Movies that screen at festivals often take a long time to play in the regular theatres, if at all. Out Standing was screened at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2025. It got its Canadian full Cineplex release across Canada on Friday, September 26th. It’s definitely worth watching. Out Standing is based on the true story of Officer Sandra Perron. The screenplay was adapted by filmmaker Mélanie Charbonneau, who also directed the feature film.
Here is our conversation with Mélanie Charbonneau.
Photo: Jimi Francoeur
HNMAG: Out Standing already had a wide theatrical release in Canada. Is there any distribution in the US?
Mélanie Charbonneau: We are in discussions right now. The film just screened at the Woodstock festival in October.
HNMAG: That’s in upstate New York?
Mélanie Charbonneau: Yes, that’s in New York state.
HNMAG: Perfect. Out Standing is based on Sandra Perron’s book. Did you read the book prior to being involved in this project?
Mélanie Charbonneau: Yes! I wanted to buy the rights right away but there was another project in the works. I reached out to the producer and the screenwriter. I expressed my interest in the project, and they had another director attached. A year later, they had a different engagement…
HNMAG: You landed up getting the job after all.
Mélanie Charbonneau: When I read the book, I had such a visceral moment that I needed to make this film. It’s so important for women. It’s so important in how it connects to the audience. I am so proud that I was able to make this movie so Canadians can know about Sandra. It’s an important moment in our history.
HNMAG: Was this your first feature made in English?
Mélanie Charbonneau: Yes, this was my first movie in English. I did a couple of commercials in English in Toronto and Montreal.
HNMAG: After you connected with the production team, they brought you on as a writer as well.
Mélanie Charbonneau: Martine Pagé, the co-writer, wanted to collaborate with the director on the screenplay.
HNMAG: That makes sense.
Mélanie Charbonneau: I wanted to do that. The writing was quite intense. We had to condense someone’s life story to an hour and forty minutes.
HNMAG: Books are different because they happen in your head. A movie is an audiovisual experience. What’s on the page must be communicated with sounds and moving images. It’s a different language. Adaptations are often very challenging. The book was called Outstanding In The Field. Did you think that was too long for a movie title?
Mélanie Charbonneau: It was part of the conversation with Sandra, the distributor, and me. We just thought that it would be simpler and catchier. It wasn’t a long conversation. We all agreed quickly on the title.
HNMAG: Titles are important. How difficult was it to go through the physical training and that realistic approach to performers’ preparation?
Mélanie Charbonneau: To me, it was very important how we depicted the military, and the training had to be very authentic. We had a military consultant with whom I worked closely throughout the process. We had a boot camp with the actors. They had an intense basic training in a compressed time. It was exciting. The actors loved it. It was good to be physical, in the mud, running around. All of them trained so hard, including Nina (Sandra Perron). We had to show the physicality of what it is to be a soldier.
HNMAG: We have seen other Canadian films about the military and other US films that have basic training, but Out Standing shows how tough that is in Canada, and with our weather, maybe even more difficult than in the States.
Mélanie Charbonneau: Yes, the prisoner sequence exercise takes place in the Winter. The Canadian military trains as hard as possible in every season. That is crucial for the audience to understand. It makes us unique. With all the gear, equipment, and fatigue. Along with that, we didn’t sensationalize that. I was able to get the authenticity from watching documentaries about the Canadian military as well.
HNMAG: Will the success of Out Standing lead to more stories set in Canada and about our military?
Mélanie Charbonneau: From the interest and comments, people are interacting with the film. There is a demand, and we might see more films about the Canadian army in the future.
HNMAG: Did you grow up in Montreal?
Mélanie Charbonneau: I grew up around Quebec City.
HNMAG: How did you become interested in working in film & TV?
Mélanie Charbonneau: In high school, I took drama but was even more drawn to writing. At sixteen, I made short films with the kids in my class. After that, I went to film school. I knew right away that I wanted to be a director.
HNMAG: What are you working on now?
Mélanie Charbonneau: I’m in post-production on my third feature. It’s called Les Furies. It’s a comedy about a group of women who start a roller derby team in their church basement. It will be in theatres on November 29th.
Many films that are about abuse or corruption usually have an approach of hero against the world. In Out Standing, Sandra Perron has a couple of allies. Towards the end of the movie, a military lawyer, Monroe, played by Enrico Colantoni, wants Sandra to tell her reveal the difficult truth, and her best friend in the military was Daniel Collins, played by Adrian Walters.
We had a conversation with Adrian Walters after the Out Standing screening at TIFF.
HNMAG: You went to a few of the screenings after TIFF.
Adrian Walters: The screening in Sudbury was terrific, as was Montreal, which was kind of a cast and crew, family-type screening. Ottawa was also an incredible experience.
HNMAG: Your character, Daniel Collins, was he based on a real person?
Adrian Walters: Yes, my character is based on a real person. I got to play a beautiful lightness and also provide a beautiful safety for Sandra.
HNMAG: What was your prior film to Out Standing?
Adrian Walters: The movie that I shot prior was called It Comes In Waves, directed by Fitch Jean from Montreal.
HNMAG: Another Canadian film.
Adrian Walters: Yes, Canadian-made, out of Canada.
HNMAG: Nice. Daniel Collins is a real person. Have you met him in person?
Adrian Walters: I had the good fortune of meeting him at the screening on September 25th in Ottawa.
HNMAG: Oh wow, that’s great!
Adrian Walters: Before that, we had a production cast and crew dinner. Sandra came over to my table and sat with me. We were just talking, and she was letting me know that she was really looking forward to the Ottawa screening since so many important people in her life were attending. It was an opportunity to meet the real guys who were there for her in her corner, especially Daniel Collins.
HNMAG: Right.
Adrian Walters: I felt like the character of Daniel is very close to me in terms of where I live. His charm was something that, when I was reading the script, really leaped off the page. It was something that I was looking forward to playing.
HNMAG: We don’t know if Sandra would have been able to make it without Daniel because he was on her side. He was there and backed her up. It’s important to have some allies when you’re you’re facing that kind of adversity.
Adrian Walters: Yeah, it’s very true. I read the memoir, and Sandra was talking about that. You know how necessary that was. If it’s all dark and it can be almost unbearable for a person. She talked about how it really took the edge off. She at least had something to look forward to, in terms of a quality experience with a friend.
HNMAG: Were you born in Toronto?
Adrian Walters: Yes, I was born and raised in Toronto at the Sick Kids Hospital.
HNMAG: Oh, are you OK?
Adrian Walters: What’s interesting, when I was born, I almost was not because when my mom got pregnant with me, the Doctor said I’ve got some news to tell you. What I’m going to say will not be easy, but my mother just wanted to. He told her your son has a hole in his skull. A massive hole in the skull, and it doesn’t look like he will make it.
HNMAG: Oh my God.
Adrian Walters: They told her that there was a high chance that I would be born with a deformation and not sound mentally. The baby might not even be normal at all. This was really terrifying news. One thing my mother doesn’t do is play. She was going to carry on and make it work. I feel like she gave me the heart of a dream before I was even born because she would pray for me. She always felt that she was going to believe that things would change. She told the doctor, “I’m going to keep my son”. Time went on and on.
HNMAG: That faith helped you survive.
Adrian Walters: She kept praying, and eventually the whole thing kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and then eventually one time, she came to have it checked. The doctors were baffled. They were saying this has never happened before, we don’t understand, but the whole was gone.
HNMAG: When did you become interested in being a performer?
Adrian Walters: I want to say when I was four or five years old.
HNMAG: Oh, a little kid.
Adrian Walters: I was always entertaining my siblings, trying to make them laugh.
HNMAG: When did you actually start working then?
Adrian Walters: I started doing some extra work for some years to earn some money. I was still a kid, and I wanted to get a video game. My mother worked hard, so I had to earn my own money for that kind of thing. I learned a lot just being on set, and eventually I wanted to be more involved. In High School, I focused on acting. I really started to take it seriously. I reached out to my current agent. I sent her an email. I just said, hi my name is Adrian and I want to be an actor and I want you to be agent. She sent me an email back saying you should understand your age range, type…etc. Good luck.
It’s funny how green we are when we start, and we can look back at it all after having a good deal of success and laugh. Out Standing is a very important and unique Canadian feature film. Adrian Walters had an important role as Daniel Collins. Mélanie Charbonneau, early on, knew that she had a passion for this story and that it was a story that had to be experienced on the big screen. Out Standing is a true story that, on the surface, is about discrimination. There are more layers there, and with some reflection, you realize it’s really about strength and discovery.