The YVR Screen Scene Podcast

Bethany Brown starred in one of the most highly anticipated features at the 2026 Vancouver International Film Festival: Gloria Mercer’s queer erotic crime thriller, A Safe Distance , which also stars “friend of the pod” Cody Kearsley and the phenomenally talented Tandia Mercedes. Bethany was nominated for a 2026 UBCP/ACTRA Award for her work in A Safe Distance playing a cubicle worker turned sexua...

Filmmaker Joella Cabalu returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss her highly anticipated “rom-com documentary” First Comes Loves: Nakabingwit . This National Film Board of Canada production has its world premiere at the 2026 Vancouver International Film Festival. The film follows three Filipina–white couples whose whirlwind love stories unfold alongside hard conversations about race, belo...

Few forests on Earth are as creepy as those located in the Pacific Northwest, for a slew of reasons: they cover a lot of territory, they’re ancient, and their unwieldiness inspires discomfort, uncertainty, and acts of evil (just consider the disproportionately high number of serial killers whose stories intersect with our West Coast forests).  Sawtooth Mountain builds on the inherent creepine...

The iconic actress-director Amanda Tapping ( Stargate SG-1 , Sanctuary ) returns to the pod for a freewheeling 95-minute conversation about – well, anything and everything: the magic of Murder in a Small Town (for which she won a Leo Award earlier this year); the story behind the viral Stargate SG-1 blooper (“I may have just lost my job”); how she holds onto her humanity in a difficult industry; t...

Filmmaker Karen Lam is a bundle of delicious incongruities in human form. On one hand, Karen is a master of highly stylised horror. Films like The Curse of Willow Song , Evangeline , and Mrs. Chang’s Perfect Teeth are terrifying and thoughtful, gruesome and evocative – and you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking that the writer-director behind these films is a spooky word-slinger. But on the other ha...

Daniel Bacon has amassed a long list of credits: more than 150 credits in film and television and more than 20 in the theatre. He played Bonecruncher, one of the man-eating giants, in The BFG – which was directed by an up-and-coming indie director – maybe you’ve heard of him – Steven Spielberg. He appeared in The Smashing Machine and Secrets of a Marine’ s Life. He’s guest starred on shows like Th...

Philip Granger returns to the #YVRScreenScenePodcast to discuss Backrooms , the feature-length horror film that enjoyed the biggest global opening weekend in A24’s history. Based on Internet lore, Backrooms takes place beyond a hidden doorway discovered in the basement wall of a failing furniture store, in an endless, unsettling dimension populated by office corridors, warped furniture, and echoes...

Genre-hopping actress Jennifer Spence returns to the pod to discuss the third season of Canada’s spiciest workplace comedy, The Trades . Set in a blue-collar community where the high stress of working in a refinery is balanced by the comedic antics of its plant workers, The Trades centres around general foreman Todd Stool (Robb Wells), and his sister and roommate, Audrey (Anastasia Phillips), who...

Vertical dramas originated in China in the late 2010s, and they’ve only grown in popularly since then: in 2024, revenue from vertical dramas in China surpassed traditional Chinese film box office receipts. Worldwide, they’re an $11 billion dollar industry, and the industry is only growing. Shot in 9:16 (specifically for phones) for apps like ReelShort and DramaShort, episodes of these serialised d...

Actress and filmmaker Nat Boltt (Penelope Blossom on Riverdale ) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss Holy Days , her feature film directorial debut that screened at the venerable Toronto International Film Festival and is currently wowing crowds around the world. Based on the acclaimed novel by Dame Joy Cowley,  Holy Days  is a joyful adventure about faith, friendship, and...

Next week, Family Law takes its final bow after four critically acclaimed seasons on Global Television and Stack TV. The Lark Productions comedy-drama series – which follows a group of flawed family members who reluctantly work together at their father's law firm in Downtown Vancouver – was the brainchild of showrunner and award-winning author Susin Nielsen. Susin is an exceptionally gifted s...

Filmmaker Corey Payette swings by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about Starwalker , his critically acclaimed movie musical about drag queens in East Vancouver. Starwalker is the story of Star, an Indigi-Queer Two-Spirit call boy, who becomes entranced by the House of Borealis, a popular drag house in East Van. Blending drag performance with their grounded cultural spirit, a new, powerful per...

Sachin Sahel and Dhirendra return to the #YVRScreenScenePodcast for a raucous chat anchored in A Nice Indian Boy , the 2025 American romantic comedy film directed by Roshan Sethi and based on Madhuri Shekar's play of the same name. The film follows Naveen, an Indian-American doctor, who brings his fiancé, Jay Kurundkar, a white man adopted by Indian parents, to meet his traditional...

Supinder Wraich returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to chat all things Allegiance , the wildly popular CBC crime procedural that is both filmed and set in Surrey, British Columbia. Supinder is Sabrina Sohal, a brilliant and empathetic detective in the serious crimes unit of the CFPC who is simultaneously a bright light in her department and a serious threat to anyone who traffics in corruption...

Filmmaker Zach Lipovsky visits the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to reflect on his past, present, and future. His past includes placing fifth out of 12,000 on Steven Spielberg's filmmaking competition show  On the Lot ; collaborating with Adam Stein on the 2018 genre hit Freaks , numerous episodes of genre television, and 2025’s Final Destination Bloodlines , the last of which was the first Final...

Kashif Pasta returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about his new short film, The Muslim Guide to Prayer in Space , which screens this weekend at the DGC BC’s Spotlight Directors Conference. The Muslim Guide to Prayer in Space stars friend of the pod Osric Chau as a Malaysian astronaut endeavouring to find a direction to pray in orbit, where there is no up or down. Kashif’s film is inspir...

Filmmaker Kate Green ( NarcoLeap ) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss Menopause: Coming In Hot , her audacious documentary that was produced through Telus Originals and has its world premiere this week at the 2025 Whistler Film Festival. Inspired by Kate's own journey through menopause, Menopause: Coming in Hot features candid personal accounts and expert insight about perimenopaus...

Jay Brazeau is an icon of the Vancouver film and television scene, and he’s got the filmography to prove it. He’s appeared in iconic television series like The X-Files, Supernatural, Stargate SG-1, Da Vinci’s Inquest, and 21 Jump Street, Hollywood fare like Watchmen and Best In Show, and critically acclaimed indie fare like Eadweard, Down River, and Carl Bessai’s Fathers and Sons. He actually won...

Filmmaker and screenwriter Ken Kabatoff ( Travelers ) took home the big prize at the DGC BC’s Greenlight competition a couple of years ago, and the short film he created with that financial backing – The Doukhobor – is one of the most impactful horror films our host has ever seen. The Doukhobor draws its inspiration from the story of the Freedomite Doukhobors, and the abysmal treatment this group...

The wildly talented multi-hyphenate Mayumi Yoshida returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss her long-awaited feature film directorial debut, Akashi , which is inspired by Mayumi’s own experience of living in the space between cultures. Ten years after moving to Vancouver, struggling visual artist Kana (that’s Mayumi) returns to Tokyo to attend the funeral of her beloved grandmother. Arri...

What has the Taliban’s shocking return to power meant for Afghan women? Brishkay Ahmed’s new documentary In The Room hands the mic to Afghan women who’ve stepped onto the world stage and reclaimed their homeland and identity. This includes Brishkay herself, who literally steps through the looking glass and confronts and contextualises her own identity. At times dreamlike and always impactful, In T...

Today’s episode of the YVR Screen Scene Podcast is both another instalment in our ongoing #IndustryBFFs series AND our season opener! Sabrina is joined in the podcast studio by two powerhouse actresses who are uplifting women in film via their new project, the Liberated Actresses Playground: Aliyah O’Brien and Priscilla Faia. Returning guest Aliyah O’Brien is beloved for her work on Rookie Blue ,...

Earlier this month, Angela’s Shadow won two awards – for best screenwriting and best production design – at the 2025 Leo Awards. It was the latest in a string of successes for the film, which won the Panorama Audience Award at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival, kicks off a theatrical run in Toronto this weekend, and is acclaimed Cree filmmaker Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin’s highly antic...

Bronwen Smith was nominated for a UBCP/ACTRA Award for her scene-stealing dramatic turn in Laura Adkin’s feature film directorial debut, Re: Uniting . Catherine Lough Haggquist (who received the Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award from UBCP/ACTRA in 2020) garnered a globe-spanning fanbase for her role as the ass-kicking General Bellweather on Motherland: Fort Salem . Separately, they are powerh...

Inedia is a disquieting and psychologically charged dramatic feature exploring a young woman’s descent into a dangerous online fasting movement. Filmed on Salt Spring Island, Inedia tells the story of Cora (Amy Forsyth), a desperate young woman who signs up for an alternative lifestyle community to escape her mounting food allergies. At Sun Haven, they practice “breatharianism,” subsisting on ligh...