Hallmark "A Winning Team"
The Hallmark Channel’s newest movie, “A Winning Team,” premieres on Saturday March 18, at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central. The movie stars Nadia Hatta and Kristoffer Polaha. Read on to learn all about where “A Winning Team” was filmed, along with the cast involved.
‘A Winning Team’ Was Filmed in Vancouver, Canada
Hallmark
“A Winning Team” was filmed in Vancouver, Canada, based on posts from the cast and others. The movie is a Timeless Picture production, which is a company based in Vancouver. The director of the movie, Jason Furukawa, is also located in Vancouver.
In an interview with Survived the Shows, Jovanna Burke shared that they filmed in Vancouver when it was snowing, even though the movie is supposed to take place in the spring.
“It was winter in Vancouver and there were epic snowstorms while we shot this, and of course we shot a lot of it outside, so it was interesting for the crew who was trying to portray ‘spring’ weather for our exterior scenes,” she recalled. “When we were shooting the party scene at Sheila’s house, the outdoor fountain was completely frozen, and the crew had to heat it up so that we looked like we were enjoying a warm spring day.”
She said they spent a lot of time in warming tents, since the children had to play soccer in shorts even though it was so cold outside.
The movie’s writer, Ronee Uyeshiro, shared this photo during filming.
Actress Marci T. House, who plays Coach Avila in the movie, shared an Instagram post while she was at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, and reminisced about her old love for sports. She mentioned that it was “wrap day” on December 15, and tagged “A Winning Team” in her post.
Both Juliette Hawk and Niki Garcia, who play Izzy and Ava in the movie, are located in Vancouver.
Hawk wrote in a post, “I had so much fun on this set getting to play soccer and meeting a bunch of new friends!”
Meet the Cast
Hallmark’s synopsis reads:
After getting fired for lack of sportsmanship, professional soccer player Emily Chen (Hatta) travels home to spend some much-needed downtime with her widowed brother. When she accidentally injures her niece Ava’s coach, Ian Vermette (Polaha), she covers for him and leads Ava’s team into the playoffs. With a shot at the championship at stake, Emily and Ian’s differing coaching styles threaten their objective, but as they begin to warm up to each other on and off the field, they each make strides toward healing old wounds. But when Emily gets an offer from her old coach to return, their romantic relationship is threatened. Can these two get back on the same team before the big game?
Nadia Hatta plays Emily. According to her bio, she starred as Mei Chen in the Netflix series “Away,” which has been ranked among Netflix’s Top 10 original series. She had a starring role in the travel program “Fun Taiwan,” which won the Golden Bell Award and was shown on Discovery Channel and had more than 2 billion viewers. The drama-mystery television series “Head Above Water” has reoccurring appearances by Hatta. She currently lives in Canada.
Kristoffer Polaha plays Ian. According to his bio, Polaha is well known for his role in “Life Unexpected” on The CW. Most recently, he had recurring roles on “Get Shorty,” “Condor,” and and “Buried in Barstow” last year. Before that, Polaha co-starred with Rainn Wilson in the Fox show “Backstrom.” Over the past 10 years, he has also been in a number of other TV shows, such as “North Shore,” “Miss Guided,” “Made in Jersey,” “Ringer,” and “Valentine.” He also had a recurring role on the popular show “Mad Men” for several seasons. Polaha is also known for his many leading roles in original movies for Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. He most recently starred in “We Wish You a Married Christmas” for Hallmark Channel and will star in “A Biltmore Christmas” for the network this year.
Also starring in the movie, per Hallmark’s press statement, are:
- Niki Garcia (Ava )
- Raugi Yu (Brandon )
- Hailey Ocean Webb (Alicia )
- Juliette Hawk (Izzy )
- Jovanna Burke (Sheila )
- Veronica Long (Maya )
- Marci T. House (Coach Avila )
- Adil Zaidi (Dion )
- Samantha Ferris (Sandra )
- Gemma Martini (Referee )
- Morgana Wyllie (Noor )
- Peter Strand Rumpel (Trivia Host )
- Antonio Cupo (Anchor #1 )
- Kate Gajdosik (Anchor #2 )
- Marcel Zadé (Matteo )
- Mathew Yanagiya (Arlo )
- Tyson Dornn (Captain )
- Shannon Cooney (Woman )
- Samuel Rook (The Clown )
- Chad Sayn (Stunt Co -Ord )
- Yu Matsushita (Emily Stunt )
- Andrew Prest (Ian Stunt )
- Matt Yanagiya (Arlo Stunt )
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