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 anticipated follow-up to the similarly lauded Broken Angel. In Angela’s Shadow, Angela (played by Sera-Lys McArthur) and Henry (Matthew Kevin Anderson), young 1930s socialites with a baby on the way, embark on a short trip north to visit Angela’s beloved childhood nanny, Mary (Renae Morriseau). When Angela is harassed by a menacing shadow figure, Mary moves to bless and protect her and her unborn child with illegal Cree ceremonies and medicine. As the truth about her ancestry and the spectral figure’s identity unfold, Angela must decide whether to delve into her newfound spiritual traditions in order to protect herself from her husband’s escalating purity-obsessed racism.

Angela’s Shadow is the second film in a trilogy that follows three sets of Cree characters all connected to each other in some way, across three different time periods, who use their connections to their Cree spiritual traditions to combat and heal from settler colonialism. The first film – the aforementioned dramatic thriller entitled Broken Angel – won Sera-Lys the award for Best Actress at the 2022 American Indian Film Festival. In this compelling conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Jules and Sera-Lys talk about healing from settler colonialism through art, working with family (three of Jules’ sons and her mom all appear in the film), being pregnant IRL shortly after being pregnant onscreen, and where they’re going to take us next.

Episode sponsor: Directors Guild Of Canada, BC District Council

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 powerhouse performers; together, they are #IndustryBFFs whose friendship directly impacts their individual journeys through this topsy-turvy film and television industry (not to mention the work they do through The Drama Class, where they provide online education, support, and community for actors everywhere and at every level). In this contemplative, moving, and at times hilarious episode, Bronwen and Cat discuss their three decades of friendship – and why people sometimes ask if they’re actually okay. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA

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 light and air. The group’s charismatic leader (Susanne Wuest) and peaceful vibes give Cora hope, but it’s not long before she realizes there are tensions beneath the surface. At its core, Inedia is an eerie study of emotional and psychological disturbance and the way it manifests outwardly. Filmmaker Liz Cairns joins Sabrina in the YVR Screen Scene studio to discuss her journey with Inedia and her experience visiting a breatharian retreat in Peru. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Beloved Vancouver actor Alex Zahara swings by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast studio to discuss his wildly entertaining turn as Uncle Howard (RIP) in Final Destination: Bloodlines and his own remarkable career on stage and screen. The funny and fascinating conversation covers a lot of territory: how Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein’s critically acclaimed, blockbuster contribution to the Final Destination universe is a love letter to Vancouver; how he gets into character (a process that somehow involves primordial ooze); memorable roles from his career, including his 40 on-screen deaths; how he navigates the quiet times; and what it is about this topsy-turvy biz that keeps him coming back for more. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA

Simon Barry (Warrior Nun, Continuum) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss his latest series. Bet – 10 episodes of which dropped on Netflix in May 2025 – draws its inspiration from the manga Kakegurai – Compulsive Gambler. The series tells the story of Yumeko (portrayed by Miku Martineau), a young woman who enrols in an exclusive boarding school to avenge the murder of her parents. This exclusive boarding school ain’t Hogwarts: it’s a cutthroat academy run by a powerful Student Council whose power structure is entirely based on gambling. Yumeko’s prowess at gambling and her overarching revenge quest put her in the crosshairs of the Student Council and its formidable president, Kira – leading to a showdown that is both high-octane and deeply satisfying.

Bet is at once a breath of fresh air and exactly what we’ve come to expect from Simon Barry: a wildly entertaining adventure set in an unexpected world about a whip-smart woman on a seemingly impossible quest. In this fascinating interview, Simon discusses his journey with Bet, what Miku Martineau brought to the pivotal role of Yumeko, his thoughts on AI, collaborating with director Jacquie Gould (Outlander, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Dennis Heaton’s brain, and what he learned from Warrior Nun and its fans.

Episode sponsor: Directors Guild Of Canada, BC District Council

The Vancouver-shot Dil Rakh: Gloves of Kin tells the story of Sukh Sidhu, a South Asian man who spent 20 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Upon his release, he returns to the small predominantly white town where his life went sideways, where racism abounds and where his son Dayton is in deep with a group of petty criminals who barely conceal their contempt for his brownness. Dayton is pissed with his dad for leaving the family for 20 years, and reconciliation seems impossible – until father and son find common ground in the boxing ring.

Dil Rakh: Gloves of Kin is one part drama, one part boxing, one part commentary on racism in small town North America, and 100 per cent heart; in other words (and in the opinion of YVR Screen Scene host Sabrina Rani Furminger), it’s a game-changer. The film won the Sundar Prize for Best BC Film at the 2024 Sundar Prize Film Festival and is currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime. Actors Dalj Brar (who also wrote and directed) and Umar Farook Khan join Sabrina in the YVR Screen Scene Podcast lab to talk the evolution of representation, boxing, changing the game, and keeping the faith.

Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

This special episode features four of the producers and three of the world-class athletes showcased in Beyond The Podium: Celebrating Canadian Women Champions. The juggernaut documentary – which was directed by Brenda Whitehall – hands the mic to 15 of Canada’s top women winter athletes and invites them to delve deep into the issues that are intertwined with their journey to the podiums: issues like racism, infertility, depression and anxiety, safe sport, and discrimination. We see how athletes support each other, carry the weight of a nation, and navigate all manner of challenges and successes. The film is vast in its scope but also incredibly intimate, which is also an apt description for this super-sized episode, which finds Sabrina chatting with director Brenda Whitehall, producers Sarah Dawn Pledge, Angela Galanopoulos, and Juliana Bergstrom; and champions Jennifer Heil, Viviane Forest, and Kaetlyn Osmond about what it takes to be a champion.

Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Five years ago, actor Giles Panton swung by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about voicing Iron Man in Marvel Battleworld: Mystery of the Thanostones, the sleighful of Christmas movies in his filmography, what he learned playing the minister of propaganda for the American Reich in Amazon Prime’s critically acclaimed dystopian series The Man in the High Castle, and the Barbie commercial that broke up his band. It’s a fantastic episode (which you can find in the episode footnotes or wherever you listen to podcasts), but a lot can change in five years. For instance, you can move from being the guy that always loses the girl in the rom-com to the guy who gets her. You can win a Leo Award for Best Performance in an Animation Program for your work in animated horror anthology series Red Iron Road AND a UBCP/ACTRA Award for voicing Carnage and Norman Osborne in Absolute Carnage. You can get an ADHD diagnosis that explains so much of how you move through the world. You can become a dad. In this compelling conversation – at times poignant; at times funny; always authentic and entertaining – Giles reflects on the many changes of the last five years, what it takes to be a leading man, working with Andrea Brooks on Snowy with a Chance of Christmas, pursuing joy, constructing grilled cheese sandwiches, and how his ADHD diagnosis changed his life.

Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA