Banff 2026

Banff World Media Festival 2026

Banff Market Accelerator

The National Directors Division (NDD) of the Directors Guild of Canada is proud to announce selections for the NDD Market Accelerator Delegation at the Banff World Media Festival 2026 running from June 13 – 16.

Alyson Richards & Pat Mills

Ontario
UNBOXED (Comedy)

10 x half-hour episodes
When Homo Hank, a novelty gay doll from the ‘70s suddenly comes to life and takes up residence with a 40 year old soccer mom and her repressed family, their lives turn upside down – sometimes for worse, often for better, but always with fabulosity.

David Strasser

British Columbia
Pinguin Lanes (Dark Comedy)

8 or 10 x half-hour episodes
When Keith inherits her estranged late father’s rinky-dink bowling alley, PINGUIN LANES, she’s shocked to learn it also serves as a hub for addiction recovery. Now with a grieving mother, years of unspoken resentment, and a community.

Duana Taha

Ontario
Rough Diamonds (Comedy, Drama)

8 x 45 min episodes
Lifelong underachiever Nate Ballantine has no interest in the spotlight, but a chance gig on a home-reno show puts him on camera, in the spotlight – and inside the deceptively pretty, surprisingly scandalous, and potentially deadly world of ‘feel-good’ reality television.

Erica Meus-Sanders

Nova Scotia
Daughter of Eual (Sci-Fi, YA, Adventure)

6 x 60 min episodes
A young, sheltered Black woman discovers she’s an alien and must choose to embrace her awakening powers to save both human and newfound alien kin or live her life as a “normal” teenager.

Frederick Kroetsch

Saskatchewan
Crip Trip (Season 3) (Road-Trip, Docu-Series)

6 x 60 min episodes
As a quadruple amputee facing the threat of institutionalization, Daniel hits the road with his friend and caregiver Frederick, turning chaotic travel into a darkly funny look at disability, friendship, and the fight for independence.

Lisa Rose Snow

Ontario
Psychic Spies (Paranormal Procedural)

60 min episodes
A larger-than-life paranormal investigator is forced to team up with her skeptic cop brother to investigate the most bizarre and unsolvable cases in the Maritimes…all while the mystery of their mother’s disappearance and a complicated love triangle threatens to tear them apart.

Producing Partners: Hi/Lo Entertainment

Nisha Platzer

British Columbia
The Pornographer’s Poem (Art House, Queer, Female-led Coming-of-Age)

5 x 60 min episodes
When Nettie and P are introduced to the exciting world of super-8 film by a progressive young teacher, they begin exploring their teenage curiosities and perversions through spying on their neighbours. As their amateur porn films gain popularity, they get dragged into a world of hypocrisy and crime and are forced to confront their ideals around art, love and truth.

Zarqa Nawaz

Saskatchewan
Dead Body Washing Committee (Comedy)

6 x 30 min episodes
When disgraced writer Nadia Malik is forced to wash dead bodies with two strangers, Zaynab and Sophie, they discover their first corpse was murdered. Now, they must set aside their differences and find the killer—before the killer finds them.

Producing Partners: Fundamentalist Films