EditCon 2018 in Review
The first annual EditCon took place on Saturday February 10th, 2018 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. The event was sold out to 150 guests and included 4 informative, lively and open discussion panels.
Some of our sponsors donated some great prizes. Our prizes totalled over $6000. Some prizes included a Hard Drive, Copies of Art of the Cut (Steve Hullfish the author was even in attendance to sign the copies!), a copy of Avid Media Composer and subscriptions to various Boris FX programs.
Panel #1: Documentary Confidential
Narrative, character & emotion – how do we as storytellers bring these elements to an audience in a compelling and dramatic way? In documentary filmmaking, there are the added challenges of ethics, honesty, and “truth,” in however we are able to define them for ourselves. Editors in doc have such a deep involvement in shaping the films that they can become credited co-directors or co-writers. Join us as our panel (Mike Munn CCE, Michèle Hozer CCE & Nick Hector CCE) explores the profound level of authorship editors can have in crafting a documentary.
Jay Prychidny, CCE is an award-winning picture editor and producer who has worked across a variety of scripted and factual programs. Most recently, his scripted projects have included Orphan Black (BBC America), Killjoys (SyFy) and Into the Badlands (AMC). On the factual side, he has worked on documentary series such as The Week the Women Went (CBC), Rodeo: Life on the Circuit (History) and SexTV (CTV) as well as the reality programs Canada’s Next Top Model (CTV), Top Chef Canada (Food Network) and The Amazing Race Canada (CTV).
Nick Hector is a DGC, CCE, HotDocs and multi-Gemini Award winning film editor, story editor and consultant. He’s cut more than two-dozen feature and one hundred TV documentaries for filmmakers across the globe. Perhaps Nick’s best known work stems from his long creative relationships with legendary Canadian filmmakers Allan King, Yvan Patry, and Sturla Gunnarsson. With 2 films on Criterion, 3 Top Ten Canadian films, 5 films at MoMA, 10 at TIFF, and 15 at HotDocs, the first 30 years have been a lot of fun.
Mike began his career with the Toronto New Wave, editing features for Bruce McDonald (Roadkill), Srinivas Krishna (Masala and Lulu) and Peter Mettler (Tectonic Plates; Picture of Light).
He went on to cut numerous features for Canadian and international directors, including John Greyson (Law of Enclosures), Richard Kwietniowski (Owning Mahowny), Daniel MacIvor (Past Perfect; Wilby Wonderful), Nisha Ganatra (Cake), and Bruce McCulloch (Comeback Season). As well, Mike has edited several award-winning documentaries, including Stories We Tell, for director Sarah Polley. His many television credits include Shaftesbury’s The Shields Stories and Sienna Film’s mini-series Diamonds, nominated for 9 Gemini awards.
Mike’s work has been recognized formally through award nominations as well as being highlighted in film reviews from around the world. Films he has edited have played at Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Sundance, among other festivals, with 11 features accepted at TIFF. Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell was shortlisted for the documentary Oscar as well as being voted in a TIFF poll as one of the 10 best Canadian films of all time.
With two films on the Oscar shortlist, Emmy-nominated and Gemini-winning Michèle Hozer has been working as a filmmaker and editor in Canada since 1987. To date, she has worked on more than 50 documentaries. Her work has received accolades from the most prestigious film festivals in the world, including the Sundance Film Festival and the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Shake Hands with The Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire won both the 2007 Emmy for Best Documentary and the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Promise to the Dead picked up her first International Emmy nomination as an editor. But her directorial debut with Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould won the coveted spot on the Academy Award short list as well as a Gemini for Best Biography. Since its premiere at TIFF in 2009, the feature length documentary has been seen by audiences in Britain, Australia, Japan, and across North America.
In 2012, The Director’s Guild of Canada (DGC) awarded The Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary to Michèle and team for West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson. At the same time, she picked up both the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival Editing Award and top honours from her peers at Canadian Cinema Editors.
In 2015 Michèle completed her first solo feature length documentary in the combined roles of director, editor, and producer for Sugar Coated probing the role of sugar in a global healthcare epidemic. The film, in association with TVO and ZDF/ARTE, had its world premiere at Hot Docs International Film Festival and has been playing worldwide at international film festivals and on television. Sugar Coated was honoured with The Donald Brittain Award for Best Social and Political Documentary at The 2016 Canadian Screen Awards. Sugar Coated presently playing available Netflix across North America. Michèle’ short documentary, The Barber of Augusta film just recently won the Dodie Spittal Award at 2017 The Picture This Film Festival. She just completed SponsorLand the feature length doc for TV Ontario on a Syrian refugee family with 11 children resettling in the tiny town of Picton Ontario.
Panel #2: TV Editing in the Golden Age
What is it like to collaborate with television’s finest creators? How does Jean- Marc Vallée work with his editors, having been one himself? What’s it like to cut the performance of a National Treasure? How does it feel to share your Emmy onstage with Margaret Atwood?
The panel will examine the editor’s contribution in creating original, provocative and beautifully made television.
Award winning editor, Teresa has been editing TV drama for more than 20 years. Recently, she worked on the multiple CSA nominated series Cardinal, which garnered her the DGC award for best editing- she’s also nominated for a CSA. Bellevue, starring Anna Paquin, is screening on WGN America at the moment another series that Teresa edited and got to co-produce. Prior work includes award nominated series; 19-2, Bomb Girls, Camelot and the influential Durham County. Teresa is very excited to be part of the industry at a time when the boundaries of TV storytelling are being pushed like never before- it truly is the Golden Age.
Roslyn’s television projects can be seen on NETFLIX, HBO Canada, ABC, Syfy, Lifetime, Global and the CBC. Her feature film work has been screened at TIFF, Berlinale, and Hot Docs. She has earned CCE and DGC Nominations for her editing in the categories of documentary, TV Movie and Mini-Series.
Roslyn’s passion for editing began in Montreal, where she studied Film and Screenwriting at McGill University. She spent 3 years as the resident editor at the Banff Centre for the Arts and is a graduate of the The Canadian Film Centre.
Roslyn’s recent drama series include Haven, Hemlock Grove, Ten Days in the Valley, and Mary Kills People.
Over the past decade, Véronique has edited a wide range of projects including short films, music videos, documentaries, advertising, and TV series. Most recently she contributed to HBO’s Big Little Lies, and is currently working on Jean-Marc Vallée’s next HBO series Sharp Objects.
Raised on Star Trek, Justin’s original plan was to push flashy buttons on a starship as an actor. Fortunately, he found his calling pushing colourful keyboard buttons in a dark room. His work has been seen ‘round the world in festivals such as Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW, TIFF, and most recently on HBO with the Emmy winning mini-series Big Little Lies.
Multiple award winning editor Wendy Hallam Martin is presently working on the Emmy and Golden Globe winning series The Handmaids Tale where she has received an ACE nomination for the pilot entitled “Offred”. Her prior work includes the upcoming cable series for MGM entitled Condor starring Max Irons, William Hurt and Mira Sorvino. Other work includes Showtime’s, The Tudors, Borgias and Queer as Folk, History’s Camelot and Vikings and hit Canadian dramas like Saving Hope, Rookie Blue and Dark Matter to name a few. Wendy resides in Toronto, Canada with her husband and two kids.
Gillian has had a diverse career editing feature films, MOWs, drama series, and documentaries, in a variety of genres. She has worked with many prominent and celebrated producers and directors in the Film and TV industry including Moira Walley-Beckett, David Shore, Naren Shankar, Mark Fergus, Vincenzo Natali, and Helen Shaver.
Gillian’s editing credits include the highly acclaimed CBC/Netflix series Anne, and Orphan Black, for which she received two CSA Awards. She is the first Picture Editor to have won that award for two consecutive years for the same series. Her work on Orphan Black has also garnered her a DGC Award and two CCE Awards nominations. She has also earned a DGC nomination for Degrassi: The Next Generation, and a Gemini nomination for the series Todd & the Book of Pure Evil.
Some of her other credits include the series The Expanse, Houdini & Doyle, The L.A. Complex, and the feature films Seven in Heaven, for Blumhouse Productions, A Christmas Horror Story, for Copperheart Entertainment, and Compulsion, for Dimension Films.
Panel #3: Behind the Cut with Richard Comeau, CCE
Based in Montréal, Richard has been editing since the early nineties. He won the Genie Award for Best Editing two years in a row, for The Necessities of Life in 2008 and Polytechnique in 2009. He also won the Jutra Award for Gabrielle (2013) and was nominated for My Internship in Canada (2016), and won a CSA for Two Lovers and a Bear (2017).
As part of this masterclass, Richard discusses his work on Polytechnique, War Witch, and Eye on Juliet (which recently won the Best Film at the Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori section)
Writer-Director Jim Allodi is a graduate of the NYU film program, and the CFC Director’s Lab. He wrote and directed the acclaimed feature The Uncles (Odeon Films), named one of Canada’s Top Ten by the Cinemateque Ontario. His award winning shorts have played in numerous international festivals.
His directing work for television includes the pilot for The Republic of Doyle (CBC), Call Me Fitz (HBO Canada), (Regenesis, TMN), and he has won a Gemini award and nominations for both drama and comedy (Naked Josh, Showcase), and a DGC Award for Best Miniseries/TV Movie (The Best Laid Plans, CBC.)
Having worked as an editor and photographer, Jim turned to acting in his 20’s as a means of furthering his development as a director, and has since accumulated a long list of film and television credits and appeared on stage in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.
Richard Comeau has been editing feature films for over twenty five years. Projects like War Witch, Maelstrom or The Pillars of the Earth have garnered awards and nominations at the Oscars, the Golden Globes, and throughout the world in major film festivals like TIFF, Cannes, or Berlin. Richard himself has won numerous awards for best achievement in editing. He’s worked with some of the finest filmmakers in Quebec, like Denis Villeneuve, Philippe Falardeau, Kim Nguyen, and Louise Archambault.
Panel #4: Crossing the 49th
Join panelists Matthew Hannam, Stephen Philipson, and Andrew Coutts as they discuss the ups and downs of working in the US. As the Canadian and American film industries become more intertwined, what challenges and opportunities arise for Canadian editors wishing to work south of the border? How does the work differ? How is it the same? For those who wish to remain in the land of Mounties and free medicare, what can we learn from our American editor friends? This panel will examine the creative and practical concerns of working down there versus working up here.
Chris Mutton brings over 12 years of film and television experience to the table. He is a 2015 Canadian Film Centre alumni and since then has been cutting music videos, commercials and the highly anticipated PORCUPINE LAKE, which premiered this year at TIFF.
Also premiering at TIFF was the feature documentary SILAS, executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way productions, which Chris came on board to complete. The documentary POPCORN AND MAPLE SYRUP that Chris co-edited for the CBC, won the Special Jury Award at Worldfest.
Chris’ short films have screened throughout the world, including CLEO (TIFF, Cinema City), GOLDEN BOYS (HollyShorts, Inside Out, MiFO) and THE SISTERS TOLCHINSKI (Rhode Island International Film Festival). Chris recently completed a series of projects for TIFF as supervising picture editor.
Andrew has enjoyed a career working with studios such as Fox, CBS, ABC, Marvel, and Netflix, including popular shows such as Sleepy Hollow and Bull. His work on the pilot episode of APB with Director Len Wiseman secured a first season pick up order from Fox Television.
He edited Sequence, which won numerous awards globally, including “Best of the Fest” at LA Shorts Fest and the Canal+ Award at the renowned Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival—as well as earning him a CCE nomination for Best Editing in a Short Film.
Andrew has sliced through numerous feature films including comedy/horror Bloodsucking Bastards, post-apocalyptic thriller The Day, which premiered as part of TIFF’s popular Midnight Madness program, and the hugely successful Saw VI and Saw 3D.
Currently, Andrew is living long and prospering, editing the recent chronicle from the celebrated Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Discovery for CBS All Access and Netflix.
Matthew Hannam is a film editor from Winnipeg. He began his career as an assistant editor for Guy Maddin. Since then he has been lucky to work on such diverse projects as The Daniels’ SWISS ARMY MAN, Denis Villeneuve’s ENEMY and Sundance hit JAMES WHITE. Most recently he edited Paul Dano’s directorial debut WILDLIFE.
Stephen Philipson CCE is an award-winning editor and proud member of the CCE since the very start. His credits include high profile TV series such as American Gods, Hannibal, and Orphan Black. He also cut Canadian film favourites such as The Wild Hunt, voted Best Canadian First Feature and one of Canada’s Top Ten by the Toronto International Film Festival, and Grown Up Movie Star, a prize-winner at Sundance.
Never one to turn down an adventure, he once traveled to Sri Lanka to edit an epic Action/Romance about the Sri Lankan civil war (in Tamil and Singhalese) for a director who contacted him randomly over the internet. A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre and Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Stephen’s break came on the 2009 documentary Prom Night in Mississippi (starring Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman), which premiered at Sundance, broadcast on HBO, and screened at The White House.
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