Michelle Lovegrove Thomson has received an Atlantic JL Micro-Bursary to attend the WIFT-AT Making Waves Conference in 2025.

Michelle recently established the Cine-Kids Film School at the Fredericton Public Library, offering children aged 9-13 foundational classes in filmmaking and media literacy. She is a recipient of a Short Film Venture grant and NB Film Co-op Cultural Capital grant to shoot her films. Michelle holds a BFA in Film Production from York University; studied screenwriting with acclaimed writer-director Patricia Rozema; film theory with avant-garde filmmaker R. Bruce Elder; and attended Werner Herzog’s inaugural Rogue Film School in 2010. In 2019, she curated the exhibition "Film Farm: 25 Years of the Independent Imaging Retreat" at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, celebrating the legacy of handmade filmmaking in Canada. After a decade-long tenure at TIFF and Cineplex dedicated to preserving Canadian cinema heritage, and overseeing a research library & archive, Michelle is happy to once again be a part of the vibrant community of creators in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

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Alison Taylor has received an Atlantic JL Micro-Bursary to attend the WIFT-AT Making Waves Conference in 2025.

Alison Taylor (they/them) is an award-winning author, CCE-nominated editor, and renegade filmmaker based in Fredericton, NB. They have edited a hundred-plus hours of television, many award-winning short films and music videos, and the Colombian box-office hit El Jefe (in Spanish). Their own experimental films have screened at festivals internationally, and they have led editing workshops for LIFT, York University, and Charles Street Video in Toronto, as well as the New Brunswick Filmmakers’ Co-operative. Taylor’s debut novel Aftershock, published by HarperCollins Canada, received an Atlantic Books First Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. They received the 2024 David Adams Richards Prize for Fiction for their work-in-progress, Confessions of a Binge Drinker (working title); and their screenplay “Sleeper,” currently in pre-production, received awards at the 2024 WIFT-AT Pitch This! competition and in the JL Screenwriting Award competition. An alumnus of the CFC’s Editor’s Lab, and with degrees in film from Queen’s and York Universities, they now work as a freelance editor of both books and film and video.

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Saint John-based Amy Stewart has received an Atlantic JL Micro-Bursary to attend the WIFT-AT Making Waves Conference in 2025.

Amy Stewart is a multidisciplinary artist with over 20 years of experience in photography, music, and filmmaking. She began her career as a professional photographer and pianist before transitioning into film, where she has worked in various roles on set and in production offices. Formerly an Executive Producer at Hemmings House Pictures, Amy now owns ASProductions Inc., collaborating with top industry professionals as a Producer and Director. Passionate about authentic storytelling, her work explores themes of motherhood, mental wellness, and human complexity. She is also a dedicated advocate for diversity and inclusion in the arts, serving as a board member and Membership Committee Chair for WIFT-Atlantic and on the Diversity Committee for Media NB. Currently, Amy is in pre-production for her first narrative horror short and post-production on her debut documentary.

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Carlee Calveer has received an Atlantic JL Micro-Bursary to attend the WIFT-AT Making Waves Conference in 2025.

Carlee is a writer, playwright, and filmmaker from Bathurst, New Brunswick. Her plays have been produced by Notable Acts Theatre Festival (2019) and Herbert the Cow productions (2022). She directed a Bell FibeTV series called Skin and Bone (2023) and was also co-creator and co-producer of Us Soliscent Seeds (2023) a 4-part eco-horror audio drama set in Northern New Brunswick. All episodes are now available for streaming online. Recently, her short story Bar-Fly was published in FEILDS Magazine. She currently lives and works in Fredericton NB, where she received her M.A. in creative writing (screenwriting) from the University of New Brunswick. 

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Dave Petersen, a Dalhousie, NB native with deep roots in theatre and film, and an interest in all things creative, is the driving force behind the Heron Bay Film Festival. His organization, the nbNorEast Content Creators Collective, promotes education, production, and collaboration among different artistic genres.

About the event:
The Heron Bay Film Festival celebrates New Brunswick’s storytelling talents. The Festival allows creators from the North Shore and the province to screen their work for a live audience.

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Halifax-based Moroccan cellist and community builder Blanche Israël has been awarded the first Atlantic JL Micro-Bursary for her solo artistic project TOLEDANO. Blanche manipulates ancient Sephardic songs using cello and electronics. Her project examines community, isolation, and the clash between ancestral customs and contemporary diasporic experience. It reflects on mourning, self-care, and longing for support, reconnecting with the endangered Judeo-Spanish and Ladino languages, and exploring the lives of her 104-year-old grandmother and 2-year-old daughter, who share the same name. Themes of community care, memory, feminism, and displacement resonate throughout the work.” Blanche

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Fredericton-based writer, director, and producer Nancy Lynch has been awarded an Atlantic JL Micro-Bursary for her theatre production of Freddy-The Last Fish. The story follows a group of eclectic diners gathering in a small restaurant in Miramichi to eat the last salmon on earth. The play touches on various themes such as environmental issues, ethics, greed and looking out for our neighbours. Through humour, drama and music, the diners tell their reasons for wanting to travel to Miramichi to eat the last fish.

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