About the team
Zaynê Akyol (Director & Producer) Zaynê Akyol went to Université du Québec à Montréal, where she obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Communication, with a specialization in film. In 2016, Zaynê released her first feature documentary Gulîstan, Land of Roses, which was selected by eighty international film festivals with fifty nominations and won twelve awards, including the prestigious Doc Alliance Award given at Locarno Film Festival. Zaynê also started producing other filmmaker’s films, two of which are expected to be released in 2021. In her free time, she is a photographer whose exhibitions have been attended worldwide. Rojek is her second documentary.
Sylvain Corbeil (Producer) Sylvain Corbeil founded Metafilms in 2003. As of this day, he produced 20 short and 20 feature films. Elle veut le chaos (2008), Carcasses (2009), Curling (2010) Bestiaire (2012), Vic + Flo ont vu un ours (2013), Que ta joie demeure (2014) and Boris sans Béatrice (2016), all directed by Denis Côté, have had prestigious careers in international film festivals (Cannes, Berlinale, Sundance, Busan, TIFF) or have won prizes. And so did Nuit #1 (Anne Émond, 2011), Laurentie (Simon Lavoie, Mathieu Denis, 2011), Le Torrent (Simon Lavoie, 2012), Diego Star (Frédérick Pelletier, 2013) and Les êtres chers, (Anne Émond, 2015). Mommy, (Xavier Dolan, 2014) won the Jury Prize at the 67th Festival de Cannes and Maxime Giroux’s Félix et Meira (2014) won the Best Canadian Film Award during the 39th TIFF. Juste la fin du monde, (Xavier Dolan, 2016), won the Grand Jury Prize at the 69th Festival de Cannes. Maudite poutine, by Karl Lemieux (2016), premiered at the 73rd Mostra de Venizzia, Maxime Giroux’s La grande noirceur (2018) premiered at TIFF and won 5 Canadian Screen Awards. He presented La femme de mon frère (2019) by Monia Chokri at the 72nd Festival de Cannes, where it won a Jury Prize.
Audrey-Ann Dupuis-Pierre (Producer) Graduated from Concordia University in Film Production, Audrey-Ann starts off her career under the influence of Sylvain Corbeil and Nancy Grant, producers from the Montreal based production company, Metafilms. She participates at the EURODOC program in 2015 (specialized training for documentary producers) on top of getting involved in thirteen feature films since 2013. As of 2019, she is devoted to produce creative and bold documentaries through Metafilms.
Nicolas Canniccioni (Director of Photography) Nicolas Canniccioni studied still photography in Matane (Gaspésie) and later filmmaking at Concordia University in Montreal, serving as Director of Photography on a friend’s project. Since his graduation, his collaboration with directors such as Philippe Lesage, Juan Andrès Arrango, Jean-François Caissy, Simon Lavoie and Michael Rowe have been celebrated in major film festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Toronto, Venice, Rotterdam, San Sebastian, Camerimage and MOMA, among others). His versatile and precise work, both in fiction and documentary, has captured portraits and landscapes of great diversity, from fishing villagers in the South American jungle, to young Canadian Army recruits in rural Quebec, to members of the First Nations of the Northern tundra. Zaynê Akyol’s new film Rojek, One Day was his first venture in the Middle-East.
Arshia Shakiba (Director of Photography and Sound) Arshia Shakiba studied Digital Film Production and graduated from Toronto Film School in 2003. He began his professional career as a Director and Director of Photography on a number of music videos and award-winning short films. Arshia recently directed and filmed documentaries The Guests and Black Sun (in post-production). He is now developing his first feature documentary Who Loves the Sun, made in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada.
Mathieu Bouchard-Malo (Editor) Mathieu Bouchard-Malo is a film editor who has worked on several feature films. Among others, those of Jean-François Caissy, Jean-François Lesage, Maxime Giroux, Philippe Lesage and Anne Emond have distinguished themselves in internationally renowned festivals including the Berlinale, Visions du réel, Locarno Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). He was nominated for best editing for Zayne Akyol’s Gulîstan, Land of Roses at the Canadian Screen Awards and the Iris Awards in 2017.