TIFF has unveiled the lineup for the 2024 Writers’ Studio, an annual program fostering the next generation of storytellers. This year marks the 13th edition of the collaborative, five-day intensive lab, designed to empower Canadian and international screenwriters and writer-directors. From a pool of more than 200 submissions, TIFF has selected a cohort Zhannat Alshanova, Aram Collier, Rebecca Fisseha, Sophie Jarvis, Amy Trefry, and Asia Youngman.
The Writers’ Studio is a space to consolidate skills, exchange ideas, and navigate challenges, while participating in workshops, artist talks, peer-to-peer mentorships, and one-on-one project development consultations guided by industry experts. Writers’ Studio will take place April 15–19, 2024, at TIFF Lightbox.
“Programs like the Writers’ Studio continue to ignite and drive talent, both in Canada and on the global stage,” said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “At TIFF, our commitment to fostering new talent will continue to grow with a focus on providing industry expertise and unparalleled access to industry leaders, ensuring the program’s enduring impact year after year.”
This year’s lab will support the development of feature-film scripts through dedicated one-on-one discussions with international story consultants Trey Ellis and Christina Lazaridi. Additionally, the participants will engage in daily artist talks and workshops facilitated by renowned filmmakers and industry experts including Ashley Comeau, Brad Fraser, Howard Wiseman and Emma Donoghue. Canadian actors, Getenesh Berhe, Vivien Endicott-Douglas, Thomas Antony Olajide and Ajuawak Kapashesit, will join for a full-day workshop of the projects in development.
New this year, the Sloan Science and Technology Writer Fellowship will offer a project development grant and targeted creative support for one emerging to mid-level feature film screenwriter whose project explores themes of science and technology. This year’s selected recipient is Amy Trefry for her project Lenin’s Embalmers, co-written with playwright Vern Thiessen. Funding for this programme is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Public Understanding of Science and Technology program.
Now in its third year, the Renee Perlmutter Memorial Fellowship for Literary Adaptation provides a Writers’ Studio participant focusing on adapting literary work for the screen with an additional grant toward developing their project. This year’s Renee Perlmutter Memorial Fellow is Rebecca Fisseha, who is working on an adaptation of her own debut novel Daughters of Silence.
Four participants from the 2024 class will also be awarded a grant generously supported by CHANEL, through the CHANEL Women Creators’ Network, to further the development of their feature-length script.
Notable TIFF Talent alumni include filmmakers Meredith Hama-Brown (Seagrass), Fawzia Mirza (The Queen of My Dreams), D. W. Waterson, and Devery Kawennáhere Jacobs (Backspot), Pier-Philippe Chevigny (Richelieu), Jasmin Mozaffari (Motherland), Lillah Halla (Power Alley), Álvaro Gago Dias (Matria), and Johanna Pyykkö (My Wonderful Stranger). Following their involvement in TIFF Talent Development programmes, many of these filmmakers have gone on to present their films at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Berlinale, and Cannes.
2024 TIFF Writers’ Studio participant biographies:
Zhannat Alshanova (UK)
Present Perfect
Originally from Kazakhstan, Zhannat is a London-based writer, director, and producer. Her short films has been screened at numerous international film festivals, such as Cannes, Sundance, TIFF, Locarno (Pardino d’Argento award for the Best Short Film). She is a London Film School (MA in Filmmaking) and Berlinale Talents alum.
Aram Collier (Canada)
Intro to Swimming
Aram’s feature, documentary, and experimental films have played festivals across North America and internationally. Collier is a mixed-race Asian Canadian/American originally from San Francisco, now based in Toronto, Canada. His Asian diasporic stories deal with race and class through a humanist lens of observed ironies.
Rebecca Fisseha (Canada)
Daughters of Silence
Rebecca Fisseha is an Ethiopian Canadian writer whose short stories, creative non-fiction, personal essays, and articles appear in various publications, most recently in Addis Ababa Noir, the Humber Literary Review, and Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language. Born in Addis Ababa and raised there and in Austria and Switzerland, Rebecca is now based in Toronto, where she is working on the screenplay adaptation of her first novel, Daughters of Silence (Goose Lane Editions, 2019), and on completing her second novel, Only Because It’s You (Doubleday Canada, Spring 2025). Fisseha is a graduate of the Vancouver Film School’s program in Writing for Film & Television.
Sophie Jarvis (Canada)
Taking the Waters
Sophie Jarvis is a Swiss Canadian filmmaker whose feature debut Until Branches Bend (TIFF ’22, SXSW ’23, Locarno ’23) earned her a nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2023. Jarvis’ background as a production designer deeply informs her practice as a writer and director.
Amy Trefry (Canada)
Lenin’s Embalmers
Amy Trefry is an emerging Canadian filmmaker, who elevates marginalized voices as a queer, non-binary storyteller. Their Masters in Environmental Sociology and upbringing on a Peregrine Falcon breeding facility fuel narratives entwining social and environmental themes. They are a 2022 graduate of the Canadian Film Centre, and were selected as one of ten emerging Canadian Television Producers by RDV Canada in 2021. Collaborating with playwright Vern Thiessin and guided by industry mentors, Trefry blends science and filmmaking, striving for cinematic inclusivity and representation.
Asia Youngman (Canada)
Until It’s Time to Go
Asia Youngman is an award-winning Indigenous (Cree-Métis) filmmaker. She co-wrote, co-directed and executive produced I’m Just Here for the Riot (2023) for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series. Her previous short films include N’xaxaitk’w (2022) and This Ink Runs Deep (2019), both of which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
