Carolyn Mauricette is a Toronto-based Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, film writer, Programmer/Development Coordinator for the Blood in the Snow Film Festival and Director of Canadian Programming for the Fantasia International Film Festival. You can find her writing on Hollywood Suite and online and print editions of Rue Morgue Magazine and Grim Magazine. She is a contributing author to The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films and The Encyclopedia of Racism in American Films. Carolyn has also produced lectures for Fantasia Film Festival in 2020 and 2021; and The Miskatonic Institute for Horror Studies in 2022. You can also find her in the 2020 documentary Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business, directed by Justin McConnell and the documentary TV series, A Year In Film on Hollywood Suite.

John Arkelian is an award-winning author, journalist and Cinechats founder/Programmer. Among his eclectic pursuits, he has represented Canada abroad as a diplomat, advised the federal cabinet as an international lawyer, conducted criminal prosecutions as a federal Crown attorney, served as a professor of media law, been a candidate for Parliament, and directed an international film program. He is the founding editor of Artsforum Magazine; and he leads the regional arts council.

Since 2012 Powys has produced forward-facing film and TV industry events with the gamut of industry organizations to create training, funding, access, screenings, and panels for creatives. His work includes programmer, filmmaker development, and has served as a board director on industry boards. He has sourced hundreds of industry partnerships, sponsors, mentors and speakers in North America and UK, with speakers as diverse as Harvard University professors to Academy Award winners. As industry advisory and juror, he has collaborated with the Canadian Media Producers Association Conference, TELEFILM Canada, Planet In Focus Environmental Film Festival, The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, Female Eye Film Festival and others. In 2010 his work was chosen as one to represent Canada at World Expo 2010 and he has always fought for equality.

Shahla S. Khan, a partner at Rising Tides, is a producer with twenty years of international film and TV experience. She works at Corus Entertainment, where she manages the rights portfolios of brands like Global TV, Food TV, Nickelodeon, Disney, Hallmark, and HGTV. She also contributes as a Features Film Programmer for the (Canadian-South Asian) Mosaic International Film Festival Film, while helping to promote films at TIFF like Dukhtar and Donkey Head.

Russell Gienapp is a cinematographer and director with over 25 years capturing story. He is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario and lives with is family in Toronto. Russell’s experiences range from social issue documentaries, science and natural history, projects with themes of exploration & adventure and commercials. He brings to every project a unique technological understanding with an artist’s eye and a photographer’s aesthetic. Making feature documentaries and documentary series, he has traveled the globe telling stories for broadcasters around the world. “How I Got Here”(BYUTV), “Political Blind Date” (TVO), “Extreme Ice Machines”(Discovery Channel), “Company Town” (CBC), “Gambling on Extinction ” (TVO, ZDF), “Giraffes: The Forgotten Giants” (Nature of Things),“Much Too Young” (TVO). Russell is currently in production as Director of Photography on two new projects for TVO. The emotion filled doc series “Yearbook” and the feature length documentary on Caribbean Carnivals “Soaked in Carnival”.

Cory Bowles is a multidisciplinary artist from Nova Scotia, Canada. His credits include; Trailer Park Boys, Studio Black!, Diggstown, Pretty Hard Cases, FBI: Most Wanted and numerous other series for CBS, Universal, Warner, NBC and Netflix. , Juliet and Romeo (Dance), and a writer for the CBC comedy, Little Dog (2018-19). His first feature, Black Cop (2017), premiered at TIFF and earned Best Canadian Feature at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Best Narrative Feature at the St. Louis International Film Festival and a Canadian Screen Award (John Dunning Discovery Prize). In 2018 nominated for the Nova Scotia’s Lieutenant Governor’s Masterworks Award.