 
 
THE INDUSTRY CONFERENCE
Engaging the professional community of Canadian filmmakers, producers and broadcasters. Our goal is to provide stimulating, up-to-date information and access to the world of environmental films and funding. Professional modules include the Master Class, networking opportunities, the Green Pitch competition and DocBOX Toolkit sessions filled with an outstanding line up of VIP guests.
Live at the Centre for Social Innovation, 192 Spadina Ave, Suite 101, Toronto on Friday, October 23, 2026
COFFEE @ 9:30am
Doors open at 9:30am, join us for coffee and a light snack ahead of the first panel event!
THE FUNDING PANEL @ 10:00am
This session focuses on some of the key relationships necessary to get your film funded, produced & sold. Funding agency reps discuss the latest trends in financing, co-productions, distribution and the future of branded content.
2026 panelists include:
Moderator: Vicki Lean
| Mark Shapland | Independent Production Fund (IPF) |
| Melissa Amer | Telefilm Canada |
| Chanda Chevannes | NFB Ontario |
| Anna Newallo | Ontario Creates |
| Christian Hamilton | CBC Docs & The Nature of Things |
THE SOUND DESIGN PANEL @ 11:30am
Moderated by Simone Estrin, Planet in Focus Senior Programmer. This session will discuss how sound editors collaborate creatively with non-fiction filmmakers and producers.
In this in-depth session a panel of award-winning Ontario-based-sound designers talk about collaborating with independent filmmakers/producers and the role of sound design and music in shaping narrative, pacing and emotional impact with the challenges and opportunities that entails.
2026 panelists include:
Moderator: Simone Estrin, Senior Programmer – Planet in Focus
| Roland Schlimme | Editor & Sound Designer, terrible.ca |
| Alan Geldart | Geldart Sound |
THE MASTER CLASS @ 1pm
Each year, Planet in Focus hosts a Master Class with established filmmakers and PIF alumnus. The 2026 workshop will be hosted by the award-winning Filmmaker, Pascale Ferland.
Planet in Focus is proud to present the Ontario premiere of her new documentary feature, Dans La Forêt (In The Forest) Friday, October 23rd at 9:00 PM, Paradise Theatre on Bloor.
Moderator: Summer Love, Pre-Screener – Planet in Focus
THE DISTRIBUTION AND IMPACT PANEL @ 2:30pm
The changing landscape of distribution can pose a big challenge for filmmakers. Join us as we ask Canadian Distributors and Impact Producers the tough questions including navigating hybrid festivals, new international strategies and more.
Moderator: Aeyliya Husain
2026 panelists include:
| Chrisann Hessing | Culture Shift Media | Impact Producer |
| Greg Rubidge | Syndicado | Co-founder / Distributor |
| Ann Shin | Fathom Film Group | Producer, Founder at Fathom Film |
THE GREEN PITCH @ 4pm
A highlight of Industry Day is the Green Pitch. Six selected filmmakers pitch their film idea to a panel of industry judges and in front of the conference audience. The winner receives a prize valued at $15,000 in services & cash to put toward the production of their project provided by Ontario film production suppliers. See the 2025 Green Pitch winner here. Applications for the 2026 Green Pitch are due by October 21, 2026.
2026 Green Pitch Prize Sponsors: William F. White, Dynamix Solutions, Pie in the Sky Studios, The Source Shop, Trinity Square Video, FilmFestivals.com, Keslow Camera, CineSend, Kiss The Sun Music.
The Green Pitch 2026 Jury:
| Jessica Jennings | Ontario Green Screen |
| Juilana Paniagua | Festiver de Cine Verde, Colombia |
| Mark Shapland | Independent Production Fund |
INDUSTRY SPECIAL GUESTS
Alan Geldart
Chrisann Hessing
She has collaborated with organizations including TIFF, the Global Centre for Pluralism and the DOC Institute and currently serves on the board of POV Magazine.
Greg Rubidge
Victoria Lean
Victoria Lean is an award-winning filmmaker working in documentary, comedy and the intersections between. Her innovative work is characterized by a unique blend of storytelling techniques, a commitment to social and environmental issues, and a dedication to pushing the Read More
Victoria was the showrunner, writer and director of We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel), a smart, playful comedy docuseries about existential threats facing humanity. It premiered at Hot Docs 2022 and is streaming on CRAVE in Canada and SBS in Australia. The critically acclaimed series deftly maneuvered between the light-hearted and the catastrophic, taking home four 2023 Canadian Screen Awards (CSA), including Best Direction and Best Series, Factual.
Victoria’s next documentary, The Climate Baby Dilemma, explores what to expect when you’re expecting… the climate crisis. For an increasing number of people, a warming world is affecting their decisions about whether or not to have kids. It premiered in Canada for CBC in Fall 2022 and recently won the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Documentary POV at the Yorkton Film Festival.
A talented producer, Victoria received a Best Comedy Series CSA-nomination as the Producer of the mockumentary Nirvanna the Band the Show, directed by Matt Johnson (Blackberry 2023). The National Post called it “the best Canadian TV show in the last two decades” and it was included in Rolling Stone’s list of “Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2017.”
She is the Executive Producer of the dramedy feature film, I Like Movies which premiered to sold out crowds at TIFF in 2022, landed on TIFF’s list of Top Ten Films Canadian Films of 2022, and had an award-winning festival run and theatrical release across Canada.
Victoria directed multiple docs for VICE. Her short digital documentaries include Welcome to Poole’s Land, which garnered 10M+ views across platforms.
Victoria’s first feature documentary, After the Last River, screened theatrically and won five festival awards, including Best Canadian Feature at Planet in Focus, where it opened the festival. The hard-hitting social issues film had its broadcast premiere on CBC documentary channel. Seven years since its release, it continues to air on cable and is taught in dozens of schools.
Victoria is developing a slate of docuseries and features, and is currently a participant in the Hot Docs – Netflix Incubator for mid-career filmmakers with her second theatrical film. Her keen artistic sensibility and forward-thinking approach earned her the Vanguard Award from the Documentary Organization of Canada.
Mark Shapland
Roland Schlimme
Roland Schlimme’s editing work spans more than 25 years and includes 20 feature documentary projects. He continues to focus on unscripted, non-fiction film with a sensibility that is reflected in the films of Peter Mettler, Jennifer Baichwal, Philip Barker, Laura Taler, Cliff Caines, and Read More
His work has premiered at Venice, IDFA, Nyon, Montréal, eight times at Hot Docs, and ten times at TIFF. The landmarks of his editing work include Gambling, Gods, and LSD (Genie, Best Documentary 2002) as co-editor with Peter Mettler, Let It Come Down (International Emmy, Outstanding Documentary 1999) as associate editor under David Wharnsby, Manufactured Landscapes (Genie, Best Documentary 2006), and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Canadian Screen Award, Best Feature Documentary 2019)
While he works primarily in his studio in Toronto, editing has taken him to Switzerland, Montreal, Victoria, New York, and Buenos Aires. Additionally, his credits include music composition, sound design, animation, special effects, and production. Roland continues to consult and teach; this work includes an undergraduate creative editing course he inaugurated at Toronto Metropolitan University and a workshop he presented for the DOC Institute Masters’ Series in Toronto.
Roland’s approach to editing emphasizes process: one which addresses the competing priorities of film editing through sensitivity to material, creative innovation, informed and intuitive practice, and a knowledge of technology.
Chanda Chevannes
Chanda Chevannes is the Executive Producer of the National Film Board of Canada’s Central Documentary Unit. For two decades, she worked on a wide range of projects as an independent filmmaker, writer and educator. She produced/directed 14 artful documentaries that sought to amplify women’s voices, including the Read More
In addition to making her own films, Chanda has supported the work of dozens of colleagues in the documentary community, producing or production-managing 25 documentary projects. She has also developed and facilitated creative filmmaking labs for diverse organizations, including the DOC Institute, the Toronto Queer Film Festival and the Toronto Public Library. These labs have guided 60 emerging filmmakers—mostly from marginalized communities—through the process of making their first film, resulting in the creation of dozens of new festival-ready works.
Early in her career, Chanda lived in Uganda and worked for Raising Voices, where she made SASA!, a film that explored the link between violence against women and HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa. SASA!’s tangible impact is one of Chanda’s proudest achievements: the film contributed to the passage of new domestic-violence legislation in Uganda and a community-wide decrease in women’s risk of physical violence from their male partners.
When not in the field herself, Chanda has sought to share what she has learned with other filmmakers, through her work as a writer and an educator. She has researched and written 15 documentary-focussed publications to date and has led myriad professional development workshops for documentary filmmakers in Canada and internationally. Altogether, she has developed and facilitated over 1,400 hours of educational experiences and trained more than 800 emerging film professionals.
Chanda is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Media Arts Program and is currently earning her MFA in Film Production at York University. She previously served as a board member for the Documentary Organization of Canada and POV Magazine. Chanda is a mother and a queer woman of colour—identities that inform her work.
Anna Newallo
Anna Newallo has three decades of experience in the Film and Television industry. As a Program Consultant at Ontario Creates, her portfolio contains a wide range of programs and initiatives including the Film Fund Production and Development, Marketing and Distribution Initiative and Industry Development Program. Read More
As a producer, her award-winning independent films have screened at major international festivals. As a writer, her short stories have appeared in numerous publications — and her debut novel was released in spring 2024.
As a producer, her award-winning independent films have played major international festivals and as a writer, her short stories have appeared in numerous publications. Prior to joining Ontario Creates, Anna worked on projects for The Disney Channel, CTV, Discovery Channel, CBC, TMN (now Crave), CityTV, and BRAVO!
Melissa Amer
Melissa Amer is the Regional Feature Film Executive for Ontario and Nunavut at Telefilm Canada. Telefilm’s mission is to finance, develop, and promote the screen-based industry in Canada. Prior to joining Telefilm, Melissa worked at the Canadian Television Fund, Alliance Atlantis and the Canadian Film Centre. She studied film Read More
Ann Shin
Ann Shin is the CEO of Fathom Film Group and an award-winning writer and executive producer celebrated for premium character-driven storytelling. As an Executive Producer over the past 19 years, Ann has delivered premium unscripted series including the upcoming PIG FARM KILLER (Amazon) and DARK HORSE Read More
Her feature MY ENEMY, MY BROTHER was shortlisted for an Academy Award, received an Emmy nomination, and won the Grand Jury Prize at SDAIFF. THE DEFECTOR won Best Documentary and Best Director at the Canadian Screen Awards and Best Interactive Project at SXSW. As a writer, her novel LAST EXILES was translated and published in 8 different languages, winning a Trillium Award. Ann is a Korean-Canadian who is still explaining to her father what an executive producer actually does.
Christian Hamilton
With 25+ years of experience in the Canadian media industry, Christian Hamilton serves as Manager, Content Development for CBC Unscripted Content. In this role, she manages the development pipeline across CBC’s unscripted strands, including Factual Entertainment, CBC Docs: Limited Series, CBC Short Read More
Pascale Ferland
Pascale Ferland has been a screenwriter, director, and producer for over twenty years. After studying visual arts at UQAM, where her video works received awards, she developed a personal body of documentary films, grounded in fieldwork and driven by a desire to create dialogue between form and ideas. In 2003, she directed her first Read More
Aeyliya Husain
Aeyliya Husain is an award-winning filmmaker. Her films have screened at numerous festivals including San Francisco Docfest; Glasgow Short Film Festival and São Paulo Film Festival and have been broadcast on CBC, BBC, Arte, The Documentary Channel, SBS Australia, amongst others. Her latest documentary, An Unfinished Journey, follows four Afghan former MPs who fled their country for a new life in Canada, for CBC, Arte/France and ERT/Greece.
Simone Estrin
Simone Estrin is a Toronto-based programmer, curator, and filmmaker whose work looks at the experience of art from a social and environmental perspective. In addition to her role as Senior Programmer at Planet in Focus, she is an International Features Programmer at Hot Docs, and also contributes to film programming at TIFF Docs and Le Festival International du Film sur l’Art. Simone holds an MFA in Documentary Read More
Summer Love
Summer Love is an award-winning Canadian documentary director, producer and founder of Deltatime Productions. Her work spans music, politics, art and pop culture, from her breakthrough documentary Sounds Like a Revolution, exploring protest music in America, to a creative partnership with toy giant Spin Master, producing documentaries including The Great Canadian Toy Story (Netflix) and How to Make a Hit Toy. Read More
Jessica Jennings
Jessica Jennings is passionate about Environmental Filmmaking and implementing sustainability practices on set. In her current role of Production Consultant, Environmental Services at the Ontario Film Commission / Ontario Creates, she oversees the Ontario Green Screen program to support Read More
With over 20 years of industry experience developing and producing content for most major Canadian and International streamers and broadcasters, Jessica has amassed a diversified skill-base as a Producer, Line Producer and Production Manager in the scripted and unscripted areas of the industry.
Previously Jessica worked as the Production Manager for the past three years (2022 – 2024) of the Sustainable Production Forum Toronto events put on through Green Spark Group. As a former Sustainability Consultant at Green Spark Group, Jessica worked with Studios like Disney and NHK to help develop sustainability training decks and facilitate and coordinate a 3-week training program. In 2024, in addition to being the Line Producer of “Wordsville” Jessica achieved the EMA Gold Seal Award for implementing sustainable production on set. Additionally, she worked at a B Corp Production Company, Hemmings House Pictures, with a triple bottom line and carbon offset program. As an Associate Producer of an environmental solutions-focused documentary “Meat the Future”, she attended the Climate Story Lab in NYC to learn the fundamentals of Impact Filmmaking and was part of the 2018/19 Redford Center Cohort for Environmental films. Jessica has worked on Rob Stewart conservation / environmental documentaries “Sharkwater: Extinction” and “Revolution”, as well as the Emmy-Nominated and CSA-Award winning documentary “Toxic Beauty”.
Julaina Paniagua
Juliana Paniagua is cultural producer, university lecturer, translator (English, Italian, French, German) and subtitle artist. She is the co-founder and former director of Festival de Cine Verde de Barichara – Festiver in Colombia and serves on the board of the international Green Film Network (GFN).
INDUSTRY AND GREEN PITCH SPONSORS
