Synopsis

SEASON 1

As once-BFFs Tara and Amy were inseparable. Tara was a reckless musician; Amy, a talented painter. As young twenty-somethings, their friendship was pure, unadulterated fun. But everything changed when Tara, following a period of depression, killed herself, leaving behind a shattered and heartbroken Amy.

Cut to present day: Tara has been dead for three years and Amy has seemingly moved on: she’s quit painting and is engaged to Mitchell, a nice, conservative guy. Suddenly, Tara appears, completely freaking Amy out. Tara challenges Amy on her new life, her past decisions and her future. Amy is left with the stunned realization that not only is her now ghost-BFF back from the dead but her past and future are about to collide. The tsunami that is Tara’s return forces Amy to take a hard look in the mirror and question who she is and where she’s going.

SEASON 2

Season 2 sees Amy newly single and broke after breaking up with her fiancé, Mitchell, and Tara still stuck on earth and needing to make amends with her mother in order to really pass on. When Amy receives some life-altering news, she needs Tara more than ever, and the two BFFs embark on individual journeys of self-acceptance and healing in order to finally, truly let each other go. 

THE TEAM

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Vanessa Matsui

Writer / Creator / Co-Director

Vanessa Matsui is a writer-actor-director from Toronto of Japanese descent. She created and stars in the short series Ghost BFF, Season 1 of which streamed on Elizabeth Bank's Whohaha.com and won Best Web Series at the LA Femme International Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Web Series at the Austin Film Festival and for two Canadian Screen Awards in 2019. She was selected as a 2019 Sundance New Voices Fellow where she developed Ghost BFF Season 2, which launched July 7 on KindaTV. Matsui also co-created Crankytown.ca (NFB), an interactive website about getting your first period that received a Gemini nomination for Best Digital Non-Fiction Program and features award-winning short films written and directed by Matsui. She is currently an advisor with Sundance Co//ab. As an actor, Matsui studied the Meisner technique with the late Jaqueline McClintock, and studied and performed as an improviser for 10 years in Montreal, most notably at the Just For Laughs Festival with The Bitter End (a serialized, completely improvised sitcom). Select acting credits include roles on Letterkenny (Hulu), Shadowhunters (Freeform), Schitt's Creek (CBC) and The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu). 

Babe Nation Films

Production Company

Babe Nation is a Toronto-based boutique production company that champions female voices and stories. Producers Katie Bird Nolan and Lindsay Tapscott specialize in the hands-on creative development and production of character-driven scripted content from a diverse slate of international filmmakers. Babe Nation’s debut feature film, The Rest of Us, premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival; the film was directed by Aisling Chin-Yee, written by Alanna Francis, and stars Heather Graham, Sophie Nélisse, Jodi Balfour and Abigail Pniowsky. Babe Nation's other projects include Calvin Thomas and Yonah Lewis's feature White Lie, which also premiered at TIFF 2019; a contemporary adaptation of the famous Françoise Sagan novel Bonjour Tristesse, written by Durga Chew-Bose (Too Much and Not the Mood, FSG Originals); Alice, Darling, the second feature from Alanna Francis (The Rest of Us, TIFF 2019); the digital series Ghost BFF, available on Whohaha and KindaTV; and a limited television series adaptation of the Kit Pearson YA novels The Sky Is Falling, Looking at the Moon and The Lights Go On Again. Katie is an alumna of the 2016 TIFF Producers Lab, and the 2018 TIFF Accelerator Lab, where she studied under veteran producer Cassian Elwes, and Lindsay is an alumna of the 2019 Rotterdam Producers Lab. In 2018, Babe Nation was named one of Playback's Top 5 to Watch, and in 2019, the company was nominated for the CMPA Emerging Producer Award.

Lindsay MacKay

Director

Lindsay MacKay is a writer/director. Wet Bum, her debut feature film, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was named a Top 10 Finalist in the prestigious Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition. It was nominated for Best First Feature and Best Lead Actress by the Vancouver Film Critics and won best debut at Alkino Film Festival in Poland, as well as Best Film by the international jury at CinéJeune de l'Aisne in France. Lindsay is a graduate of the Directing program at the AFI Conservatory, where she was granted the distinguished Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow and Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Awards. Her thesis film Clear Blue, won the esteemed College Television Award (the student Emmys), as well as the Shaw Media Fearless Female Director Award. Her work has screened at festivals worldwide, including TIFF, SXSW, AFI Fest and Camerimage. She is developing a feature version of Clear Blue (Mersea), which recently completed the TIFF Writers' Studio in 2019 and won the Post Control VFX Boost award at Cannes as part of the Frontieres Co-Production market. She divides her time between Toronto and LA.

Laura McMillan 

Editor

Laura McMillan is a Toronto-born freelance editor who has made a name for herself in both the advertising and music video industries. Most recently, she has ventured into editing the narrative world of film and has worked on various web series. Beginning her career as an eager-to-learn intern at a post-production house in Toronto, Laura worked her way up to editor through an undying passion for the craft. On her reel, you’ll see music videos for some of the world’s top artists, such as Drake, Rihanna, Eminem, City & Colour and Christina Aguilera. These works have won many awards and been featured on a wide range of global platforms—Drake’s “Hotline Bling” is Laura’s particular “claim to fame,” with over 1.6 billion views on YouTube. 

Season 1

Creator / Writer / Co-Director: Vanessa Matsui 

Producer / Co-Writer: Katie Bird Nolan 

Writer: (Let’s Talk About Our Feels): Katie Bird Nolan 

Director: Lindsay MacKay

Executive Producers: Ana Serrano, Vanessa Matsui 

Director of Photography: Ian MacMillan 

Editor: Shelley Therrien  

Production Designer: Brent Skagford 

Costume Design: Lindsay Jenner 

Hair & Makeup: Allison Sharpe 

Music: Score by Asher Lenz; songs by Kathleen Munroe and Lisa Savard-Quong  

Season 2

Creator / Writer / Co-Director: Vanessa Matsui 

Producers: Katie Bird Nolan, Lindsay Tapscott 

Writers (Let’s Talk About Our Feels): Katie Bird Nolan, Lindsay Tapscott 

Director: Lindsay MacKay

Executive Producer: Vanessa Matsui 

Director of Photography: Kieran Crilly 

Editor: Lindsay McMillan 

Production Designer: Hanna Puley 

Costume Design: Jess Sanchez 

Hair & Makeup: Andi Liga 

Music: Score by Asher Lenz; songs by Phédre, Kathleen Munroe, Denise De’ion, Brittany McQuinn, Wild Black, Featurette, Brave Moon, ZINNIA, Stephane Michel Huguenin, Erez Zobary and Blue Sky Miners