Mars Horodyski is a 2004 graduate of the Film Studies program at Ryerson. She has completed a total of two documentaries and six narrative shorts. Her films have screened at various festivals including the Montreal World Film Festival, the Atlantic Film Festival, the Whistler Film Festival, the Commonwealth Film Festival as well as the highly acclaimed Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. In her third year at Ryerson she received the Norman Jewison Filmmaker Award for her film “Lemonade”.
In 2006 she completed her residency at the Canadian Film Centre as part of the Director’s Lab. Following the residency she went on to the Universal Short Dramatic Film Program through which directed her latest short “Spoonfed” which recently won the Golden Remi at WorldFest in Houston and was nominated for Best Drama at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival.
She has currently finished a half hour documentary with the Collaborative Urban Research Laboratory entitled "Where The Sidewalk Begins : The University and the Global City" which examines the parallels between the city and the university in our fast-evolving globalizing world. In August she will begin shooting a documentary for the new Afrocentric school opening in Toronto.
Aside from making her own films, Mars helps promote other Canadian films. In Toronto she co-produces First Weekend Club's Canada Screens series, a monthly advanced screening series showcasing the best of Canadian cinema in a distinctly social and intimate setting. (www.firstweekendclub.ca).
In July 2009 she will begin her exciting new position as artistic director of the Collaborative Urban Research Laboratory (www.criticalresearchlab.org)
She ultimately hopes to create films that challenge and entertain a universal audience.
