In The News
Frances-Anne Solomon joins Angie Seth on CTV News to discuss the transformative and promising nature of award shows. Things are finally looking up as a result of the “reckoning” that took place across all industries in 2020 and there is hope that this time, the changes will be permanent…
Trinidadian-Canadian filmmaker, writer, producer, and distributor Frances-Anne Solomon talks about her life as a third-culture-kid, her pathway into filmmaking, why she created her movie HERO and the creation of Caribbean Tales.
Frances-Anne Solomon sits down with CTV News Anchor Angie Seth to discuss the push for diversity and representation in the industry and how, as a member of the executive committee of the directors’ branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she has an opportunity to help shape the narrative.
Claudia Jones ‑ political activist, journalist and revolutionary – is the subject of a new film from acclaimed film-maker, producer and director Frances-Anne Solomon. The biopic, Claudia, will honour Jones for her fight against intolerance, inequality and oppression…
IT’S WONDERFUL seeing Regina King, Chloe Zhao and Michaela Coel taking their well-deserved place at the SAG and Golden Globe Award nominations. As a film director who is also a Black woman, I celebrate this moment and their achievements. Their recognition vindicates all of us who have been struggling in the shadows for so long and brings hope for women of colour coming up in the ranks…
Frances-Anne Solomon is honoured to have been selected for The Directors Branch Executive Committee Of The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences. Solomon is confident in the strides the Academy is making towards diversification and is proud to form a part of a more representative board…
Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer, curator, and entrepreneur in film, TV, radio, theatre, and new media. Born in England to Trinidadian parents, she was raised and educated in the Caribbean and Canada before moving to Great Britain where she has built a successful career…
Toronto based British-Canadian filmmaker, writer, producer, and distributor Frances-Anne Solomon joins forces with a formidable team of women to tell the story of Claudia Jones. The pivotal role played by the British-Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones in launching the world’s largest street festival, the Notting Hill Carnival, will be the focus of a new Canada-UK co-production…
Journalist and founder of Notting Hill Carnival, Claudia Jones, is to be celebrated in a new film depicting her life. The film, Claudia, follows Jones’s life as an activist and how fierce racial tension in the UK led her to plan an event which today is Europe’s largest outdoor festival.
Leading the production is acclaimed film producer and director Frances-Anne Solomon. She said: “Claudia was a modern day superhero rooted in the real world, whose remarkable life and achievements straddled the USA, England and the Caribbean…”
Frances-Anne Solomon is set to direct, produce and co-write the feature film about pioneering British-Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones.
Toronto-based CaribbeanTales Media Group, U.K.-based Greenacre Films and Trindad and Tobago and South Africa-based Imagine Media International have teamed up to develop Claudia – a feature film about pioneering journalist and activist Claudia Jones (pictured) who founded Britain’s first major black newspaper…
THE LIFE of journalist and Notting Hill Carnival founder Claudia Jones will be celebrated in a new film from director Frances-Anne Solomon. The UK’s Greenacre Films has joined forces with an international team of filmmakers to pay tribute to the activist who is credited with launching what is today Europe’s largest street festival.
Set in London in 1958 as violent race riots took broke out in Notting Hill, Claudia tells the story of Jones, a Trinidad-born communist deported to England from McCarthyite USA, who comes up with a plan to uplift black people living in Britain…
The pivotal role played by British-Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones in launching the world’s largest street festival, the Notting Hill Carnival, is the focus of a new Canada-UK co-production. Leading the production is acclaimed Canadian director Frances-Anne Solomon (Hero: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life and Times of Mr. Ulric Cross).
The film will be produced by Solomon’s CaribbeanTales Media Group (CTMG), in partnership with Nadine Marsh-Edwards’ UK-Based Greenacre Films and Lisa Wickham’s Trinidad and Tobago-based Imagine Media International Limited…
The pivotal role played by British-Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones in launching the world’s largest street festival, the Notting Hill Carnival, is the focus of a new Canada-UK co-production.
Leading the production is acclaimed Canadian director Frances-Anne Solomon (Hero: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life and Times of Mr. Ulric Cross). The film will be produced by Solomon’s CaribbeanTales Media Group (CTMG), in partnership with Nadine Marsh-Edwards’ UK-Based Greenacre Films and Lisa Wickham’s Trinidad and Tobago-based Imagine Media International Limited…
The movie HERO: Inspired by The Extraordinary Life & Times of Mr. Ulric Cross, is heading to Showtime. The movie, directed by award-winning filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, will air on SHOxBET on November 11 at 7 am ET and is currently available on demand.
HERO premiered in 2018 at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, winning The People’s Choice Award for a Narrative Feature Film. The film has since been screened across the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. The film won the Jâ’Net Feature Narrative Award in Los Angeles at the Pan African Film and Arts Festival…
The pivotal role played by British-Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones in launching the world’s largest street festival, the Notting Hill Carnival, is the focus of a new Canada-UK co-production.
Leading the production is acclaimed Canadian director Frances-Anne Solomon (Hero: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life and Times of Mr. Ulric Cross). The film will be produced by Solomon’s CaribbeanTales Media Group (CTMG), in partnership with Nadine Marsh-Edwards’ UK-Based Greenacre Films and Lisa Wickham’s Trinidad and Tobago-based Imagine Media International Limited…
Trinidadian filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon feels incredibly honoured to be a member of the executive committee of the directors’ branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Most people associate it with the star-studded televised movie awards, the Oscars. But the academy’s main goal is the advancement of moviemaking across genres, and through innovation in technology…
Toronto (ON) – Award-winning director Frances-Anne Solomon will now be a part of the elite group reviewing candidates for an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization responsible for the Oscars.
Solomon received the news this week that she had been selected for the Directors Branch Executive Committee in an email from Academy Governors Susanne Bier, Ava DuVernay, Rodrigo Garcia and Steven Spielberg…
The coronavirus has interrupted many events this summer and forced organizers to adapt to the new rules of social distancing.
Many events have moved online, and recently the CaribbeanTales Film Festival (CTFF) has also done the same as it will be celebrating 15 years of talented, established and emerging filmmakers of Caribbean heritage…
Canadian filmmaker and recently the feature for our Women Empowered section, Frances-Anne Solomon, received an award for her film HERO which showcased at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles.
HERO was awarded the newly created Ja’Net Feature Narrative Award, renamed in honor of PAFF co-founder, Ja’Net Dubois.
Toronto-based CaribbeanTales Media Group has announced that it has begun work on a feature film based on the award-winning memoir In the Black by one of Canada’s most respected entrepreneurs, Denham Jolly.
The feature development is supported by the Harold Greenberg Fund and the Telefilm Development Program. A short film based on Jolly’s early life is also being produced.
While in Los Angeles for the Pan African Film Festival, director Frances-Anne Solomon and actor Nickolai Salcedo dropped by KPFK 90.7’s IMpact show with host Pamela Asobo Anchang to talk about Hero, Racism within the Race and Pan Africanism and the Caribbean.
“In the Black” — the amazing memoir about Canadian businessman Denham Jolly founding that nation’s first black radio station — is soon to become an amazing film by director Frances-Anne Solomon. Solomon announced recently that she has begun work on a feature film based on Jolly’s award-winning memoir, with support from the Harold Greenberg Fund and the Telefilm Development Program. Solomon is the founder and CEO of the CaribbeanTales Media Group.
Filmmaker and head of the CaribbeanTales Film Festival, Francis Anne Solomon announced this week that she has begun work on a feature film based on the book In the Black, the autobiography of businessman Denham Jolly.
Jolly is best known as the founder of Canada’s first Black radio station, Flow 93.5 and the publisher of the now defunct Contrast newspaper.
HERO, the highly acclaimed feature film inspired by the extraordinary life and times of Trinidad and Tobago citizen, diplomat and judge Ulric Cross, won the newly created Ja’Net Feature Narrative Award at the 28th Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF), held recently in West Hollywood.
Frances-Anne Solomon did not know Ulric Cross’s story but…..the request to make a film about him came from her mother.
And so she started on a quest which ultimately led to Hero. It opens the Bermuda International Film Festival on March 20.
“The story came to me through a family friend,”…
Frances Anne Solomon’s film HERO has been awarded the newly created Ja’Net Feature Narrative Award, renamed in honor of PAFF co-founder, Ja’Net Dubois.
The award was bestowed on the film following a sold-out Opening Night of the 28th Pan African Film and Arts Festival, (PAFF) with more than 1000 patrons at the Director’s Guild of America in West Hollywood, and two subsequent packed screenings.
News Americas, TORONTO, Canada, Thurs. Feb. 27, 2020: Following a sold-out Opening Night of the 28th Pan African Film and Arts Festival, (PAFF) with more than 1000 patrons at the Director’s Guild of America in West Hollywood, and two subsequent packed screenings, Frances-Anne Solomon’s HERO was awarded the newly created Ja’Net Feature Narrative Award, renamed in honor of PAFF co-founder, Ja’Net Dubois.
Ayuko Babu is the heart and soul of the Pan African Film Festival. He made his annual trip to the Wave to talk about this year’s festival and he brought along filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, writer, producer and director of this year’s opening night film “Hero”. Joining our conversation was actor Nickolai Salcedo who portrays Ulric Cross in the film.
The 28th annual Pan African Film Festival — the nation’s largest and most prestigious black film fest — opened its doors for its premiere night with a screening of the film “Hero.” The resounding message from the red carpet by celebrities and community leaders was that of perseverance; to “keep going.”
“HERO: Inspired by the Extraordinary Revolutionary Life and Times of Diplomat and Judge Ulric Cross,” directed by Caribbean filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon opened the 28th Annual Pan African Film and Art Festival. Along with the cast, celebrities and VIP guests packed the red carpet ready to experience an exciting evening. Solomon leads a pack of women screening films at PAFF in record numbers – that is, 81 female directors out of 225 films!
Claudia is joined by three directors who are featured in the Pan African Film Festival. These filmmakers are adamant about making Black films great again.
Fox Soul is a new live and interactive streaming channel dedicated to the African American viewer. The programs aim to celebrate black culture and deal with real topics that impact the everyday lives of the black community through frank and insightful dialogue with local and national influencers.
“Art is our voice resonating about who we are and where we stand in the world and how we intend to use ourselves to change the world,” said actor Danny Glover, at the opening night of the 28th annual Pan African Film Festival.
“That’s what films do. That’s what art does.”
History was made last night as Parasite became the first foreign language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. We’re checking in with Frances-Anne Solomon, local filmmaker and academy voter, who joins us live from Los Angeles this morning
Hero: Inspired by The Extraordinary Life and Times of Ulric Cross – a feature film about an amazing man’s connections with World Ward II, African independence, the Black Power movement and international activism – will be screened Tuesday in Los Angeles at the opening night of the Pan African Film and Arts Festival.
The story of Pan-Africanism told through one extraordinary life. Toronto filmmaker Frances Anne Solomon talks about her film Hero, and Ulric Cross, the most decorated West Indian of World War II.
The 28th Annual Pan African Film + Arts Festival, the nation’s largest presentation of movies by Blacks, opens with the internationally acclaimed motion picture, “Hero.”
The gripping production, written and directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, is inspired by the extraordinary and revolutionary life of Ulric Cross, who was a Trinidad Tobago citizen, diplomat and judge.
TRINI-CANADIAN filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon said the new diversity in the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will take a long time to have an impact.
Writer, producer and director Frances-Anne Solomon is here to talk about becoming a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Canadian director Frances-Anne Solomon talks about diversity, women directors and heading to Los Angeles for Oscar week.
In April 2019, she was recognized and awarded the Black Business and Professional Association Harry Jerome Award for Culture, an award given to a black individual who is a change maker when it comes to enhancing Caribbean and African culture in the community.
Canadian director Frances-Anne Solomon heads to Los Angeles for Oscar Week as she casts her vote for the first time as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The 28th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF) will open with the film “HERO: Inspired by the Extraordinary Revolutionary Life and Times of Diplomat and Judge Ulric Cross,” directed by Caribbean filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon.
The festival will kick off festivities with a star-studded Opening Night Gala at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at the Directors Guild of America (DGA), located at 7920 W. Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
CaribbeanTales Media Group (CTMG) and the Durban FilmMart (DFM) have announced the renewal of their partnership to develop films and television content by African women and women of colour from the global Diaspora.
When Frances-Anne Solomon received an email from filmmaker Ava DuVernay letting her know she was being invited to the Oscars academy, she thought someone was pulling her leg.
“I thought it was a hoax,” she told Matt Galloway with a laugh on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning. “I showed it around my office and everybody thought it was a joke.”
Growing up in Trinidad, in the Caribbean, becoming an artist was not an option, especially in my family. We were from the black and brown middle class. You were expected to pull yourself up, make money and be decent people. I was expected to become a teacher, a doctor or lawyer. I was artistic as a child and this was not encouraged. When I left Trinidad and came to Canada, I felt really lost…
Tobago-born actor Winston Duke (Black Panther, Us) and Canada-based filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, who was born to Trinidadian parents, have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organisation behind the Academy Awards.
I am a filmmaker, artist, and cultural entrepreneur from Trinidad — and that defines me. But I’ve lived most of my life outside of the Caribbean and so a global perspective is very much a part of who I am. I am a woman of color identifying myself very much like a feminist — or womanist…
Filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon has produced and directed both dramas and documentaries. Her latest release, Hero, dramatises the life of Caribbean war hero turned pan-African activist Ulric Cross. Just as no laws govern who can write a biography, any filmmaker is free to turn their attention to a person’s life, Solomon confirms, even if that portrayal is far from flattering. VICE, for example, depicts Cheney cynically seeking excuses to invade Iraq…
Award-winning filmmaker / writer Frances-Anne Solomon works in film, TV, radio, theatre, and new media. Born in England of Trinidadian parents, she was raised and educated in the Caribbean and Canada before moving to the UK where she built a successful career with the BBC as a TV Drama Producer.
How she navigated the film industry as a woman of colour, her career path from the BBC to founding the CaribbeanTales Media Group Her advice to women entering the film industry.
Women of colour the missing ingredient in Canadian film industry
‘Our aim is to ensure representation of women of colour in the media industries,’ writes Frances-Anne Solomon
I wish I had known that I would succeed despite all obstacles, that nothing would stop me. It has been surprising to me as a female that opportunities have been hard to come by, yet I kept going. I didn’t know it would be so hard, and that I would be so resilient. Looking back, I’m quite surprised and proud that I did all of this.
Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer, curator, and entrepreneur in film, TV, radio, theatre, and new media. Born in England of Trinidadian parents, she was raised and educated in the Caribbean and Canada before moving to Great Britain where she built a successful career with the BBC as a TV Drama Producer…
The CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF) celebrates the talents of established and emerging filmmakers of Caribbean heritage who practise their art across the Caribbean Diaspora worldwide – including Canada and the Caribbean, Europe, the Americas…
Frances-Anne Solomon is a Caribbean British-Canadian filmmaker, writer, producer, distributor and entrepreneur. From BBC producer to award-winning independent filmmaker, Frances-Anne has left an indelible mark on the international film scene…
The end of July and start of August mark the celebration of Carnival parades across Canada. They go by various names: Caribbean Days Festival in Vancouver, Cariwest in Edmonton, Carifest in Calgary and of course — although it may have a different name officially…
Three of the Caribbean’s leading film producers will now develop pilots for their original TV series projects, via funding from Flow and CaribbeanTales Media Group…
Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer, curator, and entrepreneur in film, TV, radio, theatre, and new media. Born in England of Trinidadian parents, she was raised and educated in the Caribbean and Canada before moving to Great Britain where she…
For the past decade, Toronto has played host to the annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival, an important milestone marking the global emergence of a rich and vibrant Caribbean film and television industry…
Born in England of Trinidadian parents, she began her professional life at the BBC in England, where she built a successful career as a producer, first with BBC Radio then with BBC television drama. She also produced and directed independent films through her company Leda Serene Films…
Frances-Anne Solomon (born 28 June 1966) is a Trinidadian filmmaker, writer, producer, distributor and entrepreneur. Born in England of Trinidadian parents, she began her professional life at the BBC in England, where she built a successful career as a producer, first with BBC Radio then…
Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer, curator, distributor and entrepreneur in film, TV, radio, theatre, and new media. Born in England of Trinidadian parents, she was raised and educated in the Caribbean and Canada before moving to Great Britain where…
Born in England of Trinidadian parents, Frances-Anne Solomon began her professional life at the BBC in England, where she built a successful career as a producer, first with BBC Radio then with BBC television drama.[1] She also produced and directed independent films through her company…
REGIONAL film distributor, CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution (CTWD), has received a shot in the arm through a major funding grant from the European Union. Founder of the CTWD, producer and film-maker Frances-Anne Solomon is pleased with this latest development which she sees…
Award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer and Founder/curator of CaribbeanTales International Film Festival, Frances-Anne Solomon, is the recipient of this year’s Heritage Award from the Planet Africa Group to be presented at the 2014 Planet Africa Awards Gala…
CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution (CTWD), a Barbados-based film distribution company, has received a funding grant from the ACPCultures+ Program, financed by the European Union and implemented by the ACP Group of States for ‘The 3D Distribution Project’ (3D) that will…
Sharp-tongued comic Rachel Price gave a small audience a glimpse of her vulnerable side recently, exchanging a long, tight hug with Caribbean filmmaker and distributor Frances-Anne Solomon. Price recalled how Solomon gave her the career-boosting chance a decade ago to star alongside…
Caribbean film and TV series now have their own online VOD channel. The Toronto-based CaribbeanTales Group on Thursday launched CaribbeanTales-TV, a subscription video streaming service, while attending the Toronto International Film Festival…
Celebrate films from the Caribbean diaspora with screenings and networking sessions at the 8th annual CaribbeanTales Toronto Film Showcase (September 4-14, 2013). Check out films such as Kingston Paradise by Director, Mary Wells, about a street hustler stuck in the violent ghettos of Kingston…
Who is this Trinidadian international award-winning filmmaker? A recent Sunday Newsday story told more of Cross, the retired legal luminary, whose life as a “Trinidadian hero for all times” has inspired Solomon’s vision for the 75-minute feature documentary, to be released in 2014…
8th Annual Caribbean Tales – Toronto Film Showcase – An Interview with Frances-Anne Solomon, CEO and founder…
Caribbean Tales Group, a Canadian multimedia company, has officially announced the launch of its online Caribbean-themed channel, which is aiming to create space for more cultural representation and to educate young people on their cultural roots…
In conjunction with the start of the Canadian National Exhibition, the CaribbeanTales Toronto Film Festival held their Tales of a Cocktail event kickoff on Saturday August 17th at the Direct Energy Centre and TMAK World was there. In the run up to this years festival…
Last summer, I heard about a Caribbean film festival that was going to be taking place in Toronto. My love of the arts and my unyielding Caribbean pride pushed me to send an email to the media contact, asking if there was any way I – a small, local blogger – could get involved…
It took filmmaker, Frances-Anne Solomon’s, dogged determination to put on the first CaribbeanTales film festival and now in its eighth year the festival has expanded the possibilities of Caribbean film. Solomon, chief executive officer of CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution, recalled that when…
For years, veteran Toronto-based filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon had to justify to Canadian buyers and distributors the niche filled by her independent, non-commercial work, specifically film and television content that mined the Caribbean diasporic experience…
For years, veteran Toronto-based filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon had to justify to Canadian buyers and distributors the niche filled by her independent, non-commercial work, specifically film and television content that mined the Caribbean diasporic experience…
Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and producer in film, television, radio, theatre, and new media. Born in London, England to Trinidadian parents and raised in the Caribbean and Canada, Frances-Anne began her television career at Banyan Productions in Trinidad…
Dr. Vibe with Frances-Anne Solomon, Chief Executive Officer – CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution at the Caribbean Tales event at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2011…
Filmmakers across the Caribbean region can apply for scholarships to attend this September’s CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution Toronto Film Showcase and Market Access Program in Toronto. Announcing the CaribbeanTales Scholarship Fund at a Toronto press conference last week…
Frances-Anne Solomon is one of the most prolific of contemporary Caribbean filmmakers. Among her feature films are: What My Mother Told me, Peggy Su! and A Winter Tale. She has produced documentaries such as Reunion (about women from the West Indies serving in the armed forces during WWII)…
Over a year ago Frances-Anne Solomon received an e-mail from cultural icon Dr Kamau Brathwaite, congratulating and thanking her for her contribution to Caribbean film through the annual CaribbeanTales Film Festival, held in Toronto, Canada, each July…
Filmmaking, perhaps more than any other art form, complicates the question of national or regional affiliation. Film needs a director, scriptwriter, cinematographer, sound mixer, gaffer, producer amongst others and these may come from very different places and cultural backgrounds…
Casting Call for Frances-Anne Solomon’s new film “Break Out“. Written by Oonya Kempadoo and Frances-Anne Solomon. Produced by Lisa Wickham. Production is slated for July-August 2010. The film will be shot entirely in Trinidad…
Trinidad-born Frances-Anne Solomon is a blogger and award winning filmmaker who has just completed her most recent project, A Winter Tale. Set in the violent downtown Toronto community of Parkdale, the story begins with the gathering of a black men’s support group…
A cluster of thoughts are crisscrossing my mind tonight. My new film, A Winter Tale, will be in front of an audience for the first time on Wednesday, and with that a long creative journey from concept to print finds closure.I was asked by Geoffrey Philp to write “In My Own Words” for his blog…
Frances-Anne Solomon (Co-Creator/Team Story Writer/Director/Producer) studied Theatre and English Literature at the University of Toronto before moving to the UK. There, she spent 15 years working as a producer, director and writer in film, television and radio…
When she directed Peggy Su in 1996, Frances-Anne Solomon became one of the few Trinidadians to have directed or produced a feature film. She joins a select group of pioneers that includes Horace Ové, Anthony Maharaj, Kamalo Deen, Horace Wilson, Michael New, Gerald Joseph and Mary-Jane Gomes…