About the Filmmakers:

ROB HEYDON (Director/Producer)

Rob Heydon is an award-winning filmmaker of international acclaim, whose credits span directing, writing, and producing. Based in Toronto, he has been making films for over 20 years. He began his career by directing music videos, winning a Juno Award for Best Music Video for Edwin’s Alive. After directing over 100 music videos and commercials, he went on to shoot the film Go Further, starring Woody Harrelson (Audience Award runner-up at TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival), as well as the feature documentary on legendary Producer’s Rep - Jeff “The Dude” Dowd, the inspiration for the Coen Brothers’ film The Big Lebowski. Heydon’s next feature film was Ecstasy, based on the bestselling novel by Irvine Walsh, which has won awards around the world.

Heydon honed his producing skills at the acclaimed Canadian Film Center, founded by Norman Jewison, where he worked as a Production Manager and as a Producer. He now has extensive experience in treaty co-productions and international financing.

Heydon produced the adventure TV series “The Pinkertons”, and the acclaimed family adventure film Midnight Sun, directed by Roger Spottiswoode. He is working with LAbased Icelandic producer Joni Sighvatsson on “Last Rituals”, a Nordic Noir TV series set in Iceland for RUV and CHCH in Canada.

DONALD MARTIN (Screenwriter, Executive Producer)

 Donald Martin is a writer and producer, based in L.A. In 2010, he received Canada’s Margaret Collier Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gemini Awards. In 2002, he received Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee Medal. In 2001, he was the recipient of the inaugural Gemini Humanitarian Award. He was nominated for a 1996 Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay and a Writer’s Guild Award for his feature film Never Too Late, starring Olympia Dukakis and Cloris Leachman. His adaptation of Eckhart Tolle’s book Milton’s Secret, starring Donald Sutherland and Michelle Rodriguez, had its World Premiere at the 2016 Vancouver International Film Festival and was released worldwide by Momentum Pictures. His film Toto was shot in Manila in 2015 and has won awards at festivals around the world. Dim Sum Funeral (HBO Films, 2008), which he wrote and executive produced, played at a dozen major international festivals and won numerous awards. His feature film Shackles (Sony) stars D. L. Hughley in his dramatic debut and had its World Premiere at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.

Martin has written the upcoming WW2 feature Crescendo for producer Gale Anne Hurd, with Klaus Haro (The Fencer) attached to direct. For producer Todd Black at Escape Artists (Sony), Martin has written the feature Masterpiece, with Al Pacino attached to star.

In television, Martin has over 50 produced movies and mini-series to his credit, many of them having won major awards around the world.

SID GANIS (Executive Producer)

Ganis is a major Hollywood studio executive and producer who made his initial mark as an executive by marketing The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983) and the first two instalments of the Indiana Jones trilogy. Ganis achieved his greatest clout as President of the Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group, where he helped launch Top Gun (1986) and Fatal Attraction (1987), as well as serving in a senior position in Columbia Pictures' overall management team. From March 1992 until July 1996, he served as Executive Vice President, and then President of both marketing and distribution for Columbia Pictures – before becoming Vice Chairman.

As a producer, Ganis formed a lucrative association with Adam Sandler, producing his hit films Big Daddy (1999) and Mr. Deeds (2002). In 2005, Ganis was elected to his first term as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which he held for three more terms. He produced the acclaimed family drama Akeelah and the Bee in 2006. Then, Ganis turned to television, where he co-executive produced the ABC network series “Pan Am” in 2011-2012.

Ganis executive produced the recent critically acclaimed feature documentary BANG! The Bert Berns Story. That film and Isabelle mark his return to feature films.

JONI SIGHVATSSON (Executive Producer)

Sighvatsson is a veteran producer of well over 40 feature films and television series. He runs Palomar Pictures, based in Los Angeles, and Scanbox Entertainment, based in Norway and Denmark.

Before coming to the U.S., he enjoyed a successful career in his native Iceland as a 16 musician, founding the country’s first recording studio when he was 21. He came to Los Angeles on a Fulbright Scholarship to earn his MFA in Graduate Film Studies at USC.

In 1986, he co-founded Propaganda Films, which quickly became the leading music video and commercial production company in the world before expanding into feature films with such titles as Kalifornia, Red Rock West, and David Lynch’s Wild At Heart, which won the Plame d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He was also involved with numerous TV series, including the cult classic “Twin Peaks”, the Emmy® nominated “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of The City”, and the hit series “Beverly Hills 90201”. In 1995, he became the founding President at Lakeshore Entertainment, where he produced or executive produced such films as Polish Wedding, 200 Cigarettes, and Arlington Road.

In 1999, he became the controlling shareholder in Palomar Pictures. His recent feature film credits include Z for Zachariah; Brothers; The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared; Killer Elite; K-19: The Widowmaker; and Valhalla Rising.

REY CUERDO (Executive Producer)

A Hollywood studio executive for 20 years, Cuerdo was also the executive producer of The Philippines’ smash hit horror-comedy Remington and the Curse of the Zombadings (2011).

He took it on an international film festival run in 2012, capping it with U.S. domestic and worldwide distribution deals, as well as a U.S. film remake entitled Zombadings! written by Donald Martin, which is currently attaching talent. In 2008, Cuerdo executive produced the HBO Films comedy-drama Dim Sum Funeral, written by Donald Martin, and starring Bai Ling, Talia Shire and Russell Wong.

Cuerdo produced the award-winning Philippine film Small Voices in 2002. It won “Best Picture” in all of The Philippines’ film industry awards, and was selected as the country’s official entry to the Oscars and Golden Globe Awards, becoming the first Philippine film to be distributed by a major Hollywood studio (Warner Bros.), and the first Philippine entry acquired and released domestically in the U.S. In 2015, Cuerdo produced (with Donald Martin) the feature film Toto in Manila, which has won kudos around the world. In 2017, his acclaimed feature documentary, with Ramona D. Diaz, entitled Motherland had its world premiere at Sundance and is nominated for a 2018 Independent Spirit Award as Best Documentary.

SZONJA JAKOVITS (Executive Producer/Line Producer/Production Manager)

Jakovits has 30 years of experience working on internationally acclaimed film and TV productions. Her feature film credits include Buckout Road, Manhattan Undying, Casting The Runes, Only I, Cybergeddon, Ten Thunders and Small Town Murder Songs. Her work in television include “Raising Expectations”, “Annedroids III” & “Annedroids IV”, “The Last Resort”, “What’s Up, Warthogs”, and “Stock & Awe.”

PASHA PATRIKI (Director of Photography, CSC; Executive Producer)

Since he was 4 years old, Patriki was determined to become a filmmaker. Growing up in Moscow, he began learning the craft by playing with his grandfather’s Super8 camera.

After moving to Toronto in 1996, he started working on various film sets as a lighting technician while simultaneously studying in the Film & Video Production program at York University. Today, with 16 years behind him as a professional, Patriki’s work as a Director of Photography has been recognized across Canada and beyond. He is nominated almost every year at Canada’s Much Music Awards for his music videos for such notable artists as Carle Rae Jepsen, Hedley, Billy Talent, and Down With Webster.

In 2012, he won the prestigious CSC Best Cinematography Award for his work on the music video for Saidah Baba Talibah’s “Revolution”.

His feature film credits include Anonymous, starring Clifton Collins Jr., Lower Bay, starring Rose McGowan; Trapped Out, starring Michael Biehn; Gridlocked, starring Danny Glover; Hacker; Burning Daylight; Full Out, starring Jennifer Beals; and Christmas Switch, starring Natasha Henstridge.

DIANA ABBATANGELO (Production Designer)

Abbatangelo has designed the look of such feature films as He Never Died, Bank$tas, I Declare War, Servitude, Textuality, Nurse.Fighter.Boy, Bull, YPF, and Re-Generation.

Abbatangelo also counts the television movies “HumanTown”, “Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B”, and the documentaries “The Real Vampire Files” and “The Real Jack the Ripper” amongst her extensive list of credits.

RUTH SECORD (Costume Designer)

Secord recently completed work on Backstabbing for Beginners, Happily Ever After, Lost & Found, Wet Bum, and the TV series “Slasher”, “Letterkenny”, “Kim’s Convenience”, “Between”, “Cracked”, “Little Mosque on the Prairie”, “Men with Brooms”, and “The Border.”

Secord also designed costumes for TV movies such as “En Vogue Christmas”, “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town”, “DC 9/11: Time of Crisis”, the Emmy® Award-winning “The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie”, “Deathlands” and “Murder Among Friends.”

ANGELICA LISK-HANN (Stunt Coordinator)

Lisk-Hann has coordinated stunts on the series “Slasher,” “Warehouse 13”, “Annedroids” and on the acclaimed mini-series “The Book of Negroes”. She coordinated stunts on the feature film The Best Man Holiday and she assistant coordinated stunts on Kick Ass 2.

Other credits include working as a stunt performer   on “Taken”, “Quantico” and “XXX”.