Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival Launches 2026 Program

Meet our Case Study: Modern Whore moderator & panelists! ❤️‍🔥
📍May 27, 2:15PM at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 2

Stephanie Sonny Hooker - Moderator
Stephanie Sonny Hooker is a Toronto filmmaker with Trini and British roots, a love of storytelling, and a big heart for community. As co-founder of Hometeam Films, she champions new voices and meaningful mentorship. She’s produced award winning films, is about to drop her directorial debut Nani’s Kitchen, and is brewing her first feature, Wrong End of the Rainbow.

Nicole Bazuin - Panelist
Nicole Bazuin is a Toronto filmmaker and artist. Her first feature, the hybrid documentary Modern Whore, debuted at TIFF 2025. Modern Whore won Best Documentary at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2026, won the audience and jury awards for Best Documentary at CUFF Docs, and won Best Documentary at the Victoria Film Festival and the Silver Lake Film Festival

Andrea Werhun - Panelist
Andrea Werhun is a writer, performer, and producer based in Toronto. She is the author of Modern Whore: A Memoir (Strange Light/Penguin Random House Canada) and co-writer of the film Modern Whore with director Nicole Bazuin. In 2024, Werhun consulted on Sean Baker’s acclaimed film Anora and Sook-Yin Lee’s Paying for It, in which she also played a lead role.

Jesse Griffiths - Panelist
After over a decade as a film, TV, and theatre actor, Jesse pivoted to a career in casting, founding Jesse Griffiths Casting (JGC). His focus is championing inclusion and diversity in the casting process.

Lauren Grant - Panelist
Clique Pictures is a vibrant film and television production company that focuses on working with female creative talent in front and behind the camera. Owned by award-winning filmmaker Lauren Grant, the company is based in Toronto, Canada. Modern Whore by Nicole Bazuin and Andrea Werhun with executive producer Sean Baker is her latest production.

Meet our Final Girls, Gays and Theys: Genre Film Through a Queer Lens moderator & panelists! 🫀
📍May 27, 12:15PM at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 2

Tricia Hagoriles - Moderator
Tricia Hagoriles is a Toronto-based Filmmaker. An alum of the Canadian Film Centre’s Director’s Lab, their genre-spanning work as a writer and director includes music videos, plays, and award-winning short films such as Beat, Lola’s Wake, and the CBC x Polaris Prize-commissioned Huwag Mataranta. With over a decade of colour grading experience and a healthy obsession with pop and subculture, Tricia combines a flair for atmosphere and rhythm with a storytelling style that is often queer (AF!), heartfelt, and whimsical — all anchored by a central theme of interconnectedness.

Lu Asfaha - Panelist
Lu Asfaha is an award-winning writer director working in the genre space. She is a CFC Director’s Lab alum, where she made body horror SIGHT, a 2023 Fantasia official selection. In 2024, her short film FRESH MEAT opened for Boots Riley’s SORRY TO BOTHER YOU at TOPS, after a festival run that included Inside Out, Outfest, and winning Best Canadian Short at 2022 Regent Park Film Festival.

Geena Rocero - Panelist
Geena Rocero, born and raised in Manila, Philippines, is a four time Emmy Nominated and an Award Winning Producer, Writer and Director. She wrote, directed and acted in DOLLS, a Sci-Fi thriller film that premiered in October 2025 at NewFest and most recently at the 2026 British Film Institute Flare Fest. The film is Executive Produced by Lilly Wachowski.

Mark Pariselli - Panelist
Mark Pariselli is an award-winning writer and filmmaker based in Toronto. He graduated magna cum laude from York University with a BFA in Film Production. He is a Berlinale Talents alumnus, and his work has been presented at numerous film festivals, including Inside Out where he has also served on the jury. His short horror fiction has appeared in anthologies from Hellbound Books and Squirm Books.

Meet our Queering The Process: Why Your Post Team Matters moderator & panelists! 🫀
📍May 27, 11:00AM at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 2

Michal Heuston - Moderator
Michal Heuston (they/them) is a filmmaker in Toronto with a specialty in post-production. Their debut documentary feature A Queer’s Guide to Spiritual Living premiered at the Inside Out Film Festival in 2023, and this year they are premiering a short experimental animated doc called boygirl. Some of Michal’s editing and post-production credits include CBC Gem’s award winning Farm Crime, The Knowing– a four part CBC docuseries adapted from Tanya Talaga’s bestselling book, TVO’s Your Tomorrow that premiered at TIFF in 2024, Bell Fibe’s comedy doc series B.A. Johnston’s HamJam, and Hot Docs 2020 audience choice award-recipient Nancy’s Workshop.

Faustine Pelipel - Panelist
Toronto-based sound editor Faustine Pelipel has spent a decade shaping sound for film and television, contributing to projects alongside established directors, writers, and producers. With experience as both a Dialogue Editor and Sound Effects Editor, she approaches each project with technical care and creative sensitivity, crafting soundtracks that support story, rhythm, and emotional clarity.

Cecilio Escobar - Panelist
Cecilio Guillermo Escobar is a filmmaker and editor based in Tkaronto. His editing work focuses on telling stories from the 2SLGBTQ+ community. He has worked as Picture Editor for various documentaries, such as Framing Agnes (2022), Summer Qamp (2023) and Don’t Come Upstairs (2025).

Kim Temple - Panelist
Kim Temple is Senior Manager, Programming and Industry Relations at Music Publishers Canada (MPC), a non-profit membership-based association. Through cross-sector collaboration MPC strives to educate creative industries about the inherent value of a song, including how to license music for film, television, ads and gaming. As a music publisher with expertise in rights and royalty management, creative sync, and songwriter development, Kim is a passionate advocate for creators’ rights and fair compensation for artists.