The State of The Industry

The Canadian film and television industry has gone through countless changes and transformations over the years. In our season finale, Leonard, Abdul, and Shant share their candid thoughts on the current state of the industry, the challenges it faces, and their outlook for the future. Shant Joshi - President Shant Joshi is an award-winning producer and president of Fae Pictures, based in New York and Toronto, on a mission to decolonize Hollywood. His credits include award winners at Sundance (Framing Agnes), Red Sea (In Flames), Iris Prize (Scaring Women at Night), Durban (Runs in the Family), premieres at Cannes, Venice (The Curfew), Toronto, Canneseries (Streams Flow From A River), Aspen (I Live Here), Palm Springs (Diaspora), Hot Docs, Black Star (Noor and Layla), Bentonville, and BFI London, and nominees for the Canadian Screen Awards (Queen Tut). He was also an executive producer on Nisha Pahuja's Academy Award ® nominated film To Kill A Tiger, an impact producer on John Greyson's TEDDY Award-winning film International Dawn Chorus Day, and an associate producer on Ingrid Veninger's Canadian Screen Award-nominated film Porcupine Lake. Shant currently sits on the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) Regulatory Committee and was previously Co-Chair of the BIPOC TV & Film Board, on the CMPA EDI committee, and co-founder of the Future of Film Showcase. He is an alum of the Canadian Film Centre, Rotterdam Lab, and Osgoode Hall Law School, and was named a MIPTV Producer to Watch, Reelworld Trailblazer, nominated for an Indiescreen Award, and to York University's Top 30 Changemakers under 30. Abdul Malik - VP of Development  Abdul Malik,‬‭ a WGC screenwriter and‬‭ award-winning‬‭ journalist based out‬ of Toronto and Edmonton,‬‭ hails from a family of Pakistani immigrants‬‭ and is a‬ 2022 CFC Bell Media Prime Time TV Program graduate. He dropped out of film school to pursue politics, spending his twenties working in the‬ labour movement, participating in worker struggles across Canada as an organizer and photojournalist. Abdul returned‬ to the film industry, starting as the co-writer of the Telefilm-funded‬‭ Peace by Chocolate‬‭, which premiered‬‭ at the Tribeca‬ Film Festival. Abdul's been in writers' rooms on shows such as CTV's‬‭ Transplant,‬‭ Corus/NBC's‬‭ Departure‬‭ ,‬‭ and was a‬ supervising producer on CBC/Lark Production's procedural,‬‭ Allegiance‬‭ . He also penned the Telefilm-funded feature Queen Tut. He served as Executive Producer/Showrunner on season two of the Super Channel digital series‬‭ Streams‬ Flow from a River,‬‭ which was selected for the 2023 Canneseries Program.  Leonard Chan - Director of Development  Leonard Chan is a writer/comedian from Toronto, Canada. As a comedian, he has been heard on Sirius/XM radio and seen on television at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, the Halifax Comedy Festival, StandUp NBC in New York, and the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. As a writer, he's worked on shows such as the international hit Kim's Convenience, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, 16 Hudson, Hello (Again) and Streams Flow From A River.He also has two degrees in engineering which he uses only as punchlines and a totally legal number of cats.