Smita Acharyya realized she would never make it as a barista and decided instead to pursue a career in film. Smita’s directorial debut SECOND COMING IN THE 2nd GRADE received the 2002 NSI ZeD Drama Prize Award (broadcast on CBC). She produced the Bravo!FACT piece SUPERHERO WANNABE which premiered at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival and screened at the Vancouver and Calgary International Film Festival, Whistler, Raetihi (New Zealand) & High Falls Film Festival (New York) and won Best Film of the 2004 Seven Minute Film Festival. VIVA BENGALI, a one-hour documentary written by Smita, received an Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association (AMPIA) nomination and was broadcast on Toronto-1, A-channel and Discovery India… leading to angry phone calls from several relatives who weren’t invited to the Las Vegas/Hindu wedding featured in the film. Smita’s next film DOWNSIZING received an AMPIA nomination for “Best Short” and screened at the Calgary International Film Festival and the Herland Film & Video Festival. In 2006, Smita was accepted into the prestigious Women In The Director’s Chair program and subsequently received the 2007 CTV Western Fellowship for the Banff Worldwide Television Festival. Her latest accomplishments include completing production on her short film SORRY GIRL with the participation of numerous WIDC alumnae & mentors. Smita is actively involved in the bustling Calgary film community as Past-President of Women In Film and Television Alberta. Wanting to hear the pitter-patter of little feet, Smita adopted two feline “babies,” adding to the list of behaviours that disappoint her mother.