Year 13 for the Future of Film Showcase is happening from July 23 to 26 in Toronto. And unlike most superstitions, 13 is sure to be a lucky number for this year’s festival. Focusing on emerging talent in the film industry, this showcase has some great films made by great filmmakers. Here are some for example:
Charlotte Zang who is showcasitng her horror film, Tycoon which shows Los Angeles during one of the worst times so far dealing with livestock viruses ruining the meat and poultry production all over while cockroaches are also infesting the city. To make matters worse, it’s during the preparation of the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Bryce Hodgson has a queer love fantasy that’s based on a true story. It’s called Thanks to the Hard Work of the Elephants, and it’s about two teen boys who have managed to escape the hardships of a youth detention center that has been heavily abusing them. They managed to do so while on an LSD high and then take off committing Grand Theft Auto with the center’s van making it to a parking lot of a store and decide to start their new lives in a nearby forest area.
Christopher Beaulieu’s film Otium is about a real estate photographer who needs to find somewhere to rent, and interestingly enough, it’s also based on an actual story that happened to Christopher. This one and Tycoon are having their Canadian Premieres at this festival.
It has been a while since we featured this showcase on here, so I took a chance at it and spoke to Eric Bizarri about the festival. Maybe next year, I’ll talk to several of the featured filmmakers.
HNMAG: Future of Film is in its 13th year this year. How does it continue to stay relevant and operating?
Eric Bizarri: Because I feel like there is a growing desire to experience Canadian content from new and emerging filmmakers. Especially content being made by emerging Canadian filmmakers and that’s what we’re delivering every year. All the feature films we screen at the festival are debut features by emerging Canadian filmmakers. Every film playing there, the director is directed by an emerging Canadian filmmaker.
HNMAG: You co-founded and operate the showcase. What lead to you making it?
Eric Bizarri: It started off as a one-day festival where we only had 10-12 short films play on one night, and we had an opening panel and then an afterparty, and that’s it. That’s how it started. Then we recognized that there were a lot of emerging filmmakers not only in Toronto but across Canada that are struggling to find new avenues of support, and new opportunities for screening work. The festival ended up growing to become a non-profit organization that fosters future emerging Canadian filmmakers and we’ve expanded so it’s not only films that we’re screening, but we also have panels and master classes and stuff as well. Not only are people able to watch films and be entertained by films, they’re also able to attend panels and workshops and stuff. They can actually leave the festival learning something tangible.
HNMAG: What did you work on before this?
Eric Bizarri: I’ve always been a filmmaker, a writer and a director, and a producer myself. I went to York University, graduated from their film production program in 2017. This festival actually started in my first year at York. Myself and a group of friends started this festival and that’s how it sort of grew and that was my first foray into filmmaking.
HNMAG: What are some of your prime responsibilities as festival CEO?
Eric Bizarri: It’s a lot, everything from overseeing programs to operating, and finance. I’m lucky that we have a director of programming, chief of operations, and creative officer. We also have a chief financial officer as well that works with the festival. But I’m just sort of overseeing everything and bringing in industry talent and such. As well as design our rising trailblazer awards we do every year. This year we’re honouring Nina Kiri, and Maddy Kelly at the festival. I also help to organize our new masterclass series with Shaw Tech. Last year we had Lawrence Sher, and this year we’ll have Natasha Braier.
HNMAG: Why do you feel it’s important for Canada’s emerging filmmakers and rising stars to get good recognition?
Eric Bizarri: Like anyone, we have stories to tell and we all like Canadian filmmakers. I feel like Canadian film has always been understated and the Canadian film industry has been pigeonheld within the domestic film industry as a whole. You know, being governed by the States and so I think that more and more with the success of films like Blue Heron by Sophy Romvari, an alumni of ours. She screened her first short films with us, other successes of Chanel Levack, Matt Johnson, Karen Chapman, and all these directors. It just goes to show there is almost like the Canadian film industry is going through a resurgence. Even more of an appetite for Canadian film now then there ever has been.
Eric believes that’s partially because of that 51st State claim that came out a while back. Everyone remember that? That’s what got us thinking “No, we gotta protect everything we have here and we have to invest more in Canadian films and Canadian talent.” We also thought to buy Canadian much more and now Canadian film has more providence. I don’t even remember the last time I bought a US based product myself.
HNMAG: How is it decided what films get presented?
Eric Bizarri: We have a submission process. Submissions open on Filmfreeway, usually in about August and they close in late February. We have a couple of associate programmers, our director in programming Zac Goldkind, our associate programmers CJ Prince, Andres Herrera, and Winnie Wang. Then myself as well, so the five of us program the festival and select the films. People submit throughout the year, and every film gets watched at least twice. Then we go from there.
HNMAG: What is your hope for those who get featured in the showcase?
Eric Bizarri: I hope more than ever that people who are filmmakers presented in the festival not only have a premium opportunity to screen their work at the Paradise theatre. I mean, award winning films are also connected by CBC Gem and so the films that win awards in our festival are able to actually be acquired by CBC Gem for a national audience. I hope that they enjoy this premium screening experience, but also learn something from our masterclasses as well as our industry panels and such. We also have a director development incubator, this is the third year we’ve run this director’s lab program. 6 filmmakers get selected to enter in 6 weeks worth of mentorship sessions. That’s just another added opportunity for filmmakers to get involved.
HNMAG: Do you ever think it will branch out to other provinces?
Eric Bizarri: That’s a good question, I don’t know honestly. I’ve been thinking about that, I just don’t know how to do that. I don’t even know what that would look like. I really love the Chilliwack Independent Film Festival, those guys run out of Chilliwack BC, and I’ve attended that festival for three years. Fantastic honestly, so that’s a festival that’s been on my radar that is really really good.
HNMAG: How do you feel about this year’s submissions?
Eric Bizarri: I’m biased, but I think they’re fantastic. We have a great mix of genres, I think we have a mix of filmmakers that people haven’t seen before, and all of our feature films are at least Toronto debuts. So they have not screened in Toronto and not even in Ontario. We have an eclyctic mix of short films that I think are going to challenge one’s perception of the state of the world, the importance of connection between human beings. I think the programming as a whole allows people to really think about their individualism within the state of the world. It’s a great mix of comedy, drama, thriller, and we have some sci-fi fantasy in there as well.
HNMAG: Are there any other events you host in the film industry?
Eric Bizarri: I do a thing called Toronto Movie Club with a cinematographer by the name of Dmitry Lopatin. His latest film, Son of Sara is hitting theatres this week. Him and I have been running this club for a couple years, we do random pop-up screenings throughout the year and we encourage the public to come out and watch together. The way that Toronto Movie Club works is just everyone buys a ticket and we announce what the film is and where it’s playing at what time. Everybody then watches together, we get anywhere between 15 to 40 coming out for those screenings which is great. We also have events throughout the year like Feature Film Showcase and TIFF Nextwave which is fun.
So there you have it, The Future of Film Showcase showing the best new directors of tomorrow… today. Toronto folk, go check out the event from the 23 to 26 over at Paradise Theatre. Go here for the tickets. If you’re a Canadian filmmaker, why don’t you submit to it next year? Plenty more details on the official website. I can’t wait to see who else gets featured in these screenings in the future.