Bethany Brown is a Canadian actor and emerging director and producer on a rapid rise, currently starring as the lead in A Safe Distance, which will make its Worldwide Premiere at SXSW. Brown plays Alex, who encounters a couple fleeing from authorities while stranded in the British Columbia wilderness. She also serves as an Associate Producer on the film.

Brown recently broke out as series regular Corporal Laila Jackson in FOX’s hit crime drama Murder in a Small Town, delivering a standout performance as a troubled young officer battling trauma and addiction while searching for redemption in a coastal community.

Her recent credits include BuzzFeed Studios and Lionsgate’s dark comedy-thriller F*, Marry, Kill, opposite Lucy Hale, as well as a series regular role in Plan B (CBC Gem), and guest starring roles on Wild Cards (The CW), The Irrational (NBC), and Watson (CBS). She previously recurred on The Good Doctor, Charmed, The 100, and The Flash.

Brown is the recipient of the 2025 UBCP/ACTRA Award for Best Lead Performance in a Movie for We Three Kings as well as multiple Leo Award nominations across film and television, and her directorial debut has also gained international recognition, with her short Meet Me en Rêve winning multiple awards in 2024/2025 including Best LGBTQ Short at festivals in Paris, Barcelona, and beyond.

With A Safe Distance launching at SXSW, Brown continues to establish herself as a formidable new leading talent in film and television.

Tandia Mercedes was born in Inuvik, NWT, but raised in Edmonton, AB. Tandia discovered her passion for acting at the age of 10 when she began taking acting classes. After a hiatus, her enthusiasm for acting was reignited in 2021 when she moved to Vancouver, BC. She has starred in three short films, numerous commercials and guest starred in the show Allegiance, each contributing to her growth and love of the craft. When Tandia isn’t acting, you can find her training Muay Thai, climbing, taking pictures, or doing pottery – She loves challenging herself and learning new things. 

Cody Kearsley is a Canadian actor, writer, director, and producer working across film, television, and theatre, known for emotionally grounded and dynamic performances. He is best known for his role as Moose Mason on the hit series Riverdale (The CW), Turbo Bro Jock on Daybreak (Netflix), and for appearances in Guilty Party (Paramount+), Shadow of the Rougarou (APTN), and iZombie. Most recently, Cody appears in Season 7 of Netflix’s longest running original series Virgin River, playing Clay, a rugged rodeo hand whose quiet strength and guarded past shape the lives of those around him.

In addition to acting, Cody has worked in theatre and filmmaking throughout his career. He is the founder and artistic director of Vagrant Players Theatre Society and the founder of Persephone Pictures. He was selected for the prestigious Whistler Indigenous Filmmaker Fellowship in 2023, and his debut short film Breathe screened internationally and received multiple festival awards. He is currently pursuing a BA in Liberal Studies at Antioch University, with a focus on Creative Writing and Literature.

Canadian actor Chris McNally has appeared in several critically acclaimed films and television series spanning his career of more than a decade.  Since 2019, he has starred as Lucas Bouchard in Hallmark Channel’s hit drama series When Calls the Heart.  He has made appearances on several hit television series, including FOX’s Lucifer and Killer Instinct, the Emmy®-nominated TNT series Falling Skies and The CW’s Supernatural and Riverdale. McNally has recurred in the Netflix series Altered Carbon and was most recently seen with recurring arcs in both Netflix’ Firefly Lane and the Paramount+ series, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.

McNally has starred in numerous television movies, most recently Hallmark Channel’s 3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost, A Tail of Love, A Winter Princess, Sailing into Love, and The Sweetest Heart. Others include the Hallmark Mystery’s originals Eat, Drink & Be Buried: A Gourmet Detective Mystery, PixL Entertainment’s Same Time Next Week and ABC’s Beauty and the Beast: A Dark Tale.

On the big screen, McNally starred in the critically acclaimed features John Apple Jack and The Orchard.

Gloria Mercer is an award-winning director from East Vancouver, BC on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She is a proud alumna of the Simon Fraser University film program and Women in the Director’s Chair.

In 2016, Gloria directed Bombing, her thesis film at SFU. Bombing went on to screen at over 30 film festivals worldwide, and won best student film at the Whistler Film Festival. In 2020, Gloria directed Hekademia, which was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the National Film Board of Canada. Hekademia went on to screen at numerous festivals, winning Best Sci-Fi at the Oscar-Qualifying Hollyshorts Film Festival. It was released on CBC Gem. 

In 2021, Gloria was one of three teams selected for the prestigious Harold Greenberg Shorts to Features award for her film Smoke Eater. Smoke Eater screened at festivals all over the world, including the Whistler Film Festival and the San Luis Obispo Film Festival. Smoke Eater was released on Crave Canada. Gloria was also one of the five selected participants in the 2023 MPPIA Short Film Pitch at Whistler.

Gloria’s 2021 short film A Safe Distance premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. The following year, Gloria was invited to pitch the feature film of the same name at the Film London Production Finance Market. A Safe Distance the feature received production funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and Creative BC. Gloria’s feature-film debut, A Safe Distance, will have its world premiere at SXSW in 2026.

Gloria is passionate about featuring complex women on screen and challenging the idea of a “strong female character”.

Aidan West is a writer and filmmaker from Vancouver, British Columbia. He is an alumnus of the SFU undergraduate film program and the prestigious MFA screenwriting program at UCLA’s School of Theatre Film and Television. 

He produced the short film Hekademia, which was awarded best sci-fi at the Hollyshorts Film Festival and broadcast on CBC and CBC Gem. He wrote and produced the short film Smoke Eater, which received support from the Harold Greenberg Fund and Bell Media and broadcast on Crave. He has written and produced films that have screened at film festivals all over the world including South by Southwest, the Newport Beach Film Festival, Bentonville Film Festival, and Vancouver International Film Festival.

Aidan received the Alfred P. Sloan screenwriting fellowship for She Sells Seashells, his script about the life of pioneering paleontologist Mary Anning. Aidan’s screenplay V. Debs about the life of socialist, union activist, and political prisoner Eugene V. Debs, was a semi-finalist for the Academy Awards Nicholl Fellowship. Aidan is a quarterfinalist in the Final Draft Big Break Screenplay Competition, the Fresh Voices screenplay competition, and a semifinalist at the Blue Cat screenplay competition, and was a finalist at the UCLA Screenwriting Showcase. 

Aidan wrote and produced the feminist thriller A Safe Distance, directed by Gloria Mercer, which will have its world premiere at SXSW in 2026.

Nic Altobelli is a Canadian-Italian independent filmmaker who has produced projects in Toronto, Vancouver, Vietnam and Los Angeles. Her production company AREA V5 PICTURES has a bold slate of features and TV series, and she has produced films that have been selected by TIFF, Fantasia, Fright Fest and VIFF. The feature films she has produced have been picked up for international distribution and broadcast TV. She is a member of the CMPA Feature Film Committee and an alumni of the Canadian Film Centre Producers Lab. Her writing and directing work lives under her banner NALTOBEL along with singular short films she has produced for other filmmakers, such as 2025 Canada’s Top Ten Short Films Selection Ripe. Her films have been seen around the world and impact on audiences continues to grow.