Writing/Directing - HBL Creative

Writing & Directing

Holly Brace-Lavoie is a Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal. Her short films and web series have been showcased at more than 40 International film festivals including the Berlinale, RIIFF and Sudbury International Film Festival, nominated for a Crystal Bear and Quebec Cinema Awards and licensed internationally.

She worked as a Development Executive, and she created 12 greenlit factual series that aired on Discovery, History, Science, DIY, MotorTrend, CBC, AHC and many more. She now offers professional script consulting and development services for busy creatives.

In the fall of 2022, Holly was selected for and attended the Women In the Director’s Chair program. Her last short film Mother of Invention premiered at Fantasia and is touring the festival circuit. Her new short The Pregnancy Test is in preproduction. She is currently co-writing a feature titled Sitting In a Tree while developing her own first feature Tears of My Enemies and a web series titled Comedium.

She has sat twice on SODEC selection juries.

She is represented by Simon M. Hurdon at Curate and is open to writing and directing projects in all forms including film, episodic television, short form, MOWs, Advertising and Music Videos.

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COMEDIUM

When an ambitious comedian discovers she sees dead people, a ruthless talent agent from beyond the grave offers to boost her career – but she’ll only earn stardom if she faces her greatest fear: she’ll need to help others in order to help herself.

MOTHER OF INVENTION

An author and new mom finds inspiration in her neighbours’ arguments, but when their world and hers collide in real life, she faces a moral dilemma that puts her work, her kid and her identity in question.

THE CATCH

A short film about a young girl named Morgan who loves fly fishing in the river near her home. She also likes boys. But boys don’t like girls who fish. Morgan can’t seem to reconcile her two interests. Will she have to choose one over the other?

THE HIGH NOTE

THE HIGH NOTE is a web series that follows a group of inspired but misguided misfits using their limited musical talents and half-hearted enthusiasm to start a band. What could go wrong?

IN DEVELOPMENT:

THE PREGNANCY TEST – Short Film
Development Funding from SODEC
Producers: COMPASS PRODUCTIONS
Stage: Production – Shooting December 2025
A short film adapted from an award-winning short story by Angelique Lalonde. The film takes place entirely in the public washroom of a small-town shopping center and uses visually distinct vignettes to express the varied visceral reactions of five women to the same abandoned pregnancy test they encounter there. Through their shared, yet separate experiences, the film seeks to challenge our assumptions about womanhood, motherhood, personhood and privacy by embodying five unique female perspectives.

COMEDIUM – Half Hour Comedy Series
Development Funding from IPF and CMF
Producers: ComediHa/JFL and Beanduck Productions
Stage: Financing and Pre-Production
COMEDIUM is a comedy series about a stand-up comic discovering she sees dead people.

SON OF A BITCH – Short Film
Development Funding from CALQ
Producers: Seeking Producers
Stage: Financing and Pre-Production
Mimi is a feminist mom just trying to make the world a better place and raise her son to be the perfect ally. Zach is a creative kid just trying to make friends and figure out how to be a man… whatever that means. But when Zach unwittingly triggers Mimi’s origin trauma with an assault of his own, both their plans go off the rails and their relationship may not survive it.

SITTING IN A TREE – Feature Film
Development Funding from SODEC, CALQ, Canada Council for the Arts, Harold Greenburg Fund
Co-Writing with Geneviève Dulude-De Celles
Producers: Colonelle Films
Stage: Development
Emma, a stubborn and spirited woman in her mid-thirties have been trying for baby for a few years now. But when they succeed doubt creeps in, anxiety takes over and by the time she miscarries Emma knows for certain, she doesn’t want to be a mother. Can she come to terms with her taboo decision, share it with her partner and come out the other side unscathed?

TEARS OF MY ENEMIES – Feature Film
Producers: Ugo Media

Stage: Development

Winner of the Prix Pitch Premières Oeuvres – FNC 2025
At 46, Maren is living her best life. She’s killing her career as sportscaster, raising a resilient teenage daughter with her dream husband and finally, FINALLY loving and honoring her plus size body. But when a mysterious decades-old nude video of her goes viral online, she loses all that and so much more. Maren’s journey to rebuild her world… her marriage, her career, her reputation, her self-image and most crucially her relationship with her daughter… will take her in to an absurd subculture of Incels and Feminazis. It will trigger traumatic memories from her time as Judo champion. And it will force her to decide whether to act on her impulse for bloody revenge, continuing its vicious cycle…. Or choose another way.