TFS Alum Nico Marneris Nominated for CSC Student Cinematography Award
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Class of 2024 Film Production grad Nico Marneris has been nominated for a 2025 Student Cinematography Award by the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC).
The nomination comes in recognition of his work on The Man with the Iron Heart – a TFS FEST 2025 award-winning short film written and directed by his partner and fellow Toronto Film School alum Johana Abed.
“I had almost completely assumed that I was passed for (CSC) nomination because of how long ago we submitted the film, so when Johana called me to tell me the news, I couldn’t believe it. To tell you the truth I still can’t,” Marneris said of his inclusion in CSC Awards.
“It means a great deal to me personally and professionally, because I’ve always wanted to DoP.”
The Man with the Iron Heart
The Man with the Iron Heart tells the story of a strong, hardworking mother who explains her family’s painful past to her young daughter through a bedtime fantasy tale – helping her understand why she’s never met her father.
For Marneris, being able to help his girlfriend bring such a personal project to life was both a challenge and a privilege.
“Collaboration came with its ups and downs. Us being in a relationship, I was better able to attach and fully feel even the most subtle of emotional details she wanted to include and really immerse myself in her story,” he said.
“When it came to collaborating on the visual style, both of us had a lot of ideas that were able to work together and fit like a jigsaw.”
That shared vision led to creative choices such as shooting in 4:3 with a silhouetted look, using curtains to mask cuts, and relying on wide angles and extreme closeups to mimic the feel of illustrated storybook pages, he said.
A Cinderella Story
Marneris likened the sometimes-bumpy process of bringing The Man with the Iron Heart from page to screen as “something of a Cinderella story.” Originally slated for Term 5, he said the shoot had to be pushed multiple times due to budget challenges.
“Because the story was so important to Johana, I had to reassure her that it was better to push it back than to rush it and cheapen the way we told the story,” Nicolas recalled.
Eventually, in the late stages of Term 6, the team was able to secure enough resources to make it happen. They dove straight into production with the same trusted crew they’d grown alongside throughout their time at TFS.
“It definitely felt like we were all at our best on The Man with the Iron Heart,” Marneris said of the film’s crew. “I think we were all just happy to finally have been shooting it. Even before we wrapped set, we were talking about plans for post and distribution…the biggest goal being making our TFS screening.”
Despite having just two weeks to pull it off, the team was able to do just that – completing post-production just in time for the festival.
Winning Big at TFS FEST 2025
Those efforts – including heading into post the same night they wrapped filming – paid off.
The Man with the Iron Heart not only screened at the TIFF Lightbox during TFS FEST 2025, but it also earned two of the festival’s top honours – a Best Cinematography win for Marneris and Best Picture trophy for Abed.
Both wins came as a surprise to the couple – albeit well-deserved ones, Marneris said.
“We both felt like we put everything into the project and being able to win some awards for it felt very redeeming,” he said, “especially because there was a lot of doubt as to whether or not we could pull it off.”
TFS Takeaways & Life After Graduation
Reflecting on his time at TFS, Marneris credits the Film Production program with giving him the environment and opportunities he needed to grow. Film school, he said, is what you make of it – and he made sure to milk it for everything he could.
“What I needed from TFS was an environment without a ceiling, that allowed me the resources to keep pushing myself and to get on as many projects as I could and to network with many great people,” he said.
“Those are the areas I felt like I learnt best, and (they) have allowed me to join the difficult world of filmmaking not feeling completely lost and left out.”
Since graduating in 2024, Marneris has continued building his career in the film industry, taking on gaffer and key grip roles as a means of continuing his learning journey toward becoming a director of photography.
“I really feel like outside of DPing, I use gaffing to hone my skills for building shots,” he said. “I really enjoy focusing on lighting and learning new things on every set.”
Looking ahead, he’s excited to continue evolving his personal cinematographic style – one that emphasizes camera movement as an active participant in storytelling.
“To me, the camera is also a character in the scene, the character of the audience, and so when I approach how I want the shot to look I’m really thinking: how should it feel?” he explained, noting that he likes to shoot handheld and in longer takes in order to achieve that kind of cinematic impact.
“Being able to act with the camera alongside the cast in a scene is where I best feel I am able to apply this style.”
Words of Advice
For current and future TFS students hoping to pursue cinematography, Marneris’ advice is simple: stay persistent, stay flexible, and trust your instincts.
“For anyone who is going into cinematography specifically or who is thinking about it and doubting themselves, I get it. Everyone around me treated camera like it was a science you needed a degree for, but it isn’t,” he said. “Nothing formulaic makes a shot good – it all comes down to the eye and the gut, so trust yourself.”
He also encouraged those just starting out to not worry about breaking the rules – even the ones you set for yourself.
“At the start of this year, I made a lot of rules for myself and set a lot of expectations: ‘Don’t do low budget shorts,’ ‘Don’t do this position,’ ‘Don’t do jobs for free,’” he said.
“I have broken every one of those rules and expectations. Why? Because I needed to keep the ball rolling, whatever it took. Momentum matters most. Just keep the ball rolling.”
