DIGI60 SUMMER ACCELERATOR
DIRECTING STREAM

DARC Workshop Room
Arts Court, Floor 1

The Directing Stream is designed to help filmmakers strengthen their creative vision and the skills needed to lead a project from script to screen. Through practical workshops, case studies, and conversations with industry professionals, participants will explore directing actors, communicating with collaborators, making creative decisions, and navigating the challenges of bringing a story to life.

Along the way, you'll connect with fellow filmmakers, mentors, and industry leaders while gaining practical insight into the creative and professional aspects of directing. Whether you're preparing to direct your first short film or refining your approach as a filmmaker, you'll leave with new tools, meaningful connections, and greater confidence in your next project.

Workshop program and mentors are subject to change based on availability. Mentor bios and headshots coming soon.

Morning
(10:00-1:00 PM)

Afternoon
(2:00-5:00 PM)

Evening (5:00-8:00 PM)
Optional Programming

Monday
August 24, 2026

Orientation & Welcome,
ACTRA MIPs, Arts Court + DARC Tour

Case Study: Working as an Independent Director
Émilie Martel

Cohort Welcome Reception
Albion Rooms
Cohort & Mentors only

Tuesday
August 25, 2026

The Process of Directing
Carol Nguyen

Dream Eater: Producing a Feature Film
Blind Luck Pictures

Dream Eater - Ottawa Premiere with Director, Writer & Actor Q&A
Co-Presented by the Ottawa Film Office
OAG Alma Duncan Salon
PWYC Tickets | Open to the public

Wednesday
August 26, 2026

Case Study: Telefilm Talent to Watch Applications
Kenza Derkaoui

Writing Grants / Funding with Arts Councils
Pixie Cram

Film & TV Industry Mixer with Industry Leaders
Sponsored by ACTRA Ottawa 
Club SAW Courtyard
FREE RSVP | Open to the public

Thursday
August 27, 2026

Directing Actors
Adrian Langley

Applying to Festivals
Pixie Cram

Closing Plenary: Building Community and Sharing Ourselves
Conversation with Digi60 Alumni
Artengine
Cohort & Mentors only

BLIND LUCK PICTURES

Alex Lee Williams and Jay Drakulic have won numerous awards throughout their ten-year creative partnership. They are the co-writers and co-directors of the feature film Hellmington, starring Michael Ironside and Nicola Correia-Damude. In 2018, Mallory Drumm joined the collective, bringing an exciting new voice to the team.

In 2025, the trio took the genre space by storm with their first feature collaboration, Dream Eater, which went viral following a regional festival screening. The film was quickly acquired by The Horror Section and received a North American theatrical release in more than 200 theatres.

CAROL NGUYEN

Carol Nguyen is a Vietnamese Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal. Her films often explore the subjects of cultural identity, family and silence. Her last film “Nanitic” (2022) was selected for Berlinale Generation Kplus and at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received the “IMDbProShort Cuts Share Her Journey Award”. Her film prior “No Crying at the Dinner Table” (2019) also screened at TIFF alongside International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and South by Southwest where it received the “Jury Prize for Short Documentary”. Carol is a 2018 Sundance Ignite fellow and a TIFF Share Her Journey ambassador. Carol just finished her first feature documentary, “Still Night, Burning House”, which is set to premiere in 2026. Today, Carol is writing and directing several projects, including two feature films as well as a short satirical thriller.

PIXIE CRAM

Pixie Cram is a filmmaker based in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. The format of her work includes stop-motion animation, live action fiction, and small-gauge film (super-8 & 16mm). Her films have screened at festivals across Canada and internationally. She teaches a course in screenwriting at Carleton University.

KENZA DERKAOUI

Kenza Derkaoui is a Moroccan-Canadian filmmaker, facilitator and equity and inclusion consultant whose career has spanned federal politics, strategic planning, education and storytelling. She is currently directing her first feature documentary, Le silence de Mostafa (Mute On Set), supported by Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program. The film follows her grandfather, pioneering Moroccan filmmaker Mostafa Derkaoui, as he returns to filmmaking after nearly two decades, while Kenza searches through lost films, archives and family memories to better understand the artist and grandfather she has always known from a distance. Drawing on her multidisciplinary experience, Kenza approaches filmmaking as both a creative practice and a space for reflection, dialogue and learning.

Émilie martel

Émilie is a Franco-Ontarian director, writer and producer with mixed Québécois and Huron-Wendat ancestry. Her projects have received support from Telefilm Canada, Hot Docs Cross, Ontario Creates, Bell Fund, the Canadian Council for the Arts, the Ontario Art Council and more. She created, co-wrote and co-directed a fiction teen series about girls in a hockey league (TFO,8x13min), directed and co-produced the first and second seasons of an animated series about the Métis culture (TFO,19x13min) and directed and wrote an unscripted tween cooking series that was nominated for a Prix Gémeaux (TFO,29x13min). She directed and produced Alias Marie-Soleil (1x48min Radio-Canada,TFO), directed Au coeur du Yukon 2 (UnisTV,7x52min) and 180 (TVA/TFO,14x22min). She is a recipient of The National Film Institute Access BIPOC Producer, WIDC and Banff Diversity of Voices (‘18,’19,’20,’24). She is currently developing a slate of fiction and non-fiction projects, supported by CMF, Bell Fund as well as producing her first documentary feature Land of no Pain.

ADRIAN LANGLEY

Adrian entered the film industry as a script reader at age nineteen and graduated “Directing for Film” at the Vancouver Film School. A provocative and unique creator, his talents cover almost every angle of film production.

A director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer, actor and artist, Adrian has been able to combine nearly every element of cinema across hundreds of hours of film and TV work, and has now delivered over twenty feature length films as director.