About the team
Luis De Filippis (Director, Writer, Producer) is a Canadian-Italian trans femme filmmaker whose work celebrates otherness and employs a fierce female gaze. Their work has played internationally at festivals such as TIFF, Rotterdam, and BFI. Their most recent work, For Nonna Anna, won the Best Short Narrative Award at the Atlanta International Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at Sundance. With generous assistance provided by the TIFF Canadian Women in Film Francis / Edwards Fellowship they attended the Tiff Filmmaker Lab in September 2018. Currently they are working on a doc/ hybrid fiction film, Mother’s Day with funding provided by Telefilm’s Talent to Watch program, and are in development on a fiction feature Something You Said Last Night which is being executive produced by The Florida Project‘s Kevin Chinoy and Francesca Silvestri with development funding provided by the Canadian Film Centre and Cinereach.
Jessica Adams (Producer) has produced features and short films that have screened around the world in numerous festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival. She has participated in numerous international producing labs including the Canadian Film Centre, Trans-Atlantic Partners, IFP No Boarders, Rotterdam Cinemart’s Co-Producers lab, and the Whistler Film Festival lab. She was selected as one of 5 Canadian producers to watch in Cannes 2018, one of the top 25 producer for Banff Diversity list 2018, and recently nominated as 5 Established producers for the competitive CMPA IndieScreen Awards at TIFF 2019. Adams produced Amy Jo Johnson’s (Power Rangers, Felicity, Flash Point) debut feature The Space Between, which ran a successful Indiegogo campaign that raised over $134,000 from 1,500+ supporters and won the IndieWire Project of the year. Adams has also produced the Hulu sci-feature film Astronaut starring Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss and Oscar nominee Graham Greene that premiered in June 2019 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Her most recent film, Tammy’s Always Dying premiered at TIFF 2019 and Jessica’s second collaboration with Amy Jo Johnson. The film stars Oscar Nominee Felicity Huffman, Clark Johnson and Lauren Holly.
Francesca Silvestri and Kevin Chinoy (Executive Producers) are an American producing duo. For more than two decades they have developed and produced award winning Film, TV, Theater, and branded content with many of the industry’s most talented individuals and entertainment companies. Their projects have played at major festivals around the world including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, NYFF, Locarno, SXSW, and Tribeca. Their projects have been represented at award ceremonies including the Oscars, Golden Globes, Gothams, WGA, DGA, Critics Choice and Independent Spirit Awards. At the top of their long list of collaborators stands Sean Baker, with whom they have partnered on his past three films (Starlet, Tangerine, and The Florida Project).
Jennifer Konawal (Executive Producer) is a Manager/Producer at the Top Bi-Coastal Management Company Washington Square Films. Previous to this position, Jennifer spent 15 years at The Gersh Agency, representing Talent and Literary clients. Washington Square Films is a production and management company with offices in New York and Los Angeles. The company’s films have been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards (winning one), Seven Independent Spirit Awards (winning one), received two Peabody Awards, and been nominated for, and won dozens of other awards and honors. WSF’s films have premiered at every major film festival including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, New York and Sundance. Recent feature film projects include: Abel Ferrrara’s Tommaso (to premiere at Cannes, 2019), starring Willem Dafoe, Abel Ferrara’s feature documentary, The Projectionist (Tribeca, 2019), Michael Tyburski’s The Sound of Silence (Sundance, 2019), starring Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones.