2022 Leo Award Winners

Presented in English / Conférence en anglais
Join us on June 21st for a conversation with the editors Brooke Stern Sebold and Cecilio Escobar behind the genre-blending and awards-winning FRAMING AGNES which garners this year’s Sundance NEXT Audience Award and the NEXT Innovator Award, and recently screened at Hot Docs. This empowering and stylish documentary explores the legacy and impact that one trans woman left from the 1960s and onwards. With moderator Maureen Grant, we will dive into the intricate layers and structure of this innovative hybrid documentary.
Cecilio Guillermo Escobar is a video artist, editor, and technician who works and lives in Toronto. He is an original member of the Toronto Queer Film Festival and works as their Technical Media Director. His recent work as Editor on Chase Joynt’s documentary FRAMING AGNES premiered at Sundance 2022. The film won the NEXT Innovator Award and the Audience Award: NEXT at the festival. His work focuses on QTBIPOC stories that push the boundaries of documentary.
Brooke Stern Sebold (they/she) is a nonbinary filmmaker whose work investigates gender and identity in both doc and narrative spaces. Brooke co-produced and edited the feature documentary FRAMING AGNES, which premiered at Sundance in 2022, winning both the NEXT Audience Award and Innovator Award. Brooke also cut and co-produced FRAMING AGNES the short, which premiered at Tribeca and won the Experimental Award at Outfest. In 2007, Brooke co-directed their first feature doc, RED WITHOUT BLUE, which won the Audience Award at Slamdance and the Jury Award at Frameline and screened at 150+ festivals worldwide. Brooke’s narrative shorts have won awards at Palm Springs ShortsFest and the Florida Film Festival, and Brooke was the recipient of the Cine Golden Eagle Award for Excellence in Directing. When Brooke isn’t writing and pitching shows, they’re editing the Emmy nominated series, BRIEF BUT SPECTACULAR, which airs weekly on PBS NewsHour. Brooke received their BA from Brown University and their MFA from Columbia University. Brooke grew up in the Sonoran desert and loves crystals, doggies, tiramisu and she or they pronouns.
Maureen Grant brings a background in visual art, film production, and an MA in Media Studies to her work as an editor for film and television. She is a five-time nominee of the Canadian Cinema Editors Awards, and is an alumnus of the Berlinale Talents 2019 and the 2013 Canadian Film Centre Editors Lab. She has worked with many notable directors on projects that have received international acclaim. PERCY was the top film in Canada on Apple TV iTunes. PYEWACKET premiered at TIFF 2017 and ranked amongst the year’s top horror films internationally. Recent work includes the Canadian Screen Award (CSA) nominated web series QUERENCIA, the CSA winning sketch comedy series TALLBOYZ, the Peacock / Family musical comedy series TAKE NOTE, and the Lifetime movie STOLEN BY THEIR FATHER. Forthcoming work includes Director V.T. Nayani’s feature film THIS PLACE, starring Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs and Priya Guns.
Presented in English / Présenté en anglais
This two-day course will cover not only the procedural and logistical aspects of Assistant Editing, but will also include a holistic overview of the politics and psychology of the editorial process and how it affects everyone in the cutting room. Insights gleaned from over 20 years of Assistant Editing experience will be shared liberally accompanied by many war stories to illustrate lessons learned the hard way. Newcomers and those with experience will both benefit from this course. Please note: this is not a course that teaches Avid, Premiere or any other NLE.
The following bio is only written in the presenting language.
Paul Whitehead has been a fixture in the Toronto Post Production community for over 30 years. He has worked as First Assistant Editor on over 50 film and television productions, and now edits episodic television and feature films. His career began at the dawn of non-linear editing technology, which allowed him to witness and contribute to its development over the years. Paul has taught others the art of assisting throughout his career both one on one and at the college level, and believes strongly that experience must be passed on to maintain the high standards that Canadian crews are known for.
On May 14 and 15, members and non members gathered at locations all across Canada as we took a break from our screens and got outside!
Vancouver participants met at Pacific Spirit Regional Park.
Edmonton participants met at Hawrelak Park.
Halifax participants met at Shubie Park.
Montreal participants met at Lachine Canal.
Toronto participants met at Brickworks.
Presented in English / Présenté en anglais
Whether you’re just starting out or have been working for years there are always questions when planning your career path. Join the CCE for a special mentorship-driven online event focused on early and mid-career development and planning. Mentee participants will cycle between four virtual breakout rooms hosted by some of the CCE’s best. Editor mentors will lead discussions and answer questions on a variety of career development topics. After the sessions are complete, join us for some virtual socializing.
Getting on top of your career aspirations is all about assessing potential opportunities. For many, taking assistant editing jobs is an integral stage in development; for others, diving straight into editing is the way to go. You might want to work with an agent, or go it on your own. Either way, you’ll need to network and interview successfully to advance your career. It’s a lot to navigate and we’re here to help. Learn about strategies for short and long-term planning and tips for selling yourself and your skillset to others.
Negotiating for yourself can be tough, especially when you’re eager to jump into a new project. Standard contracts rarely provide all the details and protections you need, and even with the help of an agent, it can be hard to know what to ask for. Union projects can provide certain benefits, but many types of work are not covered by this umbrella. We’ll talk rates, kit fees, schedules, edit suite setups, use of home offices, credits and more in this all- encompassing discussion.
We all know how difficult working remotely can be. Managing communication is often difficult, notes can be delayed, streaming cuts can be a pain, constant messages can be distracting and “real time” editing is hardly a replacement for having multiple minds in a room. And where do you turn when you’re stuck or need advice?
Rest assured everything is overcomable. We’ll discuss some of the tools and strategies to keep the collaborative spirit going while working remotely and hear about how to engage peers and mentors to help you along your journey.
There’s a lot more to being “in the chair” than just operating the software. The cutting room can be rife with emotion, internal politics, high stakes, and lots of stress. Despite tight deadlines and high expectations, the editor is often expected to sit calmly at the center of it all. Learn some tips and techniques for navigating collaboration and conflict in the edit suite.
Presented in English / Conférence en anglais
Join us on April 11th for an in-depth conversation with editor Shaun Rykiss and director Bretten Hannam as they discuss their approach to bringing one of this year’s most acclaimed films, WILDHOOD, to the big screen. This event will be moderated by Kimberlee McTaggart, CCE.
The following bios are only written in the presenting language.
Shaun Rykiss is an award-winning film and television editor based in Toronto, Canada. He is a graduate of Vancouver Film School and an alumnus of Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre Editor’s Lab. Rykiss served as supervising editor for five television docuseries including YUKON HARVEST, which is nominated for the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Factual Series and Best Editing, Factual. He has since transitioned into scripted film and series. Rykiss’s work on the digital series, I AM SYD STONE, garnered him the 2021 Canadian Cinema Editors award for Best Editing in Web Based Series. His first two feature films, WILDHOOD (dir. Bretten Hannam) and LEARN TO SWIM (dir. Thyrone Tommy), both had their world premieres at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, and are collectively nominated for eight 2022 Canadian Screen Awards.
Bretten Hannam is a Two-Spirit L’nu filmmaker living in Kespukwitk, L’nuekati (Nova Scotia) where they were raised. Their films deal with themes of community, culture, and language with a focus on Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ identity. They wrote and directed NORTH MOUNTAIN, a Two-Spirit thriller that won Best Original Score at the Atlantic Film Festival and the Screen Nova Scotia Award for Best Feature. They also wrote/directed the short film WILDFIRE which premiered at BFI Flare and went on to play at Frameline LGBT Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, ImagineNative, and Inside Out LGBT Film Festival. Recently, they wrote and directed WILDHOOD, the feature version of the short WILDFIRE, which premiered at TIFF 2021.
Bretten is a Fellow of the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters, Outfest Screenwriting Lab, Whistler’s Indigenous Filmmaker Fellowship, and the CFC Screenwriter’s Lab.