VIFF Amp’s Music in Media Summit continues to nurture, educate and champion emerging and established music professionals, including composers, songwriters and music entrepreneurs, with a strong emphasis on supporting those from marginalized or underrepresented communities.
This year, the summit will offer creative insights, mentorship and unique career development opportunities in the form of feature panels, workshops, 1:1 dialogues, interactive sessions and more from international experts in the Music for Media space, including:
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Music supervisor Heather Gardner, known for her work on Robyn Hood, Acting Good and Hell of a Summer, and as Head of Music Supervision + Licensing at Vapor Music and Long Division
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Production Executive at Sony Pictures Television, Tammy Glover, known for her work as former VP at Warner Bros. She is also an accomplished musician and composer, recently bringing Wendy, My Darling to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival
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Director, Licensing & Creative at Anthem Music, Dante Berardi Jr., known for supporting artists like Rush, and for guiding emerging talent across the Canadian music industry
Check out some of our other guests below!
This year’s Amp cohort will be selected through a competitive, juried application process. Those chosen will receive free admission to the summit, along with a stipend to support their involvement and professional development, encouraging diverse participation and engagement.
How do I access VIFF Amp?
If you are an industry professional with an interest in music and its role in media, you can register for an Artist & Industry Pass and get access to keynotes and panels at VIFF Amp’s Music in Media Summit.
Funded by
Supported by
Music in Media Summit 2025
Full line-up will be announced on August 27
Stages-to-Screens
In this edition of Stages-to-Screens, we are focusing on music artists who have made the transition to allied entertainment roles: studio executives, actors and showrunners. How the experience of working in music helped lay the foundation for a broader experience in media.
Featured Speaker: Tammy Glover
Art of Music Supervision in Documentary
Music supervision for documentary presents unique challenges. This lively conversation will explore how music supervisors work with directors and composers to shape narrative — while navigating tight budgets and the unique demands of the documentary form.
Moderated by: Tony Scudellari
Music BC's SOUNDOFF
SOUNDOFF is a platform for showcasing our most promising local musicians, focusing on song placement and sync licensing in film and TV. Local artists perform their songs in front of music supervisors at this live event.
Funded by
Program Curators
Amp is curated by Tony Scudellari and Rob Calder. Tony oversees all aspects of music for Sony Pictures Television programming, and is also the lead creative executive for the division’s music releases. Rob has been an active part of Canada’s creative industries for over 20 years. He is known for building impactful events and growing audiences and community.
Composer Filmmaker Accelerator
Where Music Meets Film: A Premier Program for Emerging Composers
This year, 12 talented composers will collaborate with four established filmmakers through virtual sessions and an in-person recording and mixing session at Vancouver’s renowned The Warehouse Studios. Their compositions will be performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Over six weeks, participants will develop symphonic scores through collaboration with the filmmakers and mentorship from industry experts, focusing on both traditional and innovative scoring techniques. The CFA remains a pivotal program for advancing careers for emerging talent, driving forward the future of music in film.
Featured Guests
Adrian Ellis
Composer, SCGC Chair
Adrian is a Canadian Screen Music Award winner and 4-time CSA nominee known for concept-driven scores, including Last Call (recorded live in a single take), The Scarehouse (NBC Universal) and The Strings (Shudder). His inventive approach often uses unconventional sounds — like broken pianos and power saws — documented in The Music of Madness. His TV credits include Secret Nazi Ruins, Daily Planet and CFL broadcasts. He serves as Chair of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada.
Amanda Cawley
Composer
Amanda Cawley is an award-winning orchestral composer known for creating fantastical scores for film, television and games. In 2024, she won Canadian Screen Music Awards for Ostinato and Siegebreaker, and received the SOCAN Foundation’s Emerging Screen Composer Award. Her credits include 104 episodes of Fireman Sam and 20 of Ageless Gardens. Amanda’s melodic, narrative-driven style brings characters and worlds to life with carefully crafted instrumentation and soundscapes.
Heather Gardner
Head of Music Supervision + Licensing, Vapor Music and Long Division
Heather is Head of Music Supervision + Licensing at Vapor Music and Long Division, with credits spanning film, TV, games and ads — including Robyn Hood, Acting Good and Hell of a Summer. A multi-Canadian Sync Award winner, she serves on the Board of the Guild of Music Supervisors, Canada, and is a frequent speaker at TIFF, SXSW and more. She holds degrees from Western University and Harris Institute in music and arts management.
Laura Nikolic
Head of Film, Television & Animation at PIRATE SOUND
As Head of Film, TV & Animation at PIRATE SOUND, Laura leads music teams across platforms. A seasoned Music Supervisor, Producer and Composer, she shaped the musical identity of Barney’s World and helmed music for four seasons of Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go! She’s known for her creative precision, talent for music-driven storytelling and ability to manage complex productions — all grounded in her self-taught, multi-instrumentalist roots and passion for collaboration.
Robert Kraft
SOCAN; Ambassador to Hollywood
Robert Kraft is an award-winning songwriter, composer and producer and former President of Music at 20th Century Fox, where he oversaw scores for Titanic, Moulin Rouge! and Slumdog Millionaire. He co-produced The Little Mermaid soundtrack, including “Under the Sea”, and founded Kraftbox Entertainment, which produced the top-charting SCORE: A Film Music Documentary. Current projects include Jazz Ambassadors with Quincy Jones and Ray Charles: Keep My Name Alive with Frank Marshall.
Tammy Glover
Senior Vice President Sony Pictures Television
Tammy Glover is SVP of Production at Sony Pictures Television and former VP at Warner Bros. Discovery, overseeing physical production for TNT, tbs and TruTV. A former Television Academy Governor, she’s also an accomplished musician and composer. She toured globally with Sparks, appears in The Sparks Brothers documentary, and recently debuted her original musical Wendy, My Darling — starring Jon Cryer and Busy Philipps — at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Success Stories
Chan Brothers
Vancouver composers Brian and Caleb Chan attended VIFF Amp in 2020, where they met Frank Garcia from DreamWorks, as part of an animation panel. This resulted in them landing two animated series. In 2021, Arbel Bedak of Spectra Creative Agency met the duo and chose to represent them. Through Tony Scudellari and Sony Pictures Television, the Chan brothers were selected to score two series: Panhandle, produced by Nick Stoller (Bros, Neighbors), and Alert, produced by Carla Kettner (Bones, The Blacklist).
DeAndre James Allen-Toole & Madison Anglin
Issa Rae’s label and music supervision company, Raedio, is in discussions with both CFA graduates for potential scoring opportunities, a direct result of the orchestral reels created as part of the CFA program.
Mina Samy
One of last year’s CFA composers reports he had “added credibility and confidence” from taking part. This resulted in him landing his first composing project with Academy Award-winning UK studio Slick Films. Mina also signed a contract with Oticons, an agency for film composers, after the head of the agency heard his music and saw his CFA reel.
Bukola
A local singer songwriter who participated in VIFF Amp in 2020 and 2021 drew high praise from invited international music supervisors and impressed the ear of composer Natalie Holt. Holt, an accomplished composer on Marvel and Star Wars projects, was a 2021 speaker at Amp, and heard Bukola at the SOUNDOFF showcase. Holt subsequently hired Bukola to do original vocals for the film The Princess.
What Attendees are Saying
I took away nuggets of wisdom from every session I attended… all of the panelists and speakers were very open to sharing info on their approach and how indie musicians and composers can make headway in the sync world.
If you are a composer or a songwriter looking to write for TV or Film, this is the event to attend. Easily my favourite industry event of the year!
I have wanted to go into film composition for some time and it felt impossible to even try the first steps. With Amp, a new world has opened for me.