The annual Women in Film and Television Vancouver Spotlight Awards shone the Kailey Spear with an Image Award for outstanding short work that shows production excellence or a unique, visionary approach. “We feel very honoured to get this award,” says Sam.
The Spears, who won the award last week, “Tir-na-nOg had a huge impact on both Kailey and I,” acknowledges Sam. The young filmmakers and acting duo are building on one success after another. The women previously won an international Twilight Saga Prequels writing competition.
The project, The Storytellers: New Voices of Twilight Saga, invited women writers and directors to submit scripts and director pitches for original short films. After nearly 1,300 submissions from across Canada and the U.S.,the Spear sisters were one of the six finalists in the screenplay portion. Their screenplay, The Mary Alice Brandon File, focuses on Alice Cullen’s human life before she was a vampire. The short film won the Spear sisters the New Voices award.
The twins also successfully competed with pitches to direct their film. The results of their efforts won the short film six Leo Award nominations, including one for Sam and Kailey for Best Directing. Recently, Sam Spear was in an ABC miniseries called When We Rise, along with islanders David Cameron and Robin De Zwart. The ABC series is about the gay rights movement.
Sam says she can’t talk about the series until after it airs on TV in the near future.
“It was wonderful to be a part of a story that needs to be told, and I feel it had the right people telling the story.”
Sam says she loved the character she portrayed in a principle role. “I love acting,and I love being in a role I can get behind.”
She says she also enjoyed watching the other actors“and learned a lot by being on the set and watching two different directors at work. Aside from the frenzy of awards, Kailey and Sam are also writing a feature screenplay.
