Industry Day: DIRECTING Panel (FREE)

Event Details

Event type: All Ages

Filmmakers and Queen’s alums Audrey Cummings (Place of Bones) and Marni Van Dyk (This is Not About Swimming) will share lessons from their experiences of directing in different mediums, including shorts, television, features, and commercials. Join this discussion to hear about the challenges, joys, and barriers in getting a film off the ground. 

This is an essential session to any filmmaker working on their first film, or early on in their career.

This panel is presented in partnership with the Director’s Guild of Canada (DGC) Ontario.

Audrey Cummings recently directed her fourth feature film Place of Bones, a western thriller set in 1876, starring Heather Graham, Tom Hopper and UFC champ Cowboy Cerrone. Previously, she directed the Netflix hit Ginny & Georgia, and Astrid & Lilly Save the World, a sci-fi comedy series for NBC/SYFY, as well as two episodes of The Haunted Museum, a horror series produced by Eli Roth. Prior to this, Audrey directed her third feature, action thriller She Never Died, which was a huge hit on the film festival circuit, garnering considerable critical acclaim along with awards such as Best Director and several Best Feature Film awards. She also directed an 11-episode digital series in conjunction with her award winning second feature film Darken, a sci-fi/fantasy thriller.

Audrey’s directorial credits also include a number of shorts, and her awards include the Vanguard Award from Blood in the Snow film festival in 2020 for being a Canadian genre film trailblazer. She won the WIFT New Vision Fellowship Award for Best Emerging Canadian Female Director and was the recipient of the Barry Avrich Award for Emerging Canadian Filmmaker from the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Marni Van Dyk is the Series Director for the new Crave Original comedy series Made for TV with Bowman Martinez-Reid. Her most recent short film for which she served as Writer/Director, This Is Not About Swimming, had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. She wrote the feature film Learn to Swim with Thyrone Tommy, which had its World Premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected for TIFF Canada's Top 10 and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best International Film.

In addition to scripted and unscripted television, Marni also directs commercials with a specific focus in comedy. She has served as Head Writer for event specials for ABC, CBS, CBC, and CTV, as Story Editor and Writer for numerous scripted and documentary projects, including I Hate People, People Hate Me (Tribeca/CBC GEM), Late Bloomer (Crave), and For the Culture (CBC), and as a Producer on award winning series including The Beaverton (CTV), and Still Standing (CBC). Marni is an alumna of Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre, the Corus Writer's Apprenticeship at the Banff World Media Festival, and Queen's University.

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