Joe Balass was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and founded Compass Productions in Montréal in 1997. Working across both fiction and documentary, he has directed and produced numerous award- winning films, including Nana, George & Me (1997), The Devil in the Holy Water (2002), Parting Words (2006), Baghdad Twist (2007), JOY! Portrait of a Nun (2012), The Length of the Alphabet (2013), Venus (2017), The Affairs of Lidia (2022), and Calorie (2025), shot in Canada and India and featuring Anupam Kher. Known for blending seriousness with humour, Balass’s work has been showcased at major festivals such as TIFF, Tribeca, and IDFA. Both the Cinémathèque québécoise and the Toronto Jewish Film Festival have honoured him with retrospectives. He is currently developing Mary, Mary, a feature by Bruce LaBruce, co-written with Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, about the bond between a trans woman and an unmarried 19-year-old pregnant girl. He is also developing Farida, a love story set in pre-WWII Baghdad, adapted from the novel by award-winning Canadian-Iraqi writer Naïm Kattan. In addition to his filmmaking, Balass works as a programmer and directs the Journées du cinéma québécois en Italie, a festival dedicated to Québec cinema in Italy, now in its twentieth edition.

Amy Wang is a Chinese-Australian writer/director whose directorial debut SLANTED, which she also wrote and produced, won the 2025 Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize at SXSW. The film stars Shirley Chen, Emmy nominee Mckenna Grace, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Amelie Zilber and Vivian Wu. Shortly after graduating from AFI, Amy’s short UNNATURAL was awarded gold at the Young Director Awards at Cannes Lions 2018, and her feature script WENDI made the Black List. From there, Amy wrote on many features including CRAZY RICH ASIANS 2 for Warner Bros. and Color Force. On the TV side, Amy was most recently a writer/producer on THE BROTHERS SUN for Netflix, starring Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh and she was previously a writer on the limited series FROM SCRATCH for Netflix, starring Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña. 

Jared Raab is an award-winning Canadian cinematographer, director, editor and animator. Originally from the world of documentary, Raab edited multiple feature-length documentaries, including Spring and Arnaud (2013) and John Greyson's groundbreaking experimental opera, Fig Trees (2008). As a music video director, he has collaborated with artists like Arkells, Tokyo Police Club, Andy Shauf, July Talk, and Shania Twain, earning him the Arthur Lipsett Award for innovation in music video from the Prism Prize. He has also been an integral part of director Matt Johnson’s filmmaking career, working as both cinematographer and producer on the Slamdance-winning film The Dirties, Operation Avalanche and Nirvanna The Band The Show, a series turned feature film playing at CIFF this year. Their film about the rise and fall of BlackBerry, starring Glenn Howerton and Jay Baruchel, premiered in Berlin in 2023. It garnered him a CSA for Best Cinematography and was the most awarded film in Canadian Screen Award history.  Most recently, his work as director of animation on Any Other Way - The Jackie Shane Story helped it take home the DGC Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs 2024 and a prestigious Peabody Documentary Award.

Phil's journey in filmmaking began with a deep dive into the world of cinema at the University of Toronto. His degree in History/ Cinema Studies ignited a lifelong passion for the power of storytelling through moving images. This academic grounding provided a strong foundation for his artistic vision, and conveniently, part of this artistic vision was putting himself in his own movies. Funny how that happens. Art. Amirite? His works as a writer/director have been featured in festivals across North America, including Thank you, Josh (Ontario Arts Council), Bait & Switch (National Screen Institute, Miami Short Film Festival) and the IPF comedy series Short Term Sentence (LA Comedy Film Festival, NYC Web Fest, TOWebFest), and Racewalkers (Slamdance Film Festival, Sydney International Film Festival, Vashon Island Film Fest, Blue Mountain Film Festival, Cinefest Sudbury).

Kevin is a Canadian-born actor and filmmaker. He graduated from the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies program and stepped immediately into a busy career on-screen. His first prominent role was in the Starz award-winning series The Girlfriend Experience, for which his on-screen partner got nominated for a Golden Globe and Kevin absolutely did not. Kevin has since worked consistently on top tier projects for FX, Netflix, Amblin Entertainment and Dreamworks Pictures. Kevin recently pivoted into working behind the camera, directing five episodes of the award-winning series Short Term Sentence as his directorial debut, followed by his 2025 feature film Racewalkers.