Next Up! Pitch Competition

Meet our 2025 Pitch Competition Finalists!

Elena (Eli) Belyea

LIL BONEY: MAN OF GREATNESS

Elena (or Eli) Belyea is an award-winning theatre and filmmaker, actor, and producer based in amiskwaciwâskahikan (colonially known as Edmonton on Treaty 6 territory). Their work explores the subjects of queerness, intimacy, technology, power, and love, and has been produced across Turtle Island and internationally (including Austria, Hungary, and New York). They’re half of queer sketch duo GENDER? I HARDLY KNOW THEM (@genderihardlyknowthem), whose proof of concept of the same name at the 2021 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival.

In 2022, they filmed a three episode digital series recently screened at Rio WebFest in Brazil and LA Webfest. Their short film "Passion" premiered in 2017 at the Edmonton International Film Festival. In 2024, they were part of Spindle Films’ Trans and Non-Binary Mentorship program (which took place at the Banff Centre for the Arts and online). They’re currently in post-production for their short "NEVER BETTER!!!" (which they wrote and starred in, with direction by Raghed Charabaty). More at elenabelyea.com.

Sareena Perera

CROOK CLUB

Sareena Perera (she/her) is a writer, director, and stand-up comedian based in Toronto, Ontario. With an intense love for storytelling and a flair for an understated joke, she enjoys working across various mediums and genres. Having grown up without seeing people like her onscreen, she aims to represent and uplift diverse communities in her work. Her short film, "The Confession" premiered at Toronto’s FILMI South Asian Film Festival in 2023, and serves as a proof of concept for a series currently in development titled "Pinewood Community Pool". She holds a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies and English from the University of Toronto.

Bulut (Blue) Gumulu

CYBER COMPASS

Bulut (Blue) is a Turkish-Canadian writer, director, and producer by profession and a stand-up comedian by compulsion. Every Halloween, he blesses his audience with the sight of a Turkish man in a full turkey costume delivering deadpan Thanksgiving jokes. When he's not entertaining Canadians with performance art, he's focused on his career in film and television.

He holds a Film Production degree from York University, where he studied on a talent scholarship, and a post-graduate diploma in Film and Television – Business from Centennial College. With a strong foundation in creative storytelling and a solid grasp of the business side of the Canadian media industry, Bulut (Blue) has collected a number of festival awards, none of which paid the rent, but all of which gave him great storytelling skills. His work blends absurdity, philosophy, and dark comedy into what he proudly defines as his own genre: existential humour.

Jade Yurich

TINY PORTALS

His creative work spans stand-up comedy, sketches, and feature scripts, with regular performances on stage, screen and behind-the-scenes. As an independent filmmaker, he produces short films, pilots, TV series, and feature films. Aspiring to write and direct features and television series, Jade merges his storytelling skills with conceptual passion. In 2024, he directed After You and Eyes Wide Open, short films both set for the 2025 festival circuit. Jade grew up in Goulais River, a small community just north of Sault Ste. Marie. A Northerner at heart, he's spent the last 10 years bringing ideas to life through various artistic mediums.

Jezabel Bamberg

NEWCOMERS

Jezabel is a Brazilian-Canadian screenwriter telling bold, funny, and culturally rich stories about womanhood, identity, and the immigrant experience. She is the creator of NEWCOMERS, a half-hour comedy selected for the 2024 Reelworld E20 Program, now being developed as a web series. Jezabel is also part of the writing and production team behind the upcoming Bell Fibe TV series BAGGED, currently in production, contributing in the writers’ room and playing a key creative role in two of six episodes.

Her short film MOTHERLOAD, in development, explores the emotional and absurd sides of motherhood through humour. With a foundation in theatre, dance, fiction writing, and a diploma in business, Jezabel blends creativity with strategic insight. She thrives in collaborative writers’ rooms, infusing her work with emotional clarity, structure, and wit. An emerging voice in Canadian television, she builds stories that entertain, connect, and reflect the world we live in.