Casting Call: CFC - STORY - THE LAST AMOROUS GAZE

Casting calls list

Short Film

CFC - STORY - THE LAST AMOROUS GAZE

Details

Union:

Union or Non union

Area of media:

Short Film

Network:

Paid?:

Yes

Rates:

Unpaid as per agreement between CFC & ACTRA for an 8+1-hour shoot day and 4-hour rehearsal. Overtime paid as CIPIP-35%.

Deadline:

Sept 11, 2026

Shooting starts:

Oct 14, 2026

Shooting finishes:

Oct 15, 2026 2 Days and 4hrs of rehearsal on Oct 9 or 13

Shooting locations:

GTA

Cities for response:

Toronto

Comments

An Intimacy Co-ordinator will be engaged.

STORY films are 10-15 minute shorts from directors, producers and editors in the Norman Jewison Film Program at the Canadian Film Centre. The films are professionally produced in the fall, edited before the New Year, and submitted to the international festival circuit. Recent STORY films have premiered at TIFF, VIFF, CIFF, Fantasia and many more! This is a chance for actors to connect with Canada’s most exciting emerging talent, both on and off screen, and to collaborate with writer/directors on a piece that supports a feature film in development.

All booked cast will be invited to an Industry Screening in December.

Director's Bio
Giran Findlay Liu is a Chinese-Canadian writer-director based in Toronto. His work is characterized by intimate character studies exploring identity, alienation, and the desire to be understood, often blurring boundaries between social realism and the surreal. His films are about people who desperately want to connect, and that emotional distance is formalized through silence, ellipses, in order to create tension and mystery.

His films have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Palm Springs Shortfest, Hainan Island International Film Festival, Atlantic International Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, and the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. His short film Year of the Dragon earned two Canadian Screen Award wins for Best Live Action Short and Best Performance in Live Action Short. He is currently developing his first feature In the Winter of Breaking and Entering.

TONAL REFERENCE
Despite the strangeness of the situation, I am looking for performances that feel grounded, natural, and almost mundane. The characters behave like they’re having a normal afternoon together. Nobody acknowledges the strangeness of what is happening, or plays the situation as mysterious. The atmosphere of the film will come primarily through the visuals and sound design. The performances, by contrast, should be human and understated. The tension will emerge from what is left unsaid, pauses, glances, small gestures, rather than from overtly dramatic performances.

I am also looking to create a slow, hypnotic rhythm, almost like watching a dream unfold in real time. There should be a degree of patience and restraint to the performances, allowing moments to breathe rather than rushing to the next beat. The actors should feel comfortable inhabiting silence and letting a thought or emotion sit beneath the surface.

A key reference for me is Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, which operates like a ghost story while remaining firmly grounded in realism. The performances are deeply internal and the dialogue is delivered with an almost casual naturalism, yet through silences, glances, and small physical gestures, we can sense the enormous emotional turmoil underneath. Another important reference is David Lowery’s A Ghost Story. I am drawn to the restraint and stillness of the performances, and to the way emotion is allowed to accumulate gradually rather than being announced. The characters rarely tell us exactly what they are feeling. Instead, we experience their emotions through their presence, their behaviour, and the spaces they inhabit.

Ultimately, I want the performances to feel ordinary on the surface, but emotionally alive underneath. Despite the strange, dreamlike quality of the film, the performances should remain grounded.

Storyline

After letting the former owners of their new home inside for a nostalgic visit, a young couple find themselves drawn into an increasingly intimate encounter with them.

Daniel and Claire, a young couple who have recently moved into a new house, are surprised when an elderly couple arrives claiming to be its former owners. Having lived in the house for fifty years, John and Laura ask if they can come inside for a nostalgic look around. Much to Daniel’s dismay, Claire lets them in. As John and Laura wander through the house, reminiscing about the life they built there, their tenderness begins to affect Daniel and Claire.

As the afternoon progresses, the boundaries between the two couples, and past and present, begin to dissolve. When John and Laura reveal a secret room hidden beneath the house, Daniel and Claire discover something that forces them to confront their lack of intimacy, exposing something dormant in their own relationship.

Roles

Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Lead	CLAIRE	Female 30 - 40 Years old
Description Female, 30-40 years old, any ethnicity. Claire is warm, curious, and emotionally receptive. She has a natural openness toward other people and the world around her, which is why she is immediately fascinated when John and Laura arrive at the house. Where Daniel sees their presence as strange and intrusive, Claire is genuinely moved by their enduring romance. Their intimacy seems to represent something Claire feels is missing from her own relationship with Daniel. When she asks Daniel to kiss her the way John kissed Laura, it is playful on the surface, but there is a deeper yearning underneath it. As the afternoon progresses, she becomes increasingly frustrated by Daniel's discomfort and his desire to make them leave. To Claire, his resistance feels unnecessarily closed-off; she wants to be generous, to remain open to the strange and unexpected experience unfolding in front of them. There is perhaps something in this dynamic that speaks to the distance that has developed between them. At the same time, the intimacy of John and Laura inspires her to keep trying, because deep down she still has love for Daniel. Performance Reference: Rooney Mara in A Ghost Story. Claire should have a quiet openness that feels grounded and internal rather than performatively vivacious. She is not a social butterfly. Her warmth comes from a genuine curiosity and earnestness toward other people. Her invitation to John and Laura should feel spontaneous and sincere, which makes her fascination with them more meaningful. Intimacy requirement: Implied nudity. Performer will appear in her bra. In one scene Claire is unclothed, seated on a bed in near-darkness, and initiates and performs simulated intercourse with Daniel, straddling him and then continuing on her side. Kissing is also required in an earlier scene.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Lead	DANIEL	Male 30 - 40 Years old
Description Male, 30-40 years old, any ethnicity. Daniel is reserved and pragmatic, skeptical about the strange encounter with John and Laura. He doesn't understand why Claire has invited the elderly couple inside and becomes increasingly uncomfortable as they move further into the house. He’d rather continue with the quiet privacy of their day and dislikes having their routine interrupted. At the same time, he finds it difficult to assert himself in the moment, partly because he doesn't want to undermine Claire's generosity. There is a quiet vulnerability beneath Daniel's guarded exterior. His discomfort with John and Laura gradually exposes a deeper unease in his relationship with Claire: a sense that something between them has become stagnant, and that they have lost some of the intimacy they once shared. As he watches the elderly couple's openness and affection, Daniel is confronted with his own difficulty expressing what he needs. Daniel's performance should gradually move from skepticism, unease, and irritation toward vulnerability and surrender. The conflict and emotion should remain largely beneath the surface; even at his most uncomfortable, Daniel is quiet, restrained, and naturalistic. A performance reference would be Casey Affleck in A Ghost Story: a restrained, internalized performance where emotion is communicated primarily through behaviour, silence, and subtle shifts in expression rather than overt dialogue and external expression. Intimacy requirement: Implied nudity and simulated sex. Performer will appear topless. Daniel undresses in one scene. In another he is on a bed with Claire, who is unclothed, and performs simulated intercourse with her. Kissing is also required in an earlier scene.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Lead	LAURA	Female 70 - 80 Years old
Description Female, 70-80 years old, any ethnicity. Laura is one half of the elderly couple who arrive at the house claiming to be its former owners. Elegant and effortlessly put together, she carries herself with warmth and quiet confidence. She is polite and socially aware of what she is asking of the young couple, and never crosses the line. It is her kindness, as well as the history she shares with the house, that causes Claire to feel comfortable welcoming her inside. Having lived in the house for fifty years, Laura is filled with vivid memories of the life she and John shared there. She is nostalgic without being sentimental. She notices the smallest details: the light in the house, the wood panelling, the tree in the garden. Her relationship with John is physical and tender. They have the ease of people who have spent a lifetime together. Their affection should feel genuine and deeply lived-in, enough to make the young couple feel moved by what they are witnessing. Performance Reference: Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years. Laura is calm and dignified, never feeling the need to convince anyone of anything. She has a fundamentally kind nature, but is content to keep much of what she feels internal. Her warmth should come through in small gestures and subtle expressions rather than overt emotionality. Intimacy requirement: Kissing, slow dancing and sustained physical closeness with John, and slow dancing with Daniel. In one scene Laura lies fully clothed on a bed with John in a still embrace. No nudity.
Role type	Role	Gender & Age range
Lead	JOHN	Male 70 - 80 Years old
Description Male, 70-80 years old, any ethnicity. John is Laura’s husband and the former owner of the house. Distinguished and neatly dressed, he leans on a cane, carrying the physical signs of age with a quiet dignity. Like Laura, John is attached to the house and to the life they shared there. He is simply grateful to have the chance to walk through it again. Unlike Daniel, however, John is comfortable with emotion and physical affection. He takes Laura’s hand, kisses her, dances with her, and isn’t embarrassed by tenderness. There is also a mischievous quality to John. He enjoys drawing Claire and Daniel into the intimate world he and Laura have shared, gently testing their boundaries by inviting them to dance. His warmth should never feel performative or sentimental - it comes naturally to him. Performance Reference: Tom Courtenay in 45 Years. John should be calm and composed, with a slightly mischievous edge. His wistfulness is mostly in the eyes. There is no need to make a big show of his emotions. Intimacy requirement: Kissing, slow dancing and sustained physical closeness with Laura, and slow dancing with Claire. In one scene John lies fully clothed on a bed with Laura in a still embrace. No nudity.

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