Jim Burt Screenwriting Prize

My feature screenplay “Through the Eyes of an Ibis” won the Jim Burt Screenwriting Prize at the 2025 Writers Guild of Canada Awards. It’s a huge honour to have my work selected as the best original unproduced script in the country, named after one of the most vocal champions of Canadian independent film.

I never met Mr. Burt but from all accounts from the people I’ve spoken to about him, he believed strongly supporting our national voice. He worked at the CBC and saw the “production of some 75 long-form dramas, including Big Bear, The Boys of St. Vincent, Little Criminals, and Million Dollar Babies.” (WGC site). I am humbled to have been picked as this year’s recipient.

The story follows a woman who seems to be travelling through time, but when she realizes her dementia is giving her these delusions she resolves to set everything right in her life before she has no time left.

The film is a very personal one, adapted from my own short story, which itself was inspired by my mother Suraiya Lutchmedial’s  journey with Parkinson’s dementia. For more information on the film please visit the development page for Green Dragon Productions. Photo credit: Lu Chau / Photagonist.ca

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