17 Feb Three filmmakers selected for the Tremplin program !
With the support of SODEC as part of its professional support measures for the Emerging Talent Program, Main Film is pleased to present the three filmmakers selected for the very first edition of the TREMPLIN program!
TREMPLIN is a new mentoring program exclusively for creators from ethnocultural communities who have participated in the PRISME program. Over four months, participants will receive personalized support to develop their projects and make concrete progress in their creative work.
At the end of the program, participants will have the opportunity to present their projects in the form of a pitch to a targeted audience of producers.
SAMIR ESSA
A little happiness for Señor Tadeo – Short fiction film
A Little Happiness for Señor Tadeo explores pornography and digital addiction from the inside out. It is not a sociological account of behavior, but an immersion into the psyche of an addict, into the loops of compulsion, guilt, and fleeting relief that define his life.
Samir Essa is an Egyptian filmmaker based in Montreal. He recently completed his short film L’Okapi, shot entirely in Quebec. In 2025, Samir was selected as Main Film’s #MainArtist and accepted into the Conseil des Arts de Montréal’s DémART residency program, a six-month professional development residency for emerging artists from diverse backgrounds. Samir aims to develop a bold, character-driven genre cinema that explores immigrant narratives, family breakdowns, and moral ambiguity, drawing on local realities and cultural specificities.
LINA TANGARIFE
Pétale de rose – Documentary feature
Pétale de rose is an intimate, feminist, and decolonial film in which the director turns the camera on herself to name patriarchal violence. A film about transmission and reparation, so that tomorrow’s generations will be able to name violence and choose a different legacy. Pétale de rose is a film that seeks recognition, reparation, non-repetition… and perhaps reconciliation.
Lina Maria Tangarife is a documentary filmmaker of Colombian origin, a migrant, and a feminist. With a specialized degree in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies from the University of Montreal, her academic background is central to her artistic and political approach. She wants to develop a production structure rooted in a feminist, decolonial, and collaborative approach. Her ambition is to create a dialogue between the struggles in Latin America and those experienced here in Quebec.
DAVID CRUZ
Rémanence – Short fiction film
Rémanence explores memory, loss, and emotional survival through the relationship between a mother at the end of her life and her teenage daughter. It is not a science fiction story, but an intimate journey through consciousness: the moment when love, fear, and death merge. The film questions what remains of us when memories fade, and how pain sometimes becomes the last possible language between two beings.
Known for his unwavering commitment to authenticity, David Cruz explores timeless narratives across styles and genres to create powerful stories that offer insight into the contemporary human experience. By making space for different, often overlooked perspectives and voices, his work highlights the profound impact of multiple stories on society.
THE MENTORS
Mentee: Samir Essa
Born in Turkey, Onur Karaman spent his early childhood in Algeria before returning to his native country. He moved to Quebec with his family at the age of eight. Very involved in sports during his teenage years, he discovered a passion for writing and cinema in his early adulthood and decided to return to school. After directing several short films, he made the feature films La Ferme des Humains, followed by Là où Atilla passe in 2015 and Le coupable in 2018. Respire is his fourth and most recent feature film, which he completed as director, screenwriter, and producer. He is currently in post-production for his first English-language horror film, Emptiness.
LAMIA CHRAIBI
Mentorée: Lina Tangarife
Lamia Chraibi is a Moroccan, Canadian, and French filmmaker. She is particularly interested in themes of social justice, identity, family, and territory. She also addresses topics related to body language and social art. Her work has been acclaimed at international festivals. Circo received the awards for Best Feature Documentary and Best Director at Reelworld in Toronto (2025), while Like a spiral won the award for Best Documentary Screenplay at the Filministes Festival (2025) and Best Short Film at Mizna Twin Cities (2025), and was a finalist for Best Documentary Short Film at the IRIS Awards. Deeply committed to equity and representation in the arts, Lamia is also very active in various cultural organizations that amplify the voices of underrepresented artists.
KATHERINE JERKOVIC
Mentee: David Cruz
Born in Canada to a Uruguayan mother and Croatian-Argentinian father, Katherine Jerkovic spent her childhood in Belgium and her teenage years in Uruguay. At 18, she moved to Montreal to study film at Concordia University. Since then, she has directed several experimental and fiction short films, as well as a video installation, before moving on to feature films. Her first feature film, Les Routes en février, won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2018. Her second feature film, Le Coyote, had its world premiere at TIFF in 2022 and went on to win two awards at the Whistler Film Festival (WFF). In parallel with her artistic work, she has been a producer and production manager on her colleagues’ projects.
STEFAN VERNA
Mentor – Group workshops
A graduate of Concordia University’s School of Cinema, Stefan Verna works in the Quebec film industry as a director, cinematographer, and screenwriter. His work spans a variety of styles, including documentaries, fiction, dance videos, and music videos. Stefan uses the art of film as a transformative tool to explore themes such as social justice, environmental issues, and the plight of Afro-descendant communities around the world. His deep interest in hip hop culture, Black cinema, and dance also fuels the projects he undertakes. In 2016, he co-founded the Black on Black Films collective for Afro-Quebecois filmmakers and has been giving lectures around the world on the history and aesthetics of Black cinema for the past five years. To date, he has directed Ice Storm Cabaret, Chocolate City, Lakay, Diversidad: a Roadtrip to Deconstruct Diner, Drawing Blank, and Metamorph.
JESSE FREESTON
Mentor – Pitch
Jesse Freeston is a member of the Makila filmmakers’ cooperative in Montreal and works in English, French, and Spanish. Before falling in love with film, Jesse worked as a video journalist for teleSUR and The Real News Network. He has directed and shot two independent documentaries: Revolutionary Medicine: A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital (co-directed with Beth Geglia) in 2013 and Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley in 2015. He is currently working on his most ambitious project to date, Human Park. When he’s not behind a camera or in front of a screen, Jesse indulges his passion on the basketball court, improv stage, and dance floor.