multiple awards (Indictment: The Crimes of Shelley Chartier, Nipawistamasowin: We Will Stand Up and The Skin We’re In”).

As a producer of documentaries for Rock Yenta Productions, she brought docs to CBC, TVO and the Documentary Channel.  She won a CSA for My Millennial Life and a Golden Sheaf award for Mugshot. Engel has sat on the boards of Hot Docs, DOC Ontario and imagineNATIVE.  

As the General Manager for Citytv Saskatchewan, Joanne is involved in all aspects of broadcasting- from operations to programming. The station is a provincial educational broadcaster and was called SCN in a former life. Over the years she has helped bring many hours of content from Saskatchewan and beyond to screens and audiences. 

A number of titles have won national and international awards –and have gone on to be licensed in other markets around the world. 

When she’s not running a TV station, you can find her volunteering for arts and cultural organizations- at present she sits on two Boards of Directors: SaskCulture (Past President) and the Yorkton Film Festival. She also gets to vote as a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and belongs to Women in Communications and Technology. 

As the AMI Content Development Specialist for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Jim works with external production companies to bring unique documentaries and docu-series to AMI’s national audience.

Along with his 10 years at AMI working directly with the disability community, Jim brings with him many years of experience in production and post-production. 

With 25 years in the film and television industry, Shelley is known for her passion and dedication to screen-based media. She has been in broadcasting since 2015 at APTN, where she currently handles domestic and international television acquisitions. 

Previously, she was the manager of original programming for central Canada at APTN where she handled documentary and dramatic projects for both development and production. 

Prior to broadcasting, Shelley worked in Vancouver as a senior script analyst and intellectual property clearance specialist, and in business affairs on over two dozen features and series, as well as produced several independent short film projects.

In May 2020, Julie Roy became Director General of Creation and Innovation at the National Film Board of Canada. Roy has 25 years of experience in film both as an executive producer and producer of the French Animation Studio with more than 50 productions to her credit. 

She is well-known in the production and programming worlds, regularly serving as a speaker, panelist and programmer for events and festivals in Canada and around the world. She is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

She has collaborated with many publications, with recent contributions including pieces on the NFB and women filmmakers. Roy was also executive producer of Theodore Ushev’s Blind Vaysha, which was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2017. 

Kaya Wheeler, of Anishnaabe and Nehiyaw descent, is a registered member of Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba and Program Manager, Strategic Initiatives with the Indigenous Screen Office . She graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a bachelor of arts in Indigenous Studies, and has been working within the Indigenous community in Winnipeg for more than 10 years. 

She has spent a large portion of this time working with Indigenous youth in many areas, including acting and storytelling for theatre. 

For the last five years she has specifically worked with emerging and mid-career storytellers in film, tv and digital media. She has had experience both volunteering and working on film sets, and even had a small stint on the stage and in front of the camera. 

CRTC Commissioner for Manitoba and Saskatchewan

Joanne’s career has spanned several different roles. She has worked as a television journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, formed an independent production company, and served in senior leadership roles in broadcasting. 

As Executive Director of the A-Channel Production Fund and then Director of Programming for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), Joanne led teams to commission hundreds of hours of programming in all formats and genres. 

Joanne has mentored emerging producers and advocated for Canadian creative talent from regional centres. She served as Chair of On Screen Manitoba, a National Director for Women in Communications and Technology and on the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. 

Cheryl Binning is a showrunner, series producer and writer who has spent the past 13 years working in factual and documentary television. She is currently showrunning a new vintage truck restoration series for Discovery, and is the series producer of the upcoming HGTV Canada/Hulu series Pamela’s Garden of Eden, premiering next fall. 

Her previous showrunning credits include the hit Discovery series Jade Fever, and History Canada’s Yukon Gold. She is also a consulting showrunner on the Viasat World/Blue Ant series Ice Vikings. 

Cheryl has also worked as a writer and senior story editor on the true crime series Very Bad Men (Investigation Discovery), and Discovery’s long-running Highway Thru Hell. Before moving into television production, Cheryl was a journalist, on staff at various newspapers, including the Winnipeg Free Press.

David Christensen has been the Executive Producer at the North West Studio since 2007. He manages the studio, which oversees NFB documentary, production in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. 

Recent films include Elle-Máijá Tailfeather’s Kímmapiiyipitssini, Tasha Hubbard’s nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, Supreme Law directed by Katerina Cizek, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s Angry Inuk, WALL, directed by Cam Christiansen, and Metamorphosis, directed by Nova Ami and Velcro Ripper. 

The North West Studio has about 25 to 30 projects in development and production at any one time.

William F. White international Inc operates some of the most cutting edge virtual production volumes in the world. 

As the coordinator for digital creators and emerging filmmakers, Tug Phipps has supported numerous independent Virtual Production projects and gleaned valuable insights.”

Since Co-Founding Animism Studios in 2017, Stephen's focus has been on business development and strategic growth for the company. 

His previous work in visual effects spanned both creative and supervisory roles, which has given him the necessary foundation and desire to seek new workflows to bring together a more unified production experience. 

His passion lies in animation and is the driving force behind Animism's pursuit of strong, CG creature and character films. Throughout his career, he has given life to dozens of characters in the Marvel and DC Universes, as well as grievers, giants, animals, robots and aliens.

In 2019, Stephen and his team launched a production studio under the Animism banner where he continues to build towards a full production pipeline that unifies all aspects of filmmaking.

As a seasoned producer, Erin has seen her award-winning work on national outlets such as CBC, Bravo!, CTV, Vision TV, Global, Knowledge Network, Corus, PBS and Youtube. 

She is currently the Co-Executive Director of Vancouver’s award-winning short film program Crazy8s Film Society. 

She is President of Chickadee Creative Works Inc., where she provides corporate communications to the film and television industry.

Cara Nye, Director of Production, AMI-tv, for Accessible Media Inc., has over 30 years of production experience, having previously worked for CHUM/Rogers supporting such networks as MuchMusic, Citytv, OMNI, FX Canada, OLN and Bio. Since joining AMI-tv in 2012, Cara is responsible for AMI’s original productions, including the weekly magazine-style show, AMI This Week; #IGotThis; the documentary series Our Community and the upcoming new series Mind Your Own Business. 

Cara and her team at AMI are dedicated to creating accessible content for all Canadians. Through a production process called Integrated Described Video (IDV), AMI embeds audio description directly into the programs they produce, providing a seamless and inclusive experience for the blind or partially sighted viewer. This is done without adding the traditional post-production Described Video track. 

Along with AMI’s team of DV/IDV Specialists, Cara’s production staff ensures that all internal productions, as well as content and programming created in partnership with outside production houses, is 100% accessible and qualifies as “described” in the eyes of the CRTC. 

Tina Apostolopoulos is Sr. Production Executive on Bell Media’s Original Programming team. In this role, Tina works with Canadian production companies and filmmakers on the development and production of various original unscripted series, feature films, and documentaries for Bell Media, including the main conventional channel CTV, premium SVOD service Crave, and specialty channels Discovery and CTV Life.    

Tina has worked on past and present series for CTV and Discovery, and is currently overseeing a Crave Original docu-series. She is also an executive on a variety of award-winning and critically-acclaimed feature film documentary programming for Crave.

Tina is the Diversity and Inclusion (D & I) Lead for the Original Programming group, a member of Bell Media’s D & I Task Force and the D & I Content Advisory Committee, as well as the D & I Think Tank.  

Prior to joining Bell Media, Tina was a sought-after director and producer for a number of award-winning, highly-rated reality and factual entertainment series, such as So You Think You Can Dance Canada (CTV), Canadian Idol (CTV), and Project Runway Canada (GLOBAL). 

Founder and principal of KarmaFilm, recipient of the 2022 Canadian Motion Picture Association (CMPA) Established Producer of the Year Award, Anand Ramayya grew up in an Indo-Canadian film family in Northern

Canada and has been involved in production since the age of 15. Anand spent formative years working and backpacking throughout Asia before returning home to Canada where he started producing in 1998. 

In 2001 Ramayya founded the boutique production company KarmaFilm to facilitate a growing slate of projects and the type of director driven content that inspired him to pursue filmmaking. Since then, Ramayya has won five Gemini and two Canada Awards, two Canadian Screen Awards and six CSA nominations for his work with creatives from around the globe. 

With more than 80 hours of content, his projects range from live action feature films to stop motion animation and documentary and have screened and sold around the world.

Known for producing films representative of diverse BIPOC communities and perspectives, Ramayya is an alumni of CFC, NSI and TAP programs and looks to develop coproductions with like-minded creators.

Kelly Balon was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Visual Research and Best History program for the feature documentary Who Killed Gandhi? (2013), which was selected for Telefilm Canada’s Best in Canada Showcase at MIPDOC and Sunnyside of the Doc. 

As Director of Development and Producer for KarmaFilm he has overseen the development and co-produced several productions including Donkeyhead (2022), Rufus (2013), Chokeslam (2016), Brotherhood (2018) and more than 20 hours of animation programming including Gemini Award winning kids animation series, Wapos Bay. Kelly recently produced South Asian drama-comedy Donkeyhead, which premiered on NetFlix in 2022, and the feature documentary, Shadow of Dumont, a historical biography of Metis freedom fighter, Gabriel Dumont. 

A queer producer originally from askatchewan, he strives to work with creators who upset popular belief and challenge heteronormative, patriarchal and colonial mindsets.

Zarqa Nawaz is a Canadian film and television producer, public speaker, journalist, and former broadcaster. She is the author of the memoir Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, which was shortlisted for the Leacock Medal for Humour, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and two Saskatchewan Book Awards. 

She also created the hit CBC comedy series Little Mosque on the Prairie, the world’s first sitcom about a Muslim community living in the West, and is the creator and star of the forthcoming CBC Gem series Zarqa. 

Her new novel, Jameela Green Ruins Everything, publishes this spring. Zarqa lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with her loving but long-suffering family. 

One of the founding partners of Raven Banner, Andrew Thomas Hunt is a Producer/Director/ Writer/Editor with over 30 years of industry experience.

Andrew’s feature length debut Sweet  Karma premiered at the 2009 Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal and was the catalyst for the  formation of Raven Banner Entertainment, a worldwide sales company specializing in  genre films. In 2012 Raven Banner Releasing was formed as the Canadian distribution arm  for RBE. In 2015 Northern Banner Releasing was  formed to focus on non-genre films.

Additionally, Andrew has  produced over two dozen films. In 2018 Andrew got behind the camera again as director for his sophomore  feature Spare Parts which had its World Premiere at Korea's prestigious BIFAN Film Festival  and its European Premiere at Sitges.

Andrew is currently in post-production for his third  feature film as director, The Fight Machine, based on acclaimed author Craig Davidson's  novel The Fighter. 

Erin is the CEO for Creative Saskatchewan. She is responsible for the overall operation of the organization, by providing strategic leadership and working closely with the provincial government, industry stakeholders, the Board of Directors, and the senior management team. 

Erin was Creative Saskatchewan’s first employee, as the Director of Programs, and has been heavily involved in the creation of programming right from the start. Previously, Erin was a Program Officer at the Saskatchewan Film Commission and has experience working in Business Affairs for several independent production companies.   

Erin obtained her BFA in Film and Video Production and BA in English at the University of Regina. Erin also holds a Certificate in Entertainment Law from the Osgoode Hall Law School. In her spare time, Erin enjoys spending time with her family, especially baking with her daughter, watching the silver screen, and game nights with friends.  

“At Creative Saskatchewan, we accelerate opportunities for Saskatchewan’s creative industries – we make Saskatchewan a great place to live and work.” 

Tobi is the Program Manager for Creative Saskatchewan and is the primary liaison for film and television production programming. Tobi leads the Program Team, who are responsible for administering production, marketing, travel, and business development grants to individuals, businesses, and Saskatchewan’s creative industry associations. Tobi spearheads ongoing program development through industry consultation.

An expert in film and television funding administration, Tobi’s background includes Film Locations with the Saskatchewan Film Commission, Director of Development and a producer for independent factual television productions.  

Tobi holds a Degree in Film from the University of Regina, and a Certificate in Entertainment Law from the Osgoode Hall Law School. When Tobi isn’t watching matinee movies or creating creepy, poetic short films, she can be found with her head in a novel or tending to her many plants.   

“Creative Saskatchewan is that piece of the puzzle that helps creative entrepreneurs achieve their goals to create productions and realize opportunities to market those products!” 

Opening Night Screening

7:00 pm, Painted Hand Casino 

Join us for a free screening of Donkeyhead, a 2021 Canadian comedy-drama by Agam Darshi and filmed in Regina.

Programmed Screenings

9:00 am - 3:00 pm, Gallagher Centre 

Join us for free programmed screenings and Q&A sessions with the filmmakers.

See film screening schedule below.

On Demand Screenings

9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Gallagher Centre 

Watch festival films of your choice in a semi-private viewing station.

75th Anniversary Screening

3:15 pm, Tower Theatre 

Join us for a free screening of Night Raiders, a 2021 Canadian-New Zealand sci-fi film by Danis Goulet. Night Raiders sees a mother join an underground band of vigilantes to try and rescue her daughter from a state-run institution.

Yorkton Lions Lobsterfest

5:30 pm, Yorkton Wildlife Federation 

Join us for our signature event! Enjoy a delicious east coast meal with a side order of trap shooting. Tickets are $60 per person and are required for meal and trap shooting.

Programmed Screenings 

9:00 am - 3:00 pm, Gallagher Centre  

Join us for free programmed screenings and Q&A sessions with the filmmakers.

See film screening schedule below. 

On Demand Screenings 

9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Gallagher Centre  

Watch festival films of your choice in a semi-private viewing station.

Golden Sheaf Awards Gala

5:45 pm, Gallagher Centre 

Come enjoy a Ukrainian feast followed by our prestigious awards gala. Tickets are $50 per person and are required to attend the gala.