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- AFCOOP Updates - November 13th, 2025
AFCOOP Updates - November 13th, 2025
Analog resident announcement, upcoming workshops, events, and festival & grant submissions!
❄️🎃 Hope you all had a great Halloween and a very quick pivot to the start of winter. Based on the poll last week, most of you were giving out treats and watching movies! Sounds like a perfect evening. 🎞️ Welcome to the Analog Resident: Jenna Marks! Learn more about Jenna and the workshops they’re instructing below! 🌀 Grants for Filmmakers are due on December 1st! Read more on the grants and how to apply below. | 🎟️ We’re partnering with Fleapit Cinema to host Newfoundland director, Devin Shears! Learn more below about the screening of his feature debut and the workshop he’s instructing on Nov. 29th!  |
MEET THE ANALOG FILM RESIDENT: Jenna Marks!
Jenna Marks’ short films have received international acclaim at prestigious festivals, including Glas Animation in California, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart in Germany, as well as the international animation residency “Open Workshop” in Denmark. She has an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal and a BFA from her alma mater, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Jenna’s creative vision is profoundly influenced by her upbringing in Nova Scotia, a region no more than an hour away from the ocean in any direction. Her animated films resonate with a deep connection to water and nature, reflecting the rural seclusion of her home alongside its diverse social economy. This unique background gives Jenna a vulnerable, honest, and distinctive voice in the international landscape of cinema and the arts. Jenna's interdisciplinary education focused primarily on handmade film processes, drawing inspiration from the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative. Her animated works are influenced by both the avant-garde animation of today and the traditions of Canada's celluloid-based filmmakers of the past. Additionally, her roots in live-action and documentary storytelling coupled with her passion for poetry contribute to a thoughtful connection between words and images. |  Jenna will be instructing a weekend two-day workshop series focused on bridging analog and digital filmmaking practices, showcasing ways to experiment between formats to achieve new levels of creativity in animation and narrative practices. Using materials made during hands-on instruction on Day 1, Jenna will lead a classroom-style presentation on Day 2 showcasing ways to transfer analog film into your future projects with After Effects. No previous animation or analog experience required. Saturday, December 13th: Intro to Analog with Phytograms Sunday, December 14th: Analog-Digital Hybrid Animation More details and exact time to come soon.
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Fleapit presents, in collaboration with AFCOOP: Cherub screening and workshop with visiting filmmaker, Devin Shears!
Devin Shears’ debut feature Cherub is a triumph. Completed as his thesis project during his MFA at York University in Toronto, the Newfoundland filmmaker made this moving, focused, and unique 73-minute film on a budget of $10,000. Following his previous work, "Grown in Darkness" (2022), Shears’ voice becomes even more assured. He strips back dialogue to carefully paint a portrait of a shy man who overcomes isolation through submitting a photograph of himself to a gay chub magazine for ‘big men and their admirers.’ It is a subtle and tender tableau of self-love and discovery in adulthood. Like the character himself, Harvey, a lab technician spending his days peering down a microscope, we watch him under a static lens moving around the Toronto landscape. It’s captured beautifully, and when paired with a wistful ambient electro-harp score by Anastasia Westcott, even an LED Bitcoin sign hanging outside a store becomes heavenly and nostalgic.
"I had the pleasure of catching this warm film at Festival de Nouveau Cinéma in 2024 and have been waiting for the opportunity to finally bring it to audiences in Kjipuktuk. Do yourself a favour and come out to this screening of CHERUB followed by an in-person Q&A with singular and utterly inspiring Atlantic writer, director, producer, and editor Devin Shears." – Brielle, Fleapit Cinema
Fleapit is partnering with the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative to organize a workshop instructed by Devin Shears on DIY Micro-Budget Feature Filmmaking. Learn more about Devin’s process by attending his workshop on the Saturday following the screening, where he’ll dive into the behind-the-scenes on how Cherub was made.
AFCOOP Workshop Details
Workshop: DIY Micro-Budget Feature Filmmaking, instructed by Devin Shears
Saturday, November 29th from 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Location: Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative
 | As a full AFCOOP member, you now receive 10% off Camera and Lens rentals, and 25% off grip, lighting and camera support rentals from Onetake. How to book: Visit Onetake Rentals https://www.onetakerentals.com/ Email, call, or DM to book. Mention your AFCOOP full membership and provide proof, or notify if you need AFCOOP to verify. |
Questions? Contact Onetake Rentals @ [email protected] or give AFCOOP a ring!
Congratulations to Grant Earl MacIntosh’s win of the RPCE Grand Prix at Féstival du Nouveau Cinema!
Sydney, a short film by Grant Earl MacIntosh (BFA 2025), recently took home one of Canada’s top student prizes for cinema: the Grand Prize in student filmmaking at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (FNC) in Montreal. The film is about Sydney, a directionless 32-year-old who lives with his mother in a rental home marked for demolition. After a string of small humiliations he finds a broken TV on the side of the road and tries to sell it online. | Sydney also screened at the TIFF lightbox in September as part of MDFF Selects: Student Film Showcase. |
 MAKING SPACE: A HALIFAX STORY |  KÖLN 75 |
 Riceboy Sleeps |  Latin American & Spanish Film Festival | FREE ENTRY FOR ALL! Subtitles for all filmsDalhousie Arts Centre, Room 406 Carbon Arc |
 Attention arts and crafts lovers of Halifax! It’s that time of year again. Collab Studio North opens its doors for their Annual Open Studio & Sale! | Its makers are already busy creating items for this upcoming holiday gifting season! Stuff those stockings with locally made ceramics, textiles, print media, baked goods and more! We always go all out with snacks and mulled wine and boozy egg nog because this is essentially our holiday staff party too :) Gather round the big main table to make a holiday card - all materials supplied! It’s all happening on Saturday, December 6, 6-9pm @ 3200 Kempt Rd. Suite #215. Bring your friends and family! |
GRANTS FOR FILMMAKERS
AFCOOP offers the following five grants bi-annually: - First Thing Grant - Super-8 Bursary - Feedback Loop - Analogue Film Grant - Independent Filmmakers Grant | Read more about what resources each grant offers by going to our website. Deadline to apply is December 1st, 2025. |
FESTIVAL SUBMISSIONS
HIFFHalifax Independent Filmmakers Festival wants to see your film! Submissions for HIFF 2026 are NOW OPEN. We're seeking bold, boundary-pushing works from new and unique voices. HIFF 2026 will take place May 27–30 at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax’s north end. Send us your latest work in the following categories:
Early-bird Deadline: January 12, 2026 Regular Deadline: February 16, 2026 Late Deadline: March 16, 2026 Find more info and submit at filmfreeway.com/halifaxindependentfilmmakersfestival. | Anifest HalifaxAnimation Festival of Halifax 2026 submission deadlines! Hot DocsSubmissions are open for North America’s biggest documentary film festival! |
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Viewers discretion advised, must be 18+ to join. |
Updated: I'm looking for a small film crew to help put together a show I have in mind. If the show is sold to a TV station or played on YouTube we can negotiate pay. Otherwise this is a volunteer position. The show may run for a year. Dedicated crew only. I'm looking for film crew: script writer, editor, camera, lighting, and logistics assistant. Anyone else? Let me know. The show is an important project to help bring inspiration, education & | awareness to all people who want to get physically fit but who deal with mental health conditions. 1-3 people filmed who disclose their condition and want to get fit. We will follow their unique journey to achieving a healthy body with supports in place; trainer, nutritionist, friends/family and therapist. If your interested please contact me. Thanks, EM |
SENDING FILM FOR PROCESSING?
AFCOOP mails a package to our partner lab on the first Tuesday of every month!
You can drop the film off anytime to our technical coordinator, Cody at anytime!
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.