Luc Dery (ARTM MBA ’92) Wins 2017 CMPA Producer Award
Kim McCraw and Luc Déry of Montreal’s micro_scope and Kristy Neville and Matt Code of Toronto’s Wildling Pictures have won the Canadian Media Producers Association 2017 Indiescreen Awards.
The awards (formerly known as the CMPA Feature Film Producer Awards) were handed out at a ceremony on Sept. 7 at the Glenn Gould Studio, timed to kick off the Toronto International Film Festival.
McCraw and Déry (pictured) took home the Established Producer award, along with its $10,000 prize. The duo have together produced more than 15 features, including the Oscar-nominated Incendies (2010) and Monsieur Lazhar (2011), as well this year’s A Worthy Companion, which is making its debut at TIFF in the Discovery Program. This is Déry’s second time picking up an award from the CMPA. He also won the CMPA’s inaugural producer award in 2006.
Wildling Pictures’ Neville and Code were awarded the $5,000 Emerging Producer award. The pair are premiering two films in TIFF’s Discovery program this year. While they’ve each produced a number of shorts, Mary Goes Round, is their debut feature. Neville also produced Cardinals alongside Marianna Margaret, with Code serving as an exec producer.
Before announcing the winners, CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin took the opportunity to comment on Canadian Heritage’s recent move to send the CRTC group licence renewal decisions back for reconsideration. While he admitted the decision may appear to only affect the television industry, he said it has implications for everyone working in the content production sector.
“The world is changing. Old funding models will become obsolete and new ones will emerge. This will take time. It will take trial and error. But, assuming the CRTC follows the Minister’s lead, this decision means the rug won’t be pulled from under our industry before there is a new solid foundation on which to grow,” he said.
The winners were selected by two juries from a short list of nominees. The Emerging Producer jury, chaired by last year’s winner Roger Frappier, included director Sean Garrity, Whistler Film Festival director of programming Paul Gratton, and producers Bill Marks (Vortex Words + Pictures) and Mary Sexton (Rink Rat Productions).
The Emerging Producer jury, chaired by 2016′s winner Hany Ouichou, included actress/filmmaker Katie Boland, director Kevan Funk, and producers Karen Harnisch (Harnisch Films) and Jennifer Jonas (New Real Films).