Sydney, a short film by Grant Earl MacIntosh (BFA 2025), recently took home one of Canada's top student prizes for cinema: the Grand Prize in student filmmaking at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (FNC) in Montreal.
Grant wrote, directed and photographed the 17-minute short film Sydney, alongside co-producing the film with fellow NSCAD grad Alex Johnston (BFA 2024) for his thesis project. The film is about Sydney, a directionless 32-year-old who lives with his mother in a rental home marked for demolition. After a string of small humiliations he finds a broken TV on the side of the road and tries to sell it online.
The film won the Grand Prix at the Rencontres pancanadiennes du cinéma étudiant program at Festival Nouveau Cinema. The RPCE program is a national competition selecting short student films from across Canada. The FNC showcases top national and international cinema from emerging voices to major works. This is the second consecutive win for NSCAD film makers at the festival. In 2024, A. Laurel Lawrence won for their short film Pan & Syrinx that Grant served as Cinematographer on as well. These national wins are the culmination of years of hard work by Grant to pursue his passion for film.
Grant's time at NSCAD opened doors to build his skills in filmmaking. He got a job in the tech office of the film department, working with Nathan Ryan, the film technician at NSCAD's Academy campus in his first two weeks of his first year.
"Nathan was very supportive. He didn't get irritated when I asked him a billion questions a day. Working in that office was my biggest class. I spent four years working there and I learned so much. The skills I learned were elementary to my success and without them, or without Nathan's support I don't think I would have any of it."
Grant remembers being accepted into Solomon Nagler's third year experimental film class while he was in his first year. Where he was introduced to shooting on 16mm film, and met many close collaborators.
Grant started creating an early version of Sydney as his thesis project in third year in his film class, but he took a second run at the project in his final year, working through independent credit courses and rewriting major portions of it to bring it to life.
"I took two semesters to make the film. I made this film with no professional oversight. I knew what I was making. I assembled my own film gear from NSCAD, AFCOOP and William F. Whites. I shot it all on location in Halifax with good friends, and paid for the stock and development with funds I saved up over the summer."
Grant explains the intention with Sydney was to create a film that felt captured, not staged. Casting was almost all non-professional actors, made up of friends including the main character, played by his close friend Jeremy Armstrong, a photo major in the class of 2026. He adds that everyone on the crew had a cameo in the film to make sure they would feel ownership over the final product.
"I had a very close relationship with the cast. In our rehearsals, it just felt like a group of people talking in a room. I got them in a space where they were comfortable. It was a perfect feel for what I was trying to create. I wanted it to feel grounded."
Although Sydney is a work of fiction, Grant says there are pieces of him and his relationships in the story and the characters. He hopes people recognize themselves and their loved ones in the main character Sydney and feel some compassion for those who might be struggling.
"I often say I'm five bad decisions away from being Sydney," he laughs. "A lot of people feel marginalized and can relate to him. I'd like to think he's equal parts lovable and insufferable. I wanted to explore how we can see people like Sydney with a wealth of empathy, not just frustration."
The grand prize win at FNC will open a lot of doors for Sydney, and for Grant.
"Winning the student competition is a good gauge of whether the film has legs. I'm hopeful I can float the film around and learn from it. I'd like to use this as an opportunity to learn more about the industry and move forward onto the next project."
Poster for 'Sydney' film. Courtesy of Grant Earl MacIntosh.
The film was also selected and screened earlier in the year in the national Student film showcase a part of MDFF Selects: Student Film showcase 2025 that played at TIFF lightbox in Toronto. As of late, Grant has been writing shorts, and beginning the early stages of writing his first feature.
