Filmmaker Susie Yankou throws down about the highs and lows of indie filmmaking, and how her feature Sisters found an audience in the festival circuit and beyond.
Susie Yankou is a Toronto-born, LA-based comedy writer/director. Her debut feature SISTERS played at festivals around the world, including Austin Film Festival, NewFest, Provincetown, Inside out, and Florida FF, winning awards for Best Narrative Feature at the latter two. The film remains on the festival circuit and is in talks for a North American distribution deal. Her sophomore feature, HERE FOR THE RIGHT REASONS, is being produced by Indie Spirit-nominated producer Allison Tate. The project was selected for Inside Out’s 2025 Finance Forum, the only queer finance market in the world. Yankou was also recently named one of MovieMaker Magazine and Austin Film Festival’s 2025 Screenwriters to Watch. On the TV side, Yankou previously developed a teen comedy series with Emma Roberts’ Belletrist TV, which later sold to Netflix. She also created and starred in her web series 101 WAYS TO GET REJECTED, which was developed for TV under EP Bryan Cranston/Moonshot Entertainment. Next, Yankou is set to produce Sara Monge’s Blacklist feature, A MAGICAL PLACE CALLED GLENDALE, with Ed Helms’ Pacific Electric Picture Co.
All UBC Creative Writing students and alumni are invited to attend this event.
Hosted by UBC Creative Writing’s Scripted Media Accelerator.
About Monday Night Happy Hour
Mondays at 5:00 pm PT in November, we’ll host a working writer who will walk us through their career, how they acquired it, and discuss one of their major works. Questions will be open to the floor in a casual Zoom atmosphere.
