festival

Louise Bourret

Louise graduated from Concordia University with a degree in Fine Arts. She worked simultaneously as a scenic painter in the theater and as a medical illustrator in a neuropsychology research center. She subsequently worked as a scenic painter, then as a props designer, set designer, and art director for numerous films, series, and advertisements. After obtaining a degree in education from UQAM, she taught art from 2002 to 2022 at Collège Brébeuf.

Greg Dunning

Greg keeps the legacy of Cinepix (John Dunning and Andre Link) alive with his archival website, media distribution of Cinepix’s properties, and the John Dunning Foundation.  Prior, he worked at Telefilm for 13 years in feature film, television, and performance metrics.  He ran five independent cinemas, operated a small distribution, and a video sell-thru store, and worked on the set of 4 productions.  

Fortunato Frattasio

Fortunato brings over 25 years of experience in visual effects production as an artist, supervisor, and manager. He has over 100 feature film and television credits to his name on
productions such as Mars Attacks (1996), Armageddon (1998), Spider-Man (2002), The Hunger Games (2012), Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013) and Goosebumps (2015).

Brent George

Brent George is a seasoned media content creator with a dynamic career spanning over two decades in animation, video game production, and digital storytelling. With a foundation in 2D animation, Brent’s journey through the evolution of media technologies has seen him at the forefront of AI Behavior and Gameplay Mechanics in video games, VFX supervision, and Animation direction. Brent’s creative vision and technical expertise were instrumental in the development of Zack Snyder’s “300,” where he served as CG Supervisor. His crowning achievement came with the conceptualization of the iconic Vaas character in “Far Cry 3.” As the animation director for “Batman: Arkham Origins,” Brent’s contributions to the Warner Bros. franchise were pivotal in defining its cinematic gameplay experience. More recently, Brent’s directorial acumen was recognized with a Grand Clio Award for the announcement teaser of Xbox Game Studios’ “South of Midnight.”

Ralph Lucas

Former broadcast executive Ralph Lucas began writing about and reviewing movies for radio in the mid-1970s. In 1998 he launched Northernstars.ca: The Canadian Film Database where he is the Publisher and Managing Editor and continues to write about and reviews movies.

Meinert Hansen

Meinert Hansen is a concept artist and illustrator who has worked in film, television, and games for over 37 years. His past credits include Arrival, Mirror Mirror, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, 300, Silent Hill, Batman: Arkham Origins, Splinter Cell: Conviction and Myst 4: Revelation. Meinert has over 10 years of teaching experience and has given popular workshops for professional artists, students, and the public.

Brendan Mahon

Growing up with a father who ran a film studio where many cherished films shot, and my mom working in a video store introducing me to the masters led me (him) to pursue a career in this industry. A graduate of both Concordia’a film studies and communications programs,a career includes over 40 feature films and 200 episodes of television in a career that 20 years in the making. Nominated for 2 Canadian Screen Awards, amongst other accolades, the goal is always to produce quality sets that tell the story

Kent Martin

Kent Martin has made well over a hundred films and television series dealing with history, economics, the arts, the environment, spirituality, and humour. In his career, spanning almost forty years, he has produced, directed, edited, photographed and written. These films, for the most part produced by the National Film Board of Canada, have played in festivals from the Berlin Film Festival, Sundance, TIFF to Amsterdam’s IDFA. His productions have garnered twenty Genie and Gemini awards, nominated six times for the prestigious Donald Brittain Award.

George Mihalka

George Mihalka is known for the ease with which he moves from drama to action to comedy in theatrical features and television, both in English and French. George’s films, television movies, and miniseries have been honoured with over 50 nominations and awards in Canada, the United States, and around the world. Born in Hungary, George has lived in Canada since the age of 10 and has enjoyed working and creating around the world.

He has received the Life Time Achievement Award and the Distinguished Service Award from the Directors Guild of Canada and the Emeritus Award for his body of work from ARRQ, the Quebec film director association.

A master storyteller, George has parlayed a celebrated directing career into work as a Showrunner, Executive Producer and Production Executive. George has recently directed and show-ran Ominous a supernatural miniseries for Lockhart productions and Bell Media.

From (2019-2024) George was working as the Co-Creator and Executive Producer on Hunyadi: The Rise of the Raven, a 10-hour medieval period drama shot in Hungary for Canadian producer Robert Lantos (Serendipity Point Films), Beta Film Gmbh (Germany), and The Hungarian Film Institute (NFI). It will be airing world-wide in the spring of 2025

Nick Trusiak

Nick began making movies with his brother and cousin at the age of thirteen. His most recent short film, “Don’t Forget to See Your Father”, was selected to screen at the 2023 edition of the Hudson Film Festival, where it went on to win the award for Ben’s Best short film. He is a graduate from the Film Production program at Concordia University in Montreal and currently works as a VFX Production Coordinator at MPC (Moving Picture Company).

Gabor Vadnay

Concordia University B.A. in political science and a minor in film. Worked professionally in the film industry in 1979, Sound recording on 56 feature length films including “The Day After Tomorrow”, and “John Wick 2”, 30 television series including” Quantico,”, and “Blood and Treasure“ over 300 television commercials, documentary films in 40 countries. Nominated for 6 awards won  two Geminis for best sound in a dramatic series for “Omertà” and “Bliss”.