The 24 participants have been announced for the 2016 Producers Lab Toronto, which takes place at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) from September 6th to 9th. Ireland is represented by My Name is Emily producer Kathryn Kennedy of Kennedy Films.

The winner of the 2015 Bingham Ray New Talent Award at Galway Film Fleadh, Kennedy set up Kennedy Films in 2013, producing Simon Fitzmaurice’s award-winning teenage love story My Name is Emily with Irish, Swedish and Norwegian partners. She also produced the feature documentary It’s Not Yet Dark about Fitzmaurice’s true story as a filmmaker with ALS which premiered at the 2016 Galway Film Fleadh, and a crowd-funded documentary The Good Reactor about the energy crisis. She currently has two fiction projects in development.

Ireland has been well represented at the Producers Lab, sending a participant almost every year since its inception. In 2011 Tristan Orpen Lynch of Subotica Films attended the Producers Lab, leading to Alan Gilsenan’s Irish-Canadian co-production Unless which will premiere there this year. Sing Street producer Martina Niland was the first participant in 2010, with Fastnet Films’ Macdara Kelleher attending in 2012, Katie Holly of Blinder Films in 2013, and Nathalie Lichtenthaeler of Wide Eye Films in 2015.

Since 2010, Producers Lab Toronto has brought together selected producers from Europe with Canadian producers for three days of workshops, seminars, pitching sessions, 1:1 meetings and social events at Canada’s premiere festival. A collaboration of EFP, Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) and TIFF, the initiative is designed to facilitate and increase international co-productions and to strengthen the industry ties among the selected producers.

European participants:

Hélène Cases, Lionceau Films (France)

Camilla Deakin, Lupus Films (UK)

Mira Fornay, Mirafox s.r.o. (Slovakia)

Amir Hamz, Bon Voyage Films (Germany)

Anna Jancsó, Librecine (Hungary)

Anita Juka, 4 Film (Croatia)

Kathryn Kennedy, Kennedy Films (Ireland)

Katrin Kissa, Homeless Bob Production (Estonia)

Petter Lindblad, Snowcloud Films (Sweden)

Christof Neracher, Hugofilm Productions (Switzerland)

Canadian participants: