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- AFCOOP Updates - January 16th, 2025
AFCOOP Updates - January 16th, 2025
Congrats to our most recent grant recipients! First FILM 5 Trainee Workshop is sold out, sign up now!
 | FILM 5 trainee workshops start up this weekend. If you haven’t registered yet, now’s the time. Also, congratulations to our most recent grant recipients. Happy filmmaking!Cool community job postings and screenings coming up. Learn more below! |
Jarrett Gabriel with “The Call”
 | Jarrett Gabriel is an emerging filmmaker based in Nova Scotia. A graduate of AFCOOP’s Film 1 program, he wrote and directed The Family Man (2021), a two-minute short exploring the emotions of a man awakening to a shocking revelation. The film, screened at the Halifax Central Library, marked the start of his filmmaking journey. Currently, he has just completed the film Satori, a story about an alliance between a man searching for his lost family and an enigmatic Sannyasin. This project has deepened his skills in storytelling and directing, with an expected release in early 2025. |
Lola Cardona with “Date Night”
 | Lola Cardona is a new filmmaker and videographer raised in Halifax, NS. She holds a BFA in Film Studies from Concordia University, where she developed her skills as an editor and writer. In her free time, Lola enjoys going to independent theatres, watching films at home, attending sci-fi conventions, writing, and photography. She is currently in the pre-production phase of her new short, Date Night, and looks forward to bringing the film to life with AFCOOP's help. In the future, she plans on continuing to write and direct original short films while working as a freelance videographer or production assistant. |
Tracy McNeil with “Hometown Xmas”
 | From a young age, Tracy has been an avid storyteller and writer. With an interest in film, she also spent some time studying acting. Completing her Degree with Toronto Film School in 2023 and working in Nova Scotia’s filmmaking industry over the last few years, Tracy looks forward to refocusing on her writing, including her second feature screenplay. This story is close to her heart, and after filming a few original shorts, Tracy is highly driven to have this screenplay as her feature film debut. |
Jeighk Koyote with “Like This”
 | Jeighk (they/them) is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist based out of K’jipuktuk/Halifax, unceded Mi’kmaq Territory. Working in a wide range of mediums from performance to sculpture, wood cutouts and photo/video, Jeighk creates artistic experiences of internal human distress, the natural world and non-binary bodies. Through AFCOOP's Super 8 Bursary, Jeighk will create a 3-5 minute colour Super 8 film depicting a collage of intimate moments of mental health support outside of the institutional health care system titled "like this". |
A. Laurel Lawrence with “Heart Peaks”
 | A. Laurel Lawrence is an artist & filmmaker making work in Kjipuktuk, the Great Harbour. Their work explores intimacy, queerness, gender & performance embodied through experimental analog film & sound practices in narrative form. Heart Peaks: |
Maddy Hughes with “Adam’s Apple”
 | Madison Hughes is an independent filmmaker based in Halifax, N.S. With a DIY-centric practice, she aims to convey her visions through a blend of surrealism and metaphor. Adam and Eve live in a picturesque garden, but Eve’s life is very restricted. Adam tells her what to do, where to go, and what to eat. One day she challenges him on this, and what ensues is a story of retaliation and self-gratification. |
Meg Hubley with “Jane & Jocelyn”
 | Meg Hubley is a writer, director and producer of independent theatre and film. Recent directing credits include the multi-camera, live theatrical sitcom “The Crevice,” winner of Outstanding Independent Production at the 2024 Theatre Nova Scotia Merritt Awards. Meg is one quarter of Phyllis Rising Productions, whose short films “The Agnostics” and “Resignation Cove” debuted at the 2021 Atlantic International Film Festival and continued to screen across the country. As a programmer at Halifax’s Bus Stop Theatre, Meg facilitates development opportunities for emerging artists, offering grant writing seminars and one-on-one production support for multiple creative disciplines. |
Margaret Donahoe with “Gal Pals”
REGISTRATION LIVE!
The FILM 5 Trainee Program is a hands-on training program for aspiring technical crew. Paralleling the Creative Team component, the trainee program provides participants with high-quality classroom training*, practical on-set instruction and networking opportunities. To become a trainee crew member, you must take the required workshops for your desired position, pay the application fee (which includes the mandatory Set Etiquette Course), come to the Trainee/Team Meet and Greet and submit a resume, cover letter and application form.
On the FILM 5 sets, trainees work under key crew-members from the local film industry. Keys are industry professionals responsible for running their departments, and for providing guidance and leadership to the trainees. Trainees leave the production having networked with industry crew, with practical experience and resume references.
This year, each FILM 5 production is required to have a minimum of seven trainees on set. FILM 5 productions will take place from approximately late March to late April.
To register as a trainee, please complete the APPLICATION FORM and send it to Henry at [email protected] along with your resume and cover letter.
Pay ($60) registration fee HERE
WORKSHOP REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
FILM 5 2024/25 Trainee Schedule
Weekend, January 18 & 19 – Production Managers Intensive – 10am – 5pm ($150)
Instructor: Tieran Hawkins
Register here SOLD OUT!
Saturday, Jan 25 – Location Sound Intensive – 10am – 5pm ($75)
Instructor: Taber Crosby
Register here
Saturday, February 8 – 1st Aid on Set Workshop – 10am – 5pm ($75)
Instructor: Brent Macrae
Register here
Sunday, February 9 – Assistant Directors Intensive – 10am – 5pm ($75)
Instructor: Nicole Close
Register here
Weekend, February 15 & 16 – Camera Assistant Intensive – 10am – 5pm ($150)
Instructor: Kevin Kumar-Misir
Register here
Weekend, February 22 & 23 – Art Department Intensive – 10am – 5pm ($150)
Instructor: Jessica MacDonald
Register here
Weekend, March 1/2 – Lighting & Grip Intensive – 10am – 5pm ($150)
Instructor: Stuart Rankin
Register here
Have questions? Contact the programs coordinator, Henry at [email protected]
Check out this awesome Nova Scotia retrospective Carbon Arc Cinema has lined up!
The Centre for Art Tapes is hiring an Executive Director! Learn more about the role and how to apply by clicking here.
FOR ENTRY + FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
 | The TIFF Next Wave Film Festival is now accepting submissions for the Young Creators Showcase, a shorts programme featuring films made by young and emerging filmmakers from across Canada. Submit your short film if you’re between the ages of 14-26. Selected films will screen in person and online as part of the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival, April 10-13th, 2025. DEADLINE: Submit your film by January 31, 2025. |
Submissions for the 45th Atlantic International Film Festival are now open! Accepting Canadian and international films, feature and short length. AIFF screens in Halifax, NS from September 10-17, 2025. Early Bird Deadline: March 21st, 2025 Alumni discount available, contact [email protected] |  |
Call for Submissions: Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival
HIFF SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN! Apply now on Film Freeway!
 | Call for Submissions: Animation Festival of Halifax |
FIRST TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH
Sending your film for processing? AFCOOP mails a package to our partnered lab on the first Tuesday of every month.
You can drop the film off anytime to our technical coordinator, Cody at anytime! The next mail day is February 4th!
For more information on getting your film processed, email Cody: [email protected]
AFCOOP’s Filmmakers Job Board is a place to connect with filmmakers and film crews looking for work, or volunteers looking to gain experience in Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada.
Submitting to the AFCOOP Job Board is totally free! All posts are subject to approval by AFCOOP staff and will be reviewed before they appear on the site.
Note: You don't have to create an account to post a job. If you wish, simply enter your email to sign up at the time of job submission.
See it all HERE!
ABOUT AFCOOP: Established in 1974 the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative (AFCOOP) is a non-profit, community organization dedicated to supporting the production and presentation of independent film and moving-image-based work in a collaborative, learning environment.
AFCOOP acknowledges that we are located and operate in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Mi’kmaq, Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet), and Passamaquoddy Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1726. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaw and Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations. We are all treaty people.