Program Overview
The GEMS – Whistler Film Festival (WFF) Market Preparation Mentorship is a development program that provides a producer, director or writer the opportunity to take a feature film or series concept to market.
The chosen mentee will receive a WFF Industry Pass to attend the Whistler Film Festival + Content Summit on December 3—7, as well as a personal coaching session with an experienced producer prior to the festival. This private coaching session will cover several topics to prepare the Mentee to pitch their project(s) during the WFF Content + Summit.
Please note that applications are now closed!
Key Dates
Program Outline
The goal of the mentorship will be to provide the recipient with an opportunity to prepare their project pitch for presentation to potential collaborators, funders and partners at the Whistler Film Festival. The recipient will receive valuable insight into how to pitch their project, and build their career.
Prior to the festival, the mentee will participate in personal coaching sessions with a mentor personally chosen by WFF and GEMS.
Topics for personal coaching may include:
- Creating a one-sheet
- Pitching advice
- Who is buying what?
- Which funders to target with your project
- How to add cachet and marketable elements to your project
- How to build an audience for the project
- How to market your project
Following the personal coaching session, the mentee will attend the festival to pitch their project.
Application Requirements
- Submitted Google Form including upload of Required Materials (listed below)
- Application Fee paid (sign in to your GEMS member account to find the access code on the Benefits page)
Please have the following ready when submitting your application:
- A one-page synopsis of your feature film or series project
- Applicant CV with filmography (max. 2 pages)
- A one-page description of the project’s development history to date, and listing any attached key creatives (include bio/info links, if possible)
- A one-page letter outlining how you and your project will benefit from the mentorship
- Receipt of your payment to GEMS
Please note that each of the required materials should come as a single PDF file uploaded into a Folder, and should be named using the format FIRSTNAMELASTNAME_COMPONENT (for example: JANEDOE_LETTEROFINTENT, etc).
Mentee/Mentor Bios
Mentors & Project Pairing
Mentee | Lucy McNulty
Lucy McNulty is an award-winning producer, writer, and actor. She is the founder of Strange Company Productions, a boutique production company championing female and under-represented voices, and the co-founder of DropShock Pictures. A graduate of Studio 58 and alum of the Canadian Film Centre’s Norman Jewison Producers’ Lab, the GEMS Genre Film Lab, and the TIFF Series Accelerator, Lucy specializes in character-driven, socially conscious stories that blend humor, heart, and impact.
Lucy’s producing credits include Hunting Matthew Nichols, directed by Markian Tarasiuk and named one of Deadline’s “2025 Horror Films to Watch.” The film is set for a 2026 U.S. theatrical release across more than 1,000 screens and was nominated for seven Leo Awards, winning Best Found Footage Feature and Best Editing at FilmQuest and Best Director at Blood in the Snow Film Festival. Additional credits include How Brief, directed by Kelly McCormack and starring Emmy Award–winner Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) and Tess Degenstein; CHICKEN, winner of the Jury’s Choice and DEAI Award at the Thomas Edison Film Festival and acquired by CBC; At the End, starring Avan Jogia (The Outlaws), which will premiere at the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival; and Attendance, an official selection at the Whistler Film Festival. Lucy is currently developing a bold slate including Deepfake and The Ensemble—both of which received early development financing from Creative BC’s Equity & Emerging Program.
Mentor | Karen Lam
Karen has worked full-time in the film and television industry since 2000. Starting her career as a producer and entertainment lawyer, Karen was one of the architects of the British Columbia tax credit program before being recruited by PwC accounting firm to assist with creating tax shelters for the US studio clients. Since leaving the world of film finance, Karen has written and directed ten short horror films, three music videos, series directed two seasons of the true crime series Very Bad Men for Discovery+, a web series Mythos (2015) for TELUS, and five feature-length films, including Stained (2010), Evangeline (2013) and The Curse of Willow Song (2020), which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in September 2020. The film won the award for Best British Columbia Feature Film, and Karen received a Best Director award at the British Columbia Leo Awards (2021). Karen has also written television scripts for SYFY and Netflix on the premiere seasons of Van Helsing and Ghost Wars, where she was able to help create and create the characters for each series. In 2021, Karen directed the seventh instalment in the Bring It On cheerleading franchise, a Halloween horror special titled Bring It On: Cheer Or Die (2022) that premiered on SYFY in October, and is available for viewing on Crave in Canada (Amazon and Hulu in the rest of the world.). The Curse of Willow Song is available for viewing worldwide, released jointly by Red Water Entertainment (Canada) and Uncork’d Entertainment (world).
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Full participation is required. Applicants will have an opportunity to declare any barriers to their full participation such as childcare, travel or accommodation, when applying. If selected, GEMS will provide funds to assist with barriers.
All copyright remains with the mentee.
All genres are eligible as long as it is a feature or series concept.
You have to be a current voting member and you must log in to view the access code you will need to make your purchase in Elevent.
Program Partner
The Whistler Film Festival Society is a charitable cultural organization dedicated to furthering the art of film by providing programs that focus on the discovery, development and promotion of new talent culminating with a must-attend festival for artists, industry and audiences in Whistler. Find out more at whistlerfilmfestival.com.
