Shant Joshi is an award-winning producer and president of Fae Pictures, based in New York and Toronto, on a mission to decolonize Hollywood. His credits include award winners at Sundance (Framing Agnes), Red Sea (In Flames), Iris Prize (Scaring Women at Night), Durban (Runs in the Family), premieres at Cannes, Venice (The Curfew), Toronto, Canneseries (Streams Flow From A River), Aspen (I Live Here), Palm Springs (Diaspora), Hot Docs, Black Star (Noor and Layla), Bentonville, and BFI London, and nominees for the Canadian Screen Awards (Queen Tut). He was also an executive producer on Nisha Pahuja’s Academy Award ® nominated film To Kill A Tiger, an impact producer on John Greyson’s TEDDY Award-winning film International Dawn Chorus Day, and an associate producer on Ingrid Veninger’s Canadian Screen Award-nominated film Porcupine Lake.

Shant currently sits on the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) Regulatory Committee and was previously Co-Chair of the BIPOC TV & Film Board, on the CMPA EDI committee, and co-founder of the Future of Film Showcase.

He is an alum of the Canadian Film Centre, Rotterdam Lab, and Osgoode Hall Law School, and was named a MIPTV Producer to Watch, Reelworld Trailblazer, nominated for an Indiescreen Award, and to York University’s Top 30 Changemakers under 30.

Photographer Credit: Lindsay Duncan

IG @shantjoshi95

www.faepictures.com

Zarrar Kahn (also known as Hamza Bangash) is a Canadian-Pakistani writer, director and producer whose debut film In Flames was Pakistan’s Entry for the 2024 Academy Awards, a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in Director’s Fortnight, where it was nominated for the Camera d’Or.

Bangash was awarded the International Newcomer Award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, as well as Best Picture at Red Sea Film Festival. He is the recipient of the ReelWorld Film Festival Trailblazer Award 2024. An alumnus of the TIFF Talent Lab, Busan Film Academy, Locarno Filmmaker Academy, and the Canadian Film Centre’s Norman Jewison Director’s Lab program.

Photographer Credit: Norman Wong

IG @kahn.zarrar

www.citylightsmediapro.com

Vanessa Magic is a Canadian Screen Award-winning director and Writers’ Guild of Canada-nominated writer who loves to tell stories that focus on human connection, grief and loneliness, often through a surrealist lens. Drawing inspiration from her dreams, she fills her worlds with levity, strange beauty, and magic. She is an alum of Slamdance, WBD Access x Canadian Academy Writers Program, and Women in the Director’s Chair. Some of her films include The Future Above Us (2023), How to Stay Awake (2024), and I Am Pleased (2025). Her feature Nadine Pick Up The Phone will be released in 2027.

Photographer Credit: Spring Morris

IG @vanessaismagic

Anthony is a BAFTA-winning, Emmy-nominated writer/producer who has worked internationally for over 20 years. Anthony created the comedies Hate the Player, These Triggas, Shelved, Overlord and the Underwoods, and Secret Life of Boys. Anthony was the executive producer/showrunner on Run the Burbs, The Parker Andersons, and Amelia Parker. Additional writing credits include: The Office, The Thundermans, Little Mosque. Directing credits include: Son of a Critch, Overlord and the Underwoods, The Parker Andersons, Amelia Parker. Anthony prides himself as a mentor for numerous programs designed to uplift marginalized voices.

Photographer Credit: Ian Watson

IG @aqfarrell

As the Director of Communications at DGC National, Marwa’s efforts are centered on developing member and industry-focused messaging, campaigns and workshops. 

She directly supports the DGC BIPOC Members Committee as well as the DGC Green Committee by building initiatives in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and sustainability.

She also works with industry counterparts to develop a standardized process for data collection in order to improve reporting and further advocacy efforts in the film & television industry.

Photographer Credit: Kenda Al Yakobi

IG @marwasiamabdou