Susie Yankou

Canadian film director

Susie Yankou is a Canadian film director and screenwriter currently working in the United States, whose debut feature film Sisters premiered in 2024.[1]

Originally from Toronto, Ontario, as a high school student her goal was to study screenwriting at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, California.[2] Although she was accepted into the program, the $55,000 tuition was prohibitively expensive for her family, so she launched her own fundraising initiative, baking cookies to sell twice a week at the Distillery District and Riverdale farmer's markets.[2]

In California she created and acted in the web series 101 Ways to Get Rejected prior to working on Sisters as her feature directorial debut.

Sisters received a Re:Focus grant from the Inside Out Film and Video Festival in 2022 to assist in the film's production.[3] It premiered in May 2024 at Inside Out,[4] where it won the audience award for Best Feature Film.[5]

References

  1. ^ Joshua Chong, "She sold cookies as a teenager to pay for film school. Now she’s back in Toronto for her feature film debut". Toronto Star, May 23, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Amy Dempsey, "This aspiring screenwriter is selling cookies to pay for film school". Toronto Star, July 4, 2011.
  3. ^ Valerie Complex, "Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival In Toronto Reveals 8 Recipients Of The 2022 RE:Focus Fund". Deadline Hollywood, November 8, 2022.
  4. ^ Valerie Complex, "Inside Out 2slgbtq+ 34th Annual Film Festival Reveals Full Lineup". Deadline Hollywood, May 3, 2024.
  5. ^ Valerie Complex, "‘A Mother Apart’ Wins Top Prize At Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival Awards". Deadline Hollywood, June 3, 2024.
  • Susie Yankou at IMDb


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