When the Canadian film and television industry Leo Awards unfold this weekend in Vancouver, a Sunshine Coast screenwriter, Jilena Cori, will attend the glamorous ceremony. She's been nominated for best screenwriting in a feature length drama for her work on the romance Paper Moon Affair.
"I'd call it a coming of age story," says Cori.
It's only the second feature length film she has written and she shares the credits with the producer and director. Her first, a Mafia story with a strong female character, was what caught the attention of the current studio.Cori, now 35, grew up on the Coast, attending school in Madeira Park and later Chatelech until Grade 10. Friends will remember her name at that time as Juliana Van Egmond. Although she took a BA in international affairs and earned a scholarship to study in Florence, Italy, Cori decided on a different career path. She went to New York and studied to be an actress.
"Her strength was always in her writing," says her mother, Nadia Van Egmond, who still lives on the Coast.
Cori acted in various TV series, then turned toward a new love, script writing. She admits she is passionate about it. She was nominated in the best short film category at the Vancouver Film School Film Festival for Reggie's on Top, and she has also seen another short film, Pets R Us, be picked up by the festival.The Canadian film Paper Moon Affair has been nominated in four other categories at the Leos including best male performance from actor Brandon Fletcher and best cinematography. Directed by David Tamagi, the film has screened in Italy, Toronto and at the Vancouver International Film Festival. At Cannes, it was short-listed for critics' week and made it into the final dozen. Described as an intense and visually stunning film, it recounts the story of a mysterious Japanese woman who arrives in a small fishing village on the West Coast and forms a bond with two of the locals. Much of the movie was shot on Bowen Island, while the ocean scenes were filmed in Tofino.
"They wanted Tofino in the script," says Cori, "but really I turned Tofino into Gibsons."
Cori wrote much of the draft of the film's screenplay while she was visiting on the Coast helping her mother with a family situation. She is currently working on two more scripts; one takes place in a town very much like Sechelt.
Paper Moon Affair was nominated from one of 871 eligible submissions.
