Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

Congratulations to this year’s winners at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Among those honoured were Michelle Latimer (NSI Drama Prize) and Tracey Deer (NSI Storytellers, Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program).

Inconvenient Indian (pictured) from director Michelle won the People’s Choice Documentary Award and the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. The jury said, “Michelle’s documentary is a deeply thought-provoking adaptation of Thomas King’s classic non-fiction book. It is a scorching indictment that interrogates the narratives we tell about ourselves and whose humanity is valued in that exercise. Expansive yet pulsing with energy and life, it ponders big questions and harkens the coming of a new era of truth and reclamation.”

Tracey received the TIFF Emerging Talent Award and her feature Beans was the Peoples Choice Award second runner up.

See the full winners list (PDF).

The post Big wins at TIFF 2020 for Michelle Latimer, Tracey Deer appeared first on National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).

The National Screen Institute has partnered with Annelise Larson of Storypreneurs Unite to bring you a wonderful new digital marketing webinar series. The eight-part series aims to help creators find and engage an audience for their projects.

It’s affordable (like, really affordable), you can do it at your own pace and it will give you everything you need to put together a digital business or marketing plan.

Here, Annelise introduces the series.

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Everyone needs a digital strategy

To be fair, everyone has needed a digital strategy for their film, web series, television show or any creative work for a very long time now. But COVID-19 has made this more obvious than ever before.

More time and attention is now spent online; more people understand how to watch a livestream or get video on demand; and more filmmakers and creators are putting their work online.

This is a time of great opportunity, but also great competition. To stand out, you really need an edge: strategic thinking grounded in an understanding of specific audiences and an entrepreneurial approach. AKA, you need to become a storypreneur.

The power of audience-led strategic thinking

The great opportunity of the internet is that it gives filmmakers and other creatives so many tools to better understand and connect with their audience.

Your audience can help spread the word, pay for your creative work and help you achieve many other amazing things. Your audience is specific and the more you can understand what they care about and where they spend their time and attention, the greater your chance of success. Research them. Find them. Lurk and learn from them. This is the basis of your digital strategy.

Don’t know how to start? Well you’re in luck.

Storypreneur training from Annelise Larson and NSI

For a number of years I ran an online course called Becoming a Storypreneur for filmmakers and other media storytellers from Canada and Europe. It was intense. It was expensive. And it didn’t reach enough people.

Inspired by this course, I am excited to launch a webinar series in partnership with the National Screen Institute. It includes eight lessons, the first four of which were just released.

Half of the profits from this online course will go to NSI to help support their important training initiatives.

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Learn more about the webinar series and sign up.

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The post Create your digital strategy with a new webinar series from Annelise Larson in partnership with NSI appeared first on National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).