Monica Iyah Mustelier is an award-winning writer/director and an alumna of Women In the Directors Chair. She was nominated for a ByBlacks People’s Choice Award for Best Black Canadian Film Director in 2019.  

 

Between 2019-2023, she directed and produced six short films which have screened internationally, and received recognition and accolades from various film festivals, including the Toronto Black Film Festival, Berlin International Arts Film Festival, and Miami Independent Film Festival to name a few.

 

She won CineFam’s Micro-Cinema Challenge and received support to produce and direct  “Weeping Willow”. It went on to screen internationally and win Best Micro Cinema Short at the CineFAM Film Festival in 2019. 

 

She directed the short film “Rainbow Baby” which won the Toronto ACTRA  Womens Committee Creation Lab in 2020 and will be airing on Canadian Reflections and CBC GEM in the late fall of 2023. 

 

Monica directed a neo-noir dystopian comedy “Complaint” which premiered at the New York International Women’s Film Festival, and won Artistic Awards of Merit in the Best Short Competition - The Female Filmmaker Award and Best Short. This film also won Best Shorts Award, Best Editing, Best Actress,  and Best Canadian Film at the Canadian Cinematography & Film Awards.

 

She co-wrote "Filmores," an anthology  TV series that received support from Bell Media and pre-development funding from CMF, the Indigenous Screen Office, and the Bell Media slate fund.

 

Last summer she shot her feature proof of concept,  “Las Olas”. It will be premiering at a Toronto Festival this fall. It was funded by Canada Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and the Indigenous Screen Office and developed through Women In the Directors Chair’s  Career Advancement Module.  She currently has received development funding and is producing it with Sunday Baby Films. 

 

Monica is also working on several exciting documentary features, TV and feature film projects which are in various stages of development.