Each year Kelowna Film Society invites applications for scholarships or bursaries from students in full time, post-secondary Film Studies programs and also from local film makers. Funds are generated, throughout the year, from any excess of expenditure over entrance fees collected, at weekly film screenings, throughout the year.

For 2020, we also participated with the Central Okanagan Bursary and Scholarship Society COBSS with one scholarship award for a graduating student destined for film school.  We tried this channel to improve our outreach to students just graduating from Okanagan secondary schools.  This Scholarship was awarded to Isaiah Brown, who has attended Heritage Christian School and Kelowna Secondary School, and plans to attend Capilano University Film school next year.  This scholarship applies to tuition.

We had a number of direct applicants that were reviewed by our scholarship committee.  For 2020, we are supporting 3 scholarship applicants and one film project.

Lark Spartin is a student in the UBCO Bachelor of Media Studies student, which is an interdisciplinary mix of visual arts and computer science, that includes study in subjects such as videography, animation, graphic design, brand strategy, digital illustration and creative coding.  Our funding will help Lark complete her degree. 

Logan McBratney is a student in Capilano University’s Bachelor of Motion Picture Arts program.  Logan has been attending Capilano since 2018 and is set to graduate in 2022.  Our funding will help Logan complete his third year.

Matthew Levi has been accepted into InFocus Film School in Vancouver.  He is a recent graduate of Kelowna Secondary School, and has made two small films as part of the KSS Grade 12 Film Production program.  Our funding will help Matthew with his tuition for InFocus.

Noah Dorsey is a documentary filmmaker and director of photography that proudly calls the Okanagan home. He has been working full-time in the film industry for the past two years and prides himself on creating community content.  In the spring of 2019 Noah and team decided to embark on a passion project documenting three recovering addicts and their journey with the MadKatz boxing club. While tensions flair and emotions are high, these former addicts reveal their darkest days and what it’s like to depend on a substance in the streets of Kelowna.  Our funding will help Noah complete this short documentary, Comeback.

We request an update from our previous year’s awardees so that we can follow up on their ‘film making journey’!