Industry › Talent Development › TIFF-CBC Films Screenwriter Award
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 from equity-deserving communities, women, and/or persons with 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 2023 Award is Yasmine Mathurin, for her screenplay Sorry Pardon Madame.
Yasmine Mathurin is a Haitian-Canadian award-winning writer, director, and journalist. Her first feature documentary film One of Ours won the Hot Docs Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary in 2021 and was nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards in 2022 for Best Writing, Documentary; Best Direction, Documentary Program; and Best Feature Length Documentary. It is now available on CBC Gem and in the US through AMC+ and Sundance TV. She previously worked as an associate producer with CBC Original Podcast. Her previous podcasting work has received a Webby People’s Voice Award and a Canadian Digital Publishing Award. She most recently participated in the 2022 TIFF Writers’ Studio and the CHANEL Writers’ Summit where she is currently writing her first fiction feature film with the support of the CHANEL Women Writers’ Network grant. She is currently in post-production on a short documentary series entitled Witness with Scarborough Pictures, where she directed three out of six episodes. It will premiere in March 2023.