 Robin Cass diverse background includes work in the visual arts and a decade of television experience with Global, CFTO and CTV, including the current affairs special No Fixed Address. Cass began his career in film with the 1991 award-winning short drama Ten Ways to Abuse an Old Woman. With co-producers Anna Stratton and Louise Garfield, Robin was associate producer on Zero Patience, a musical about AIDS. For Triptych Media, Cass co-produced Lilies (1996 Genie, Best Film), with producer Anna Stratton, and Falling Angels, the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival hit. Cass is a member of the board of the CFTPA, a past chair of the Feature Film Committee, and a member of the advisory boards for Toronto's Inside/Out Film Festival and Crows Theatre.
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has been a partner at Heenan Blaikie since 2001. He is a business lawyer who focuses in the areas of media, entertainment and intellectual property law. Ken primarily practices in the film, television, book publishing and live theatre industries. His national and international clients are involved in a wide range of activities from financing to production and distribution. He acts for banks, investors, film and television producers, distributors, broadcasters as well as creators and artists and other business clients involved in the film and television industries.
In assisting his clients achieve their transactional goals, Ken brings his extensive industry experience, balanced approach and goal-oriented focus. He frequently advises them on the areas of Canadian tax incentives, which he combines with international incentives, treaty co-productions and co-ventures, and structuring productions to maximize the benefits of these programmes. His experience also extends to working directly and extensively with Canadian guilds and governmental and private agencies on behalf of his Canadian and foreign clients.
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Gabrielle Free has 13 years experience in film, television and theatre publicity. She is currently the Director of Communications for Music & Youth Services at CHUM Television (MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic, MuchVibe, MuchMoreRetro, Razer, PunchMuch, MuchLoud) and the former Director of Communications for the Toronto International Film Festival Group. Free is the sole proprietor of Free Publicity, which provides communications services to arts organizations. Her client list includes Festival Film Jakmel, Human Rights Watch Film Festival (Toronto), the Floating Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, YTV Canada Inc., and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Free has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and a certificate in corporate communications from Seneca College.
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 John Galway’s career in the Canadian film and television industry has run through development and production to financing and exhibition. Starting at the Toronto International Film Festival and the inaugural year of the Cinematheque Ontario, Galway moved into development and production with Independent Pictures and contract work on several film and television projects and ultimately into financing with the Ontario Film Investment Program, the CTF and Telefilm Canada where he was the Sector Head for English Television. Galway brings a deep respect for the history and the achievements of Canadian filmmakers and a passion and excitement for the future. He believes in celebrating our collective successes and working in partnership with the industry.
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 As the Executive Director for imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Danis Goulet brings with her significant experience in the film and television industry. Her short film spin has screened at several festivals, including the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and she has recently completed her latest short project Divided By Zero. Prior to joining imagineNATIVE, Goulet worked as a casting director on numerous film productions, as well as for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. She is currently a member of the board of directors for the Images Film Festival and an advisory committee member for the Planet IndigenUS Festival. She is Métis, originally from northern Saskatchewan and resides in Toronto.
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As Head of Creative Affairs for Movie Central, Gillen is responsible for the pay-TV services, development and pre-licensing activities including the evaluation of all submissions, the selection of both film and television projects, and the creative supervision of selected projects through production. Gillen is the Executive in Charge of Production for Movie Central’s Original Canadian programs Terminal City, G-Spot, ReGenesis and Slings & Arrows. In addition to Movie Central’s financial support for projects, Gillen actively helps producers put together funding partners to bring projects to fruition on the screen. Examples of Movie Central projects developed and/or pre-licensed by Gillen recently include: Fido, Water, A Simple Curve, Eve & the Firehorse and These Girls. Others include Flower and Garnet, Emile, The Snow Walker, Bollywood Hollywood, Falling Angels and Mambo Italiano. In 2003, Gillen received a Leo Award for Individual Outstanding Achievement and was awarded the WIFVV Wayne Black Service Award. Gillen began her career as a newspaper reporter for The Toronto Sun, The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. She was Executive Story Editor on the 26-episode Kleo, the Misfit Unicorn, and has written screenplays and acted as an Associate Producer and Story Editor on a number of successful Canadian features.
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 Elliot Grove worked as a scenic artist on 68 feature films and more than 700 commercials before moving to London in the late 1980s and launching the Raindance Film Festival, a festival devoted to independent filmmaking and its emerging talent. He also lectures on screenwriting and filmmaking throughout the U.K. and Europe, and in 1992 set up the training division of Raindance, which now offers nearly two dozen evening and weekend masterclasses on writing, directing, producing and marketing a feature film. In 1998, Grove founded the prestigious British Independent Film Awards. He wrote, produced and directed the 1997 feature Table 5. His production company operates under the Raindance banner and is currently developing a slate of 10 features. In 2005, he produced The Living in the Home of the Dead, which premiered at the 2006 Rotterdam Film Festival. He is currently producing three more features scheduled to start production in winter 2006. In 2001, he published Raindance Writers Lab: How to Write and Sell the Hot Script. His second book, Raindance Producer’s Lab Lo-To-No Budget Filmmaking, was published in 2004. He is writing a children’s novel, which will be published in 2007.
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 Philippa King is Vice President, Business Affairs, at Marblemedia, a Toronto-based television and new media company. She has worked in the Canadian film and television industry for more than 20 years, specializing in development and production financing and contract management. Before joining Marblemedia, King had been Head of Business Affairs at Capri Entertainment, and at Rhombus Media and Rhombus International. She also has worked at the Ontario Film Development Corporation, first as an analyst assessing the viability of financing applications, then as Head of Business and Legal Affairs, overseeing the agency's film investments and recoupment of revenue. She has spoken at film financing seminars, and has taught in the Radio & Television Arts Program at Ryerson University.
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is the Feature Film Unit Director (Ontario and Nunavut) for Telefilm Canada. Originally an entertainment lawyer, in 1985 Dan joined Astral Bellevue Pathe Inc. and ultimately became Executive Vice-President, Distribution for Astral and its successor companies Coscient, Motion and TVA. As a distributor, his achievements included winning the Golden Reel for The Art of War, and being the first independent buyer in the world (at the screenplay stage) for Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, which won the Palme D’Or and three Academy Awards. In 2002, Lyon launched his own company, Dandelion Entertainment. Credits include Associate Producer of the Gemini and Peabody award-winning The Interrogation of Michael Crowe; and Executive Producer of Twist, which was nominated for four Genie Awards and won one. His previous credits as Executive Producer include Ginger Snaps and Red Green’s Duct Tape Forever. Immediately prior to joining Telefilm, Lyon was the Executive Producer of Everything’s Gone Green, written by Douglas Coupland, which will be released in 2006.
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Gabriella Martinelli has
been labeled “a one-woman cheerleader for the Canadian film industry.” With more than 20 years experience, Gabriella
is the strategic and creative drive behind Capri Films, a Toronto-based
production and distribution company with Canadian roots and an international
perspective. Gabriella directs the
company’s broad range of quality feature and television productions. Her credits include Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet starring Leonardo
DiCaprio; David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch,
M. Butterfly, and Dead Ringers; Clive Barker’s Nightbreed; and the documentaries Journey to Enlightenment, on the life of
Buddhist spiritual leader Dilgo Khyente Rinpoche, and Getting Gilliam, a documentary by Vincenzo Natali about renowned
director Terry Gilliam. Gabriella’s most
recent film, Terry Gilliam’s Tideland,
is set for release this October by Capri Releasing.
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is Co-President of Maple Pictures Corp. Laurie received her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto Law School, where she co-chaired the Entertainment and Sports Law Workshop. She joined Lions Gate Films Corp. (formerly Cinepix Film Properties) as Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs in March 1997, and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs, for Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., the publicly traded company. She oversaw legal matters involving production and distribution, and was involved in such notable films as The Red Violin, Affliction, Gods and Monsters, Monster’s Ball, Godsend, Final Cut, The Snow Walker and Fahrenheit 911, and notable television productions including Dead Zone and Missing. In addition, her corporate responsibilities included the 2000 acquisition of Trimark Pictures, the 2003 acquisition of Artisan Entertainment, and related banking and financings. May was also Co-Manager of the Toronto Office of Lions Gate. Prior to joining Lions Gate, she practiced corporate and entertainment law at the law firm of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt for three years. She was also an adjunct professor of Entertainment and Sports Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario.
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 Ruba Nadda is a writer, director and producer living in Toronto. She has written and directed three feature films Sabah (2005), Unsettled (2001), and I Always Come to You (2000); as well as 13 short films which have been shown in over 500 film festivals in five years. Ruba attended New York's Tisch School of the Arts in Film Production and has had over 20 retrospectives of her work shown in numerous cities worldwide. She is currently working on her next feature Cairo Time set in Egypt with Daniel Iron (The Red Violin) and Simone Urdl (Luck, Sabah) as producers.
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 Tara Parker is an associate in the Entertainment Group of Goodmans. She joined the firm as an articling student in 2000 and returned as an associate in 2001. Her practice focuses on representing major U.S. and Canadian studios, broadcasters, independent producers, literary, artistic and business clients in all aspects of the development, production, financing, licensing and distribution of film, television, book publishing, theatrical, music, and new media projects. In particular, Parker provides production legal advice, drafts and negotiates format option agreements, literary option/acquisition agreements, talent agreements, rights clearance agreements, broadcast licenses, distribution and other exploitation agreements, music license agreements, co-venture, co-production and production services agreements. As production counsel, Parker represents independent producers in production financing transactions, provides chain-of-title and corporate opinions, undertakes errors and omissions insurance review, provides advice regarding collective agreements and Canadian film and television tax incentives, and provides similar advice to entertainment clients throughout the development, production and exploitation of film and television production.
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 Wendy Ord is a writer, director, producer and first assistant director (1st AD) who has been in the Canadian film and television industry for 25 years. Ord was the first female 1st AD in Canada and has been the 1st AD on more than 50 projects including 3-D Imax films, feature films, movies of the week, and TV series. Her first feature film, Black Swan, which she co-wrote, produced and directed, won awards at the New York Independent Film Festival and Music and Film in Motion Film Festival. Black Swan was theatrically released in 2002/3, has sold to more than 25 countries around the world, had a wide video release and is currently playing on Canada’s pay television channels. Ord is currently in the final stages of development on her second feature film with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Movie Central and The Movie Network.
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Carrie Paupst Shaughnessy |
 Carrie Paust Shaughnessy, a recent addition to Telefilm Canada, is the founder and president of The Development House Inc. as well as a story editor, writer and teacher. Working with companies large and small, Shaughnessy has story edited many films including Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, A Problem with Fear, Treed Murray, Saint Ralph, Lie with Me and has also worked on documentary series for Life, Discovery and MTV. Formerly, Paupst Shaughnessy was Vice President of Development for Norstar Filmed Entertainment.
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Brad Pelman is Co-President of Maple Pictures Corp. Prior to the company's founding in April 2005 by way of a management buyout of the former Canadian assets of Lions Gate Films Corp., Pelman served Lions Gate as Vice President, Sales and Marketing, and most recently as Executive Vice President, Sales and Distribution, responsible for the overall Canadian distribution business of Lions Gate's film and television properties in all media. He has been involved in Canada's filmed entertainment distribution business since 1990 having held senior sales and management positions with Malofilm/Behaviour Distribution, Columbia Pictures, and Astral Distribution before landing at Lions Gate. He currently is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Screen Institute. He serves as Treasurer to the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters, and he completed the November 2002 session of the Alliance Atlantis/Banff Executive Leadership program. Pelman is a graduate of York University with an Honours B.A in Political Science.
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is a consultant focusing on script development and market awareness. Telefilm Canada recognizes her as a marketing consultant for independent productions in the Packaging Phase.. In the year and a half that she has run Film and Television Consulting Services, she has consulted for over 40 clients, including Toronto International Film Festival Group and Telefilm Canada. She is also currently story-editing projects for CBC and CTV. Previously, Pigott was Vice President of Development and Production for Odeon Films, executive-producing nine films including Saint Ralph, Fubar and waydowntown. She has been a guest speaker at every major film festival in Canada, and teaches 'The Essential Questions of Script Development' across the country.
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 Jeremy Podeswa career as a Toronto-based writer, director and producer spans three decades, various continents and two mediums, film and television. From his first days as a production assistant on Moonstruck to co-producing, writing and directing the critically acclaimed feature films The Five Senses and Eclipse he has been admired, respected, labeled one of "Tomorrow's Hot Exports" and has take home such awards as the Genie Award for Best Director as well as the CITY Award for Best Canadian Film (The Five Senses) Podeswa has also directed a number of music videos, award winning performing arts specials for television and episodic drama, some of which include Six Feet Under, Carnivale, Queer as Folk, Commander in Chief, Rome, Wonderfalls and The L Word.
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has been in the film and television business for 20 years, starting in 1985 at the Academy of Canadian Film and Television as assistant editor of the first Who’s Who in Canadian Film and Television. She moved into distribution at Norstar Entertainment as Vice President of Sales, handling television and foreign sales of all Norstar productions. In 1989, she moved to Montreal as Vice President of Sales and Acquisitions for Malofilm Distribution where she set up the international sales department. She was responsible for television sales nationally and internationally, and acquiring all Canadian and European product for Canada. After eight years, Poulin started an international department for Cinepix Film Properties (now Lionsgate Films) and represented and helped finance the films Eclipse, Shadow of the Vampire and American Psycho. In 1999, she was hired as Gap Financing Manager at FIDEC and then moved into production as Vice President of Production at Melenny Productions. From 2002 to 2004, she was Executive Vice President of TVA Films in charge of all Canadian and international distribution, responsible for all acquisitions in all media and for setting up partnerships for video and theatrical distribution in English and French Canada. Notable releases and acquisitions include C.R.A.Z.Y., The Pianist, Help I’m a Fish, White Noise, Undisputed and Brotherhood of the Wolf. In 2005, she was named Vice President of Distribution at Equinoxe Films.
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 "Producer Alexandra Raffé's feature film credits include the commercial and critical success, Patricia Rozema's I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, and her follow-up feature White Room, John Greyson's Zero Patience, Peggy Thompson's The Lotus Eaters and David Wellington's I Love a Man in Uniform, collectively winning 11 Genie Awards. In June 1993, she was appointed to co-chair the Cultural Industries Strategy for the Province of Ontario. Upon completion of the strategic plan, she was appointed CEO of the Ontario Film Development Corporation (1994 to 1998).
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Sandra Richmond is a
partner at Stohn Hay Cafazzo Dembroski Richmond LLP. Her practice focuses on
media, entertainment and communications law, and on corporate and commercial
law within those industries. She represents a variety of clients including
producers, broadcasters, distributors, writers, performers, government agencies
and financial institutions, and provides advice in a number of areas including
rights acquisition, shareholder structures, co-productions, financing,
distribution, broadcast licences, merchandising, new media, and errors and
omissions insurance. Richmond
has written and edited numerous articles on legal issues for various
publications including Playback. She
has also participated in panels and presented seminars on legal and business
affairs in the entertainment and media industries for the Canadian Film Centre,
the Ontario Media Development Corporation, Women in Film and Television, the
National Screen Institute, Women in the Director’s Chair, the New Media Business
Alliance, the Canadian Short Film Festival, the Saskatchewan Motion Picture
Association, and the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association and Film
Training Manitoba. Richmond started her legal
career in 1996 at Toronto
law firm McMillan Binch.
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 Lia Rinaldo has been deeply involved in the film industry for the past 18 years. From her modest beginnings slinging popcorn at the of sixteen at Halifax's only repertory theatre, Wormwood's Dog & Monkey Cinema. She eventually managed and programmed the very theatre where she got her start while simultaneously climbing up through the ranks of the Atlantic Film Festival over the past 15 years.
Lia has served as Festival Director at the Atlantic Film Festival Association for the past five years and has seen the event grow from a small annual regional festival to four year-round programs each with a growing international reputation. This past September, the Atlantic Film Festival celebrated its landmark 25th anniversary with 30,000 people in attendance.
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is the Vice President of Marketing and Publicity for Odeon Films. A graduate of McGill University with a background in community radio and arts, he focuses on communications for specialty, Canadian, genre and arthouse films. He has recently served as a board director for the Images Festival and the Toronto Jewish Film Society.
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joined Capri Releasing Inc. in 2004 as General Manager of Distribution. Robin brings a strong background of more than 14 years of film, video and arts-related work to his managerial position. Prior to joining Capri, Robin held positions at Seville Pictures as their Director of Sales and Marketing, Lions Gate Film Entertainment as Director of Marketing & Distribution for their Video and Theatrical Divisions, and Blackwatch Releasing as Vice President of Marketing and Distribution. Smith has successfully executed the Canadian release of both international and domestic films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Squid and the Whale; All About My Mother; Russian Ark; Swimming Pool; You Can Count on Me; Life is Beautiful; Falling Angels; The Sweet Hereafter and Decline of the American Empire.
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 Anna Stratton has over ten years experience in the film and television industry. After having been educated at Simon Fraser University, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and the Canadian Film Centre she began producing film, television and theatre. In 1991, to work on the feature film Zero Patience, Stratton, Robin Cass and Louise Garfield, joined forces by the movie release Triptych Media Inc. was born. Since then, the company has produced incredible successes such as The Republic Of Love, The Bay Of Love And Sorrows (DGC Nomination, Best Film), The Bookfair Murders, The Tale Of Teeka/L'histoire De L'oie (Gemini Nomination, Best Short Drama) and Lilies (winner of 4 Genie Awards.)
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 Samantha Traub is an associate in the Entertainment Group of Goodmans LLP. Her practice focuses on representing major American and Canadian studios, broadcasters, independent producers, literary, artistic and business clients, in all aspects of the development, production, financing, licensing and distribution of film and television projects. Traub also represents various types of lenders in financing transactions for television and feature film productions. Prior to joining the Entertainment Group, she practiced corporate, commercial and securities law at Goodmans LLP, and before that at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP in New York City.
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 Wiebke Von Carolsfeld has over ten years experience in the film and television industry. Born in Germany and studied at the University of Cologne, she worked as
picture editor for several leading Canadian filmmakers (The Five
Senses, Eisenstein (Genie nomination for best editing), The Bay of Love
and Sorrows), and began her directing career with two short films, From
Morning On I Waited Yesterday ('98) and Spiral Bound ('00) which screened
internationally. The much acclaimed Marion Bridge ('02) was her first
feature film.
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Robert Wales studied film at York
University and began his career
working for Cineplex shortly after they opened their first 18-screen location
in Toronto’s
Eaton Centre in 1979. Rob spent almost a decade learning the theatre
business as a manger of various locations throughout Toronto. The company soon grew to absorb
rival Odeon theatres and became Cineplex Odeon. In 1988, Robert became a film programmer
for the chain and spent the next 17 years booking films for theatres across Canada. In 2005,
Robert left Cineplex Odeon and is currently Vice President of Programming for
Empire Theatres. Robert is based in Toronto where he oversees film programming
for Empire Theatres from coast to coast.
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