Graham Foy on the Journey to Venice for Teen Drama ‘The Maiden’

variety.com:

Jennie Punter “The Maiden,” Graham Foy’s finely tuned story of adolescent mythmaking, togetherness and grief, has its world premiere Tuesday in Venice Days before heading to Toronto, but the film’s impressive international journey actually began in Cannes two years ago.

Based in Toronto since 2008, Foy grew up in suburban Calgary where “Maiden” is set, spent teenage summers near the graffiti-covered railroad bridge and ragged ravine, where much of the film was shot, and, like one of the characters, was an avid skateboarder.

He had been tapping away at the “Maiden” script — which draws from his experiences but is not autobiographical — for several years when his short “August 22, This Year” was selected for the 2020 Cannes’ Critics’ Week. “It was the year the pandemic shut down Cannes, so we couldn’t go, but the festival did a lot for the filmmakers,” said Foy, who spoke to Variety from Venice last week, in advance of the festival. “The short filmmakers were invited to participate in Cannes’ Next Step development program, which helps short filmmakers make that jump to features,” he continued. “It was amazing to have that kind of access to people who do the same thing as you but don’t know your work.

The feedback was extremely candid and honest.” After working up another draft of “Maiden,” Foy was then invited to a residency at Moulin d’Andé in Normandy, which he attended with the film’s producers — his F Films’ partner and wife Daiva Žalnieriunas, and MDFF’s Dan Montgomery (“Anne at 13,000 Ft.”).