The TIFF–CBC Films Screenwriter Award will provide $15,000 to a Canadian writer of an outstanding feature-film screenplay, supporting them to develop their project. The Award is open to experienced screenwriters who are women and/or who belong to an equity-seeking group, and/or who identify as having a disability. Applicants must have a writer or director credit on a feature film that has been presented at one of this Award’s recognized festivals. Our commitment is to fund the development of high-quality productions that reflect, represent, and reframe diverse perspectives through character-driven stories at the centre of the Canadian experience.
The winner of the 2020 Award was Elyse Friedman, for her screenplay The Relationship Experiment.
Melanie Jones is an alumna of TIFF Writers’ Studio, Women In the Director’s Chair, the From Our Dark Side Incubator Program, and the Reykjavik Talent Lab. Her debut feature, FSM (made with the support of the IndieCan 10K Film Challenge), premiered at the Whistler Film Festival in 2015. The film earned her a Leo nomination for Best Direction and went on to a theatrical release in her hometown of Vancouver. Jones’s work has screened at festivals around the world, garnering dozens of nominations and awards — including two audience choice awards and a Golden Sheaf Award for her most recent short film, Shuttlecock.
