FOFS 2025
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FOFS 2025 *
New Terrain: Indie Financing in a Shifting Landscape
Co-Presented by Elevation Pictures & Creative Arts Financial
The rules of indie film financing in Canada have quietly transformed. Once reliant on pre-sales and broadcaster commitments, producers now face a fragmented and uncertain landscape as traditional models, especially pre-sales, fade.
This panel brings together Canadian producers and experts to discuss these shifts. Why have pre-sales declined? How have broadcaster strategies, streamers, and global markets affected early financing? And what new models are emerging?
Through candid discussion, panelists will explore adaptations like co-productions, private equity, gap financing, brand partnerships, and new distribution pathways. They’ll also examine how these changes impact budgets, storytelling, and who gets to tell stories in Canada.
For emerging and mid-career filmmakers, this panel offers a reality check and a roadmap: an honest look at what’s changed, what’s evolving, and how to build sustainable financing strategies today.
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Moderated by Zachary Goldkind (Director of Programming, FOFS)
Zachary Goldkind is an experimental-narrative filmmaker, festival programmer, and cultural scholar based in Tkaronto/Toronto, so-called-Canada. Zac holds an MFA in Film Production from York University. Their studies orbit subjects of image-ideology and narrative theory, taking careful consideration of the role aesthetics play in producing and reproducing cultural hegemonies.
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Cornelia Principe (Producer)
Cornelia is a Don Haig Award recipient, and an Oscar®, Emmy and Peabody-nominated producer. Her documentary films have collectively screened at well over 100 national and international film festivals, been broadcast all over the world, and have garnered numerous awards and distinctions including: an Academy Award® Nomination for Best Feature Documentary; Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Coverage of a Current News Story; Peabody nomination for Documentary; Best Documentary Feature, Jury Award Winner, Tribeca Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; Audience Choice Award, Hot Docs; TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten; Ted Rogers Best Feature Documentary, CSA Awards; Sundance Film Forward Program.
Photographer Credit: Nika Belianina
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Kazik Radwanski (Filmmaker)
Kazik Radwanski is a co-founder of the MDFF production company and a filmmaker whose work has been presented in most major international film festivals including Berlin, Locarno, New York, and Toronto, as well as in galleries and museums including the ICA in London, Jeu de Paume Paris in Paris, and MoMA in New York. He is currently a professor on the Humber BFMP faculty in Toronto. Previously, Radwanski taught at York University, TMU and UofT.
Photography Credit: FNC
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Ryan Bobkin (Producer)
Ryan Bobkin is an independent producer focused on auteur-driven work, international co-production and films with social impact. Named Playback's 10 to Watch in 2022 and a 2025 Sundance Producers Fellow, he has worked extensively in the United States and Canada with companies including Animal Kingdom, Elevation Pictures and Film Forge, where he served as the Head of Development. An experienced associate and co-producer of films that have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlinale and TIFF including Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool (NEON and Focus Features), Amar Wala’s Shook (Elevation Pictures) and Maxwell McCabe-Lokos’ Stanleyville (Oscilloscope), Ryan most recently lead produced of Sophy Romvari's Blue Heron, which following award wins at Locarno and TIFF, was picked up by Janus Films (US) and has been distributed worldwide. He is currently in post-production on Calvin Thomas & Yonah Lewis’ The Temple and Pat Kiely's Good in the Room.
Photography Credit: Calvin Thomas Photography
IG @ryanbobkin
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Temesghen Naizghi (Production Executive, Elevation Pictures)
Temesghen Naizghi is a Production Executive at Elevation Pictures, where he oversees film and television projects from development through financing, production, and distribution.
