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WHO IS TRICIA LEE

AWARDS / RECOGNITION

The 2020 Black List

The Black List's CAPE List

The Academy Nicholl Fellowship - Semifinalist

American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest - Winner

Cinequest Best Feature Screenplay - Winner

Athena List - Winner

WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Features - Winner

Sundance - Second Rounder

The Young & Hungry List

Outfest Screenplay Lab - Finalist

Nashville Screenplay - Finalist

Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay - Finalist

Page International Awards - Semifinalist

The BitchList - Top 5

Lena Waithe's Hello Lab - Finalist

The Black List Women In Film Residency - Semifinalist

Breaking Through The Lens - Finalist

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LABS

Producers Guild of America Power of Diversity Master Workshop

Athena Screenwriting Lab

WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Lab

National Screen Institute TV Director's Bootcamp (Canada)

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FAVORITE FILMS OF '20

Promising Young Woman

My Octopus Teacher

The Trial of the Chicago 7

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BOOKS I'VE READ RECENTLY

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

The Visual Story by Bruce Block

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferazzi

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FILMS I WISH I MADE

Les Intouchables

The Peanut Butter Falcon

Short Term 12

The Greatest Showman

Ex Machina

Up In The Air

Moulin Rouge

Romeo + Juliet

In America

Memento

Requiem For A Dream

Good Will Hunting

Billy Elliot

Battle Royale

Mother (by Bong Joon Ho)

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TV SHOWS I'M OBSSESSED WITH 

 

Ted Lasso

Normal People

Lost

The Leftovers​

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DIRECTORS I'VE SHADOWED

Peter Deluise - SHADOWHUNTERS (Freeform | Netflix)

Jeff Woolnough - THE EXPANSE (Syfy | Alcon Television Group)

Erik Canuel - RANSOM (CBS | TF1 | Sienna Films)

Nancy Meyers - WALMART "The Box" for the Oscars®

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TEACHERS I'VE STUDIED WITH

Joan Scheckel

Larry Moss

Tom Todoroff

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MY DREAM

Direct a melodramatic musical love story that rivals Romeo and Juliet

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WHY I DIRECT

What I want is to humanize, familiarize and normalize underrepresented people on the screen.

 

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INTERESTING FACT

I own four condos which I rent out on AirBNB.  My husband and I decide where we are going to sleep depending on which one is empty.  

 

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MY LOVE STORY

In 2013, Mark and I had been talking about getting married for a while. One Thursday night, in July, we found out that my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Mark asked me, why don't we get married sooner? We looked at the calendar and the next two weekends, his dad was away on vacation. The week after that was my birthday and the week after that we were going away on vacation. So we decided to get married that weekend. We took the Friday off work and ran around the city getting our marriage license, rings, calling an officiant and photographer. We managed to get his parents and sister to agree to come and meet us the next day (Saturday) at my parents house, dress up and not ask questions. We told them we were going out for dinner.

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An hour and a half before the ceremony, after helping dig up roots in the garden, we told my parents to dress up for dinner. My mom said she didn't want to go out, but we told her we have already paid for the reservation, so she had no choice.

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We snuck Mark's family into my parents backyard and my parents were surprised to see everyone in their home.

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We drove them to the park where the officiant and photographer met us by the pond and the goose poop. And on July 13, 2013, a hot, sunny (and sweaty) day, Mark and I surprised our immediate family by getting married.

BIO

Tricia Lee is an accomplished and versatile director-writer who earned her US Green Card as an “artist of extraordinary ability” with Canadian and British citizenship.  She brings integrity and generous leadership to all 11 shorts and 3 award-winning features she’s directed.  Lee has been recognized as one of Hollywood’s top new writers on the The 2020 Black List, CAPE List, Young & Hungry List, Athena List, and the BitchList.  GOOD CHANCE was an Academy Nicholl Fellowship semifinalist, Francis Ford Copolla's  American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition grand prize winner,  Cinequest Best Feature Screenplay winnerAthena List winner, WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Features winner,  and selected for the prestigious Producers Guild of America Power of Diversity Master WorkshopLeonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way and Janet Yang (Joy Luck Club) are attached to produce and Kheng Tan Hua (Crazy Rich Asians, CW's Kung Fu) is attached as lead actress. 

 

Tricia crafts resonant, vulnerable and layered feature films and each project is grounded in meaning and uncomfortable truths. Of note, she is attached as director to SONATA, a feature film being produced by Viola Davis’ company JuVee Productions and will be directing a William Hung (American Idol) biopic which she also wrote, produced by Don Handfield (The Founder), Tony and Tim Bui (won Sundance Grand Jury Prize & Audience Choice Award).  Her third feature, BLOOD HUNTERS sold to Hulu and was presented in Cannes by Frontieres.  To make this film, Tricia successfully converted 19 tech investors from the highly-sought-after Canadian Angel Investment Networks into movie investors … an unprecedented and laudable feat!  SILENT RETREAT, won Best Canadian Feature –Toronto After Dark, and was theatrically released across Canada with a 2-week run in Toronto.  The creature-feature was picked up for distribution by Gravitas Ventures and VVS and sold to NBC Universal’s Chiller Network.

 

Her deep desire to pierce, unite and inspire people’s hearts around the world, pushes her to continuously create.  Her heart-breaking, yet heart-warming shorts include MEETING MOMMY (starring Simu Liu from TAKEN, KIM’S CONVENIENCE) which was a semi-finalist in the NBC Universal Short Film Festival and reached the top 28 on Youtube’s Trending List

 

Embracing every opportunity to grow in her field, she has benefited from shadowing mentorships from Jeff Woolnough on SyFy’s THE EXPANSE, Erik Canuel, producing director on CBS’ RANSOM, Peter Deluise on Freeform’s SHADOWHUNTERS and most recently, the highly-regarded powerhouse - Nancy Meyers on the “Walmart Box” Oscars® commercial starring Hans Zimmer.  She was one of a select few to complete the Corus Diversity TV Director’s Program through the National Screen Institute in Canada.

 

A not-so-ordinary life took Tricia Lee from teaching piano after 10 years of studying the instrument, to living in England for a year, to 8 years in experiential marketing, to owning 4 AirBNB condos (which she lives in-between when they are empty), to having a surprise wedding within 24 hours of being engaged, to riding a motorcycle, to scuba-diving, to hiking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu -- and the adventure continues...

SELECTED FILMMOGRAPHY

THE ROOM IN THE ELEPHANT

2018 Short 

Starring: Ingrid Rogers (Bosch), Brent Bailey (LBJ)

IMDB Independent Awards - Best Female Director, Screened at Disney Studios

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EDGE OF INTERNMENT

2018 Short - Top 3 Finalist in Producers Guild of America Make Your Mark 51 Hour Film Challenge

Starring: James Kyson (Heroes, Preacher), Ally Iseman (NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds)

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MEETING MOMMY

2017 Short - Semi-finalist NBC Universal Short Film Festival, Top 28 on Youtube's Trending List

Starring: Simu Liu (MARVEL'S Shang-Chi), Christina Jung (Kim's Convenience)

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AFFECTION

2018 Short - World Premiere at Oscar-Qualifying LA Shorts Film Fest

Starring: Steph Song (Smallville, Blood and Water, Everything's Gone Green), Steve Lund (Bitten, Reign, Schitt's Creek)

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BLOOD HUNTERS

2016 Feature - Audience Choice Award Fright Night Theatre Film Fest

Film Monkey Productions | OMDC | High Octane Distribution | Gravitas Ventures | United Front Entertainment

Producers: Tricia Lee, Chris Luckhardt 

Starring: Lara Gilchrist (Battlestar Galactica, Beyond), Benjamin Arthur (Working The Engels, American Reunion), Torri Higginson (Dark Matter, Stargate: Atlantis), Julian Richings (Patriot, Supernatural, The Witch), Mark Taylor (Insomnia, Flashpoint), Peter Blankenstein (Human Centipede I, II, III)

 

SILENT RETREAT

2014 Feature - Winner Best Canadian Feature Toronto After Dark

Film Monkey Productions | Archstone Distribution | VVS | Gravitas Ventures | BlackFawn | Lost Empire | High Octane

Producer: Tricia Lee | Exec Producer: Chris Agoston

Starring: Robert Nolan

 

CLEAN BREAK

2013 Feature - Winner Best Drama Feature Atlanta Horror Film Festival

Film Monkey Productions | GS Productions | Atlas Grove | Spartan Bay | Lost Empire

Producers: Geordie Sabbagh, Jordan Gross

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FRAUD SQUAD

2011 HD TV Series

Discovery Channel

 

KIDS ACROSS CANADA – 8 Segments

2007 - 2008 Mini Docs for CBC

SELECTED FESTIVALS / AWARDS

THE ROOM IN THE ELEPHANT

IMDB Independent Awards (Best Female Director) 

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EDGE OF INTERNMENT

Producer's Guild of America Make Your Mark Competition (3rd Prize) 

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MEETING MOMMY

NBC Universal Short Film Festival (semi-finalist)

Youtube's Trending List  (Top 28)

Reel World Film Festival

Asians On Film Los Angeles

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AFFECTION

LA Shorts International Film Festival

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BLOOD HUNTERS

Frontieres Goes To Cannes (Marche Screening) 

Horror Channel's Frightfest London 

Fright Night Theatre Film Festival (Audience Choice Award Best Feature)

Boston Sci-Fi Terrorthon

Other Worlds Austin

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SILENT RETREAT

Toronto After Dark Film Festival (Best Canadian Feature) 

Nocturna Fantastic Film Festival of Madrid (In Competition)

 

CLEAN BREAK

Atlanta Horror Film Festival (Best Drama Feature

Blood in the Snow 

 

SEARCHING FOR WONDER 

Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival 

Worldfest Houston (Remi Award Winner)

Rimouski International Film Festival 

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MARV FREETELL'S WEDDING DAY

Edmonton Filim Festival 

Nashville International Film Festival 

Worldfest Houston (Special Jury Award Winner

 

PAPER TULIPS

Chicago International Children’s Film Festival 

Sprockets Film Festival / TIFF Kids

Houston Worldfest (Gold Remi Winner)

USA Film Festival 

Whistler Film Festival

Los Angeles Children’s Film Festival 

New York Kids First! Film Festival

Rhode Island International Film Festival 

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