80 Canadian Filmmakers
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- Director
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David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early age (he wrote and published eerie short stories, thus following his father's path) and for music (playing classical guitar until he was 12), Cronenberg graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Literature after switching from the science department. He reached the cult status of horror-meister with the gore-filled, modern-vampire variations of Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), following an experimental apprenticeship in independent film-making and in Canadian television programs.
Cronenberg gained popularity with the head-exploding, telepathy-based Scanners (1981) after the release of the much underrated, controversial, and autobiographical The Brood (1979). Cronenberg become a sort of a mass media guru with Videodrome (1983), a shocking investigation of the hazards of reality-morphing television and a prophetic critique of contemporary aesthetics. The issues of tech-induced mutation of the human body and topics of the prominent dichotomy between body and mind were back again in The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly (1986), both bright examples of a personal film-making identity, even if both films are based on mass-entertainment materials: the first being a rendition of a Stephen King best-seller, the latter a remake of a famous American horror movie.
With Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991), the Canadian director, no more a mere genre movie-maker but a fully realized auteur, got the acclaim of international critics. Such profound statements on modern humanity and ever-changing society are prominent in the provocative Crash (1996) and in the virtual reality essay of eXistenZ (1999), both of which well fared at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. In the last two film projects Spider (2002) and A History of Violence (2005), Cronenberg avoids expressing his teratologic and oneiric expressionism in favor of a more psychological exploration of human contradictions and idiosyncrasies.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Born in Egypt to Armenian parents, he was raised in Western Canada. Both his parents were painters, and he planned to be a playwright, but after making a short film, he became hooked on telling stories visually. Returned to ethnic "homeland" when he filmed Calendar (1993) in Armenia. Won attention at the Sundance Film Festival for earlier work, then broke through critically and commercially with Exotica (1994). Afterwards, The Sweet Hereafter (1997) led him to receive two Academy Award nominations, and then Chloe (2009) became his biggest moneymaker ever (after the film's DVD/Blu-ray release).- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Michel Brault was born on 25 June 1928 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Of Whales, the Moon, and Men (1963), Orders (1974) and Threshold (1981). He died on 21 September 2013 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
One of Québec's most politically aware filmmakers, Denys Arcand studied history at Université de Montréal, where he co-directed Seul ou avec d'autres (1962) with Denis Héroux and co-written with Stéphane Venne. He joined the National Film Board (NFB) in 1963, where his feature-length documentary on the textile industry, On est au coton (1970), was so controversial it was suppressed for 6 years. He made another fine documentary, Québec: Duplessis et après... (1972), before leaving the NFB for the private sector. La maudite galette (1972), Réjeanne Padovani (1973) and Gina (1975) were distinctive views of Québec society, original and provocative. All 3 used the gangster film as a source while distorting many of its conventions. He then moved to TV, scripting the Duplessis (1978) series for Radio-Canada and directing 3 episodes of Empire, Inc. (1983). He returned to the NFB to make a documentary on the 1980 referendum, Le confort et l'indifférence (1982), which revealed growing cynicism about the political process. It won the Québec Critics Prize.
He returned to commercial filmmaking after a hiatus of 10 years with The Crime of Ovide Plouffe (1984), before achieving major success with the scathing comedy about sexual mores, The Decline of the American Empire (1986) (The Decline of the American Empire), a film that won numerous prizes, including the prestigious Critic's Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The New York Film Critics voted it Best Foreign Film in 1986 and it won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 1987 Genies. It was also nominated as Best Foreign Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. Jesus of Montreal (1989) confirmed Arcand's international reputation, winning the Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It won 10 Genies, including Best Picture and Director, and was nominated in the Best Foreign Film category by the Academy. Arcand then moved into English-language production in an attempt to break into a larger international market. Love and Human Remains (1993), his first feature in English, was followed by Stardom (2000), a film that looked at the world of fashion. Neither achieved the subtlety and texture of his earlier work.
The overwhelming success of The Barbarian Invasions (2003), which marked both a return to the French language and to the characters who had peopled The Decline of the American Empire (1986), showed that Arcand had lost none of his powers of observation. The film won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival (best screenplay, and best actor for Marie-Josée Croze), Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and the prestigious Oscar for Best Foreign Film. In 2005 Arcand was named Companion of the Order of Canada, which recognizes individuals for exceptional achievements of national or international significance.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
He finished his medical studies at the age of 22 to please his parents, but he was already developing an attraction to the visual arts and to cinema. As a teenager, he had made two shorts with Michel Brault. In 1953, he wrote a television script. He joined the Office national du film du Canada (National Film Board) in 1954. After his first feature film was made in 1958, he went to France, where he worked with both François Truffaut and Jean Rouch. In the 1960s, he became involved in the 'cinema direct' movement, once again back in Quebec. In 1971, he directed My Uncle Antoine (1971), nearly unanimously believed to be his best work, as well as one of the greatest works of the Canadian cinema. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Jutra worked mostly in Toronto, where funding was easier come by. He began to suffer from a severe case of early-onset Alzheimer's and, given his knowledge of the condition due to his medical training, chose to take his own life. Just as the character he created in Take It All (1963), Jutra drowned himself in the freezing waters of the St. Lawrence River. His body was not recovered until the following spring.- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Jean-Marc Vallée was a Canadian filmmaker, editor and screenwriter from Montreal. He directed Black List, C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria, Wild, Dallas Buyers Club, Los Locos, Loser Love and Café de Flore. He also created the HBO shows Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. He was married to Chantal Cadieux and had two sons. He passed away on Christmas Day 2021.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), and Incendies (2010). He is married to Tanya Lapointe.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Robert Lepage is one of the foremost stage directors today and a leading figure in the Canadian avant garde, attracting particular attention for his multimedia-rich theatrical presentations as well as his innovative work with Shakespearian drama and opera.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his screenwriting ambition. He landed his first professional film job as art director, miniature-set builder, and process-projection supervisor on Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) and had his first experience as a director with a two week stint on Piranha II: The Spawning (1982) before being fired.
He then wrote and directed The Terminator (1984), a futuristic action-thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton. It was a low budget independent film, but Cameron's superb, dynamic direction made it a surprise mainstream success and it is now regarded as one of the most iconic pictures of the 1980s. After this came a string of successful, bigger budget science-fiction action films such as Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). In 1990, Cameron formed his own production company, Lightstorm Entertainment. In 1997, he wrote and directed Titanic (1997), a romance epic about two young lovers from different social classes who meet on board the famous ship. The movie went on to break all box office records and earned eleven Academy Awards. It became the highest grossing movie of all time until 12 years later, Avatar (2009), which invented and pioneered 3D film technology, and it went on to beat "Titanic", and became the first film to cost two billion dollars until 2019 when Marvel took the record.
James Cameron is now one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood. He was formerly married to producer Gale Anne Hurd, who produced several of his films. In 2000, he married actress Suzy Amis, who appeared in Titanic, and they have three children.- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Paul Haggis established himself over twenty years with an extensive career in television, before his big break into features arrived when he became the first screenwriter to garner two Best Film Academy Awards back-to-back for his scripts: "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) directed by Clint Eastwood, and "Crash" (2005) which Paul directed himself.
In 2006, among others, Haggis penned two Clint Eastwood productions, "Flags of our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima," for which he earned his third Best Screenplay Oscar nomination. He also co-wrote "Casino Royale," which garnered considerable acclaim for reinvigorating the James Bond spy franchise.
In 2007, Haggis wrote, directed, and produced "In the Valley of Elah." The film starred Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon, and earned Jones a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance.
In 2010, his film "The Next Three Days" was released, starring Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson, and Elizabeth Banks.
And in 2013 he wrote and directed the romantic, personal drama "Third Person," which starred Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, James Franco, and Kim Basinger.
Most recently, Haggis directed and executive produced all six episodes of the HBO mini-series "Show Me A Hero," starring Oscar Isaac, Catherine Keener, Winona Ryder, James Belushi, and Alfred Molina.
Currently, Haggis is co-directing a feature length documentary on the AIDS crisis in San Francisco, called "5B."
Equally committed to his private and social concerns, Haggis is the founder of Artists for Peace and Justice. Under this umbrella, many of his friends in the film business have come forward to major build schools and clinics serving the children of the slums of Haiti (www.APJNow.org).- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Norman Jewison was an award-winning, internationally acclaimed filmmaker who produced and directed some of the world's most memorable, entertaining and socially important films, exploring controversial and complicated subjects and giving them a universal accessibility. Some of his most well-known works include the pre-glasnost political satire The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, the original The Thomas Crown Affair, the groundbreaking civil rights-era drama In the Heat of the Night (winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture), the first rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, the futuristic cult hit Rollerball, hit musical comedy-drama Fiddler on the Roof, the romantic comedy Moonstruck, the courtroom drama ...And Justice For All, the military drama A Soldier's Story, the labor movement picture F.I.S.T., the war dramas The Statement and In Country, and the masterfully told story of Reuben 'Hurricane' Carter, The Hurricane, among many others.
Jewison was personally nominated for four Oscars and received three Emmy Awards; his films received 46 nominations and won 12 Academy Awards. In 1999, Jewison received the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards.
In Canada, his life's work has been recognized with the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, and he was named a Member of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the Order of Ontario and a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour. In 2010, Jewison was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America.
Jewison was committed to advancing the art of storytelling and filmmaking, both through his groundbreaking films, and through his creation of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) in 1986, which opened its doors in Toronto in 1988. The CFC is a charitable cultural organization which drives the future of Canadian storytelling.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Canadian producer and director Ivan Reitman created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which introduced John Belushi to American filmgoers, and the family features Beethoven (1992) and Beethoven's 2nd (1993). His directing credits include Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), films starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis; Dave (1993), which starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, Junior (1994) which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Emma Thompson. Reitman also produced the HBO telefilm The Late Shift (1996), based on Bill Carter's non-fiction book about the late-night television wars which received seven Emmy nominations. Other producing endeavors include Commandments (1997), starring Aidan Quinn and Courteney Cox, Private Parts (1997), starring Howard Stern, as well as the animation/live action film Space Jam (1996), starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters. With Twins (1988), Reitman created an entirely new comedic persona for action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and forged a personal and professional relationship that continued with Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Junior (1994). Acclaimed dramatic actors such as Robert Redford, Debra Winger, Sigourney Weaver, and Emma Thompson also revealed untapped comic talents under Reitman's direction. In 1984, Reitman was honored as Director of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners and the next year received a Special Achievement Award at the Canadian Genie awards. In 1979 and again in 1989, for the films National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Twins (1988), Reitman was honored with the People's Choice Award. In November of 1994, Reitman became the third director honored by Variety magazine in a special Billion Dollar Director issue.
Reitman was born in Czechoslovakia, to Jewish Holocaust survivors, and left with his family for Canada at the age of four. He attended Canada's McMaster University, where he produced and directed several television shorts. He followed with a live television show, Greed: The Series (1999), with Dan Aykroyd as its announcer. "Spellbound," which Reitman produced for the live stage, evolved into the Broadway hit "The Magic Show," starring Doug Henning. He continued producing for the stage with the Off-Broadway hit "The National Lampoon Show," and returned to Broadway to produce and direct the musical "Merlin," earning a Tony nomination for directing. Reitman headed The Montecito Picture Company, a film and television production company, with partner Tom Pollock. His television credits included the Emmy-nominated children's show The Real Ghostbusters (1986) and the Saturday morning animated series Beethoven (1994) for CBS. His last directing credited was Draft Day (2014), before his death in February 2022 in Montecito, California.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Jason Reitman is a Canadian filmmaker and producer who notably directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Juno, Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air, Young Adult and Tully. He produced Chloe and Jennifer's Body, two films that advanced Amanda Seyfried's career for adult oriented roles. He is the son of Ivan Reitman, who directed the first two Ghostbusters films and Twins.- Director
- Writer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Born in Montreal, Québec, Pierre Perrault went to law school before turning is attention to the cinema. Concerned more by real life then fiction, he makes movies in the 'cinéma direct' style. He filmed real people in real life situations listening to what they have to say and looking at how they do things. He is also a poet and a writer.- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Lauzon came from a humble family and he worked in many different jobs, until he obtained a title in Communications, and went to Los Angeles to study cinema, in the late 70s. He made some shortcuts, the majority of which received awards, and then two films which also won many prizes and established him as one of the most important Canadian directors of the time. He was preparing his third film when he died, with his girlfriend, Marie-Soleil Tougas, in a plane crash.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Charles Binamé was born in 1949 in Herve, Belgium. He is a director and actor, known for Le coeur au poing (1998), The Rocket (2005) and Elephant Song (2014).- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
François Girard was born in Quebec in 1963. Best known for his movie writing and directing (Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould, The red Violin, Silk...), Girard also directed a number of plays and operas including PARSIFAL at the Metropolitan Opera. He also wrote and directed two Cirque du Soleil shows; Zed and Zarkana.
In 1993, his feature film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould would go on to garner international success including four top Genie Awards. Five years later he directed The Red Violin which received an Academy Award for best original score and enshrined Girard as an important player on the international movie scene. The film also won eight Genie Awards and nine Jutra Awards. SILK, which he directed, was adapted from Alessandro Baricco's best-selling book, and was released worldwide in 2007 and received four Jutra Awards.
Girard's 1994 concert film Peter Gabriel's Secret World became a best selling film and earned him a Grammy Award. A few years later he directed one of the six episodes of the internationally acclaimed series Yo-yo Ma Inspired by Bach.
In 1997, François Girard made his opera directorial debut with Oedipus rex / Symphony of Psalms by Stravinsky and Cocteau which received numerous awards and was named by The Guardian "the best theatrical show of the year. Other opera works include Lost Objects for the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Wagner's Siegfried; the Flight of Lindbergh / Seven deadly Sins from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht; as well as Kaija Saariaho's Émilie. His most recent opera work is Parsifal which earned him and the Metropolitan Opera Company a remarkable critical success.
For the stage, Girard also directed Alessandro Barrico's Novecento; Kafka's Trial and Yasushi Inoue's Hunting Gun. He is currently working on a new production of Waiting for Godot.
Girard is a three-time winner of the much-coveted Herald Angel Award for Best Production at the Edinburgh Festival.
In recent years, Cirque du Soleil's commissioned Girard to write and direct ZED, their first permanent show in Tokyo; and Zarkana which opened at Radio City Music Hall, played at the Kremlin Theatre and has become a resident show in Las Vegas.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
A distant relative of Herman and Joseph Mankiewicz, Francis was born in Shangaï in 1944. In 1945, his family moved to Montreal, where Francis would spend all his childhood. In the sixties, he graduated in Geology from Montreal University and worked in the woods for a while before realizing geology might not be his true calling. In 1966 he enrolled at the 'London School of Film Technique'. Back in Montréal in 1968, he worked as assistant director on commercial films like 'L'Amour humain' and 'Love is a four-letter word'.
In 1972, he directed his first fiction movie 'Le Temps d'une chasse', a character study based on his own screenplay and partly inspired by his days as geologist. The film was well received by critics and was presented at the Venice Film Festival. But it was only in 1978 that Mankiewicz directed his second picture 'Une Amie d'enfance', a dramatic comedy from a theater play by Louis Saïa and Louise Roy.
1980 saw the release of his third film, 'Les Bons débarras', an original screenplay by maverick novelist Réjean Ducharme. As soon as it came out, the film was considered a milestone in Québécois cinema, a reputation that time hasn't tarnished. The film swept the Genie awards, taking eight trophees including best film and best director while actress Marie Tifo's interpretation of the main character won the Silver Hugo at Chicago Film Festival.
Once again written by Réjean Ducharme, Mankiewicz's next film, 'Les Beaux souvenirs' (1981), was eagerly awaited and shared obvious similarities with 'Les Bons débarras' in themes and approach. Unfortunately, while some critics expressed enthousiasm, the global reaction was lukewarm.
Between 1983 and 1985, Mankiewicz worked on an adaptation of Anne Hébert's novel 'Les Fous de Bassan', but left the project after heavy frictions with the producers. The film was eventually made with Yves Simoneau at the helm. Mankiewicz, for his part, was hired by CBC producer Bernard Zuckerman to direct 'And Then you die', an atmospheric thriller that won two Gemini TV awards. During those years he also directed Sam Shepard's play 'Comme une vue' in Montréal, his sole venture in the theater world.
Based on a novel by Jacques Savoie adaptated by Savoie and Mankiewicz, 'Les Portes tournantes' was premiered at Cannes Film festival in 1988 in section 'Un Certain Regard'. It was distinguished by the Oecumenical jury and drew favourable notices before winning two Genies.
Mankiewicz then teamed up again with Bernard Zuckerman on two mini-series : 'Love and hate' (1990) and 'Conspiracy of Silence' (1991). Written by Suzette Couture and focusing on real life criminal cases, they both performed very well at the Geminis, winning respectively 5 and 7 trophees, each time including best dramatic mini-series and best direction.
Those were to be Mankiewicz last films. In August 1993, he died unexpectedly of cancer at age 49. In his work, Mankiewicz often focused on family in crisis, relations between adults and children, echoes from the past. His premature death was a great loss for Canadian and Québécois cinema. Remain 'les beaux souvenirs' !- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Deepa Mehta is a transnational artist and a screenwriter, director, and producer whose work has been called "courageous", "provocative" and "breathtaking". Her visually lush and emotionally resonating films have played at every major international film festival; receiving numerous awards and accolades, and have been distributed around the world. Deepa was born in India and received a degree in philosophy from the University of New Delhi before immigrating to Canada. She began her career making documentaries in India.
In 1991, Deepa's first feature film Sam & Me, which stars Om Puri, won a Special Jury Mention in the Camera D'Or section at the Cannes Film Festival. Between 1992-1994 she directed two episodes of The Young Indiana Jones, produced by George Lucas for ABC. In 1993, Deepa directed her second feature film Camilla, a Canada-UK co-pro starring Jessica Tandy, Bridget Fonda, Elias Koteas, Maury Chaykin, Graham Greene, and Hume Cronyn. Fire, which Deepa wrote and directed, is the first film in her Elemental Trilogy (Fire, Earth, Water). Fire opened Perspective Canada at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was runner-up for the People's Choice Most Popular Film Award. It played at the New York Film Festival and won many awards worldwide, including the Audience Award for Best Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Festival, the Special Jury Prize at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival and Silver Hugo Awards for Best Direction and Best Actress in Chicago.
Earth, based on Bapsi Sidhwa's acclaimed novel about Partition, Cracking India, is the second film in the Elemental Trilogy. It premiered as a Special Presentation at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival, and won the Prix Premiere du Public at the Festival du Film Asiatique de Deauville and the Critics' Award at the Verona Schermi d'Amore International Film Festival. Bollywood/Hollywood was a change of pace. Written and directed by Deepa, it is a lighthearted, affectionate comedy about two mismatched lovers. It opened Perspective Canada at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and was a tremendous crossover box office success. It remains one of the top 10 grossing English language Canadian movies. In 2003 Deepa co-wrote and directed the Canada-UK co-pro The Republic of Love, based on a Carol Shields novel.
After a disrupted and hazardous production history Deepa's final film in the Elemental Trilogy Water opened the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, and was the first Canadian film acquired by US distributor Fox Searchlight. Water is a powerful, hauntingly tragic story, set in Benares (Varanasi) about a child widow who at the age of eight is forced to enter a house of widows where she has to live for the rest of her life. The movie was to have been shot in India in 2000, but Hindu fundamentalists fomented riots, burnt sets, and issued death threats against the director and actors, forcing production to shut down and the filmmakers to leave the country. Water was successfully remounted in Sri Lanka and completed shooting in June 2004, and features many of India's most renowned actors.
Water was an enormous success. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Annual Academy Awards, and has screened at festivals around the world, winning many awards, and remains an audience favourite. The Vancouver Film Critics Circle named Deepa Mehta the Best Canadian Director of 2006. This fall (2015) is the 10th anniversary of Water's launch.
In 2006 Deepa made a documentary about domestic violence in Toronto's immigrant families called Let's Talk About It, which continues to be used in community outreach programs. She then thematically segued into the feature film Heaven On Earth, which explores arranged marriages and isolation. Starring Preity Zinta, the film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008. It was awarded a Silver Hugo for Best Actress at the Chicago International Film Festival, and received the Best Screenplay Award at the Dubai International Film Festival. It also won the Youth Jury Award at the Schermi d'Amore Film Festival in Verona and the Audience Award at the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival.
In 2012, Deepa completed her epic cinematic adaptation of Salman Rushdie's famous novel about the history of India in the 20th century, Midnight's Children. A novel that won three Booker prizes. The movie, with 127 speaking parts, and covering five distinct time periods from 1917-1977, was a vast, ambitious undertaking and has screened all over the world, including the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival. Midnight's Children was chosen as the Best Feature Film of 2013 at the Directors Guild of Canada's Awards.
Deepa's work as an artist, as a progressive voice about social issues, and her generous mentorship have often been recognized. She has received numerous honorary degrees and many awards and honours, among them: The Life of Distinction Award from the Canadian Centre of Diversity, The Excellence in the Arts Award from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and the Woman of Distinction, President's Award from the YMCA. She is a recipient of the Governor General's Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Film. Most recently, in 2013, Deepa was appointed as an officer to the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour, for her work as a "groundbreaking screenwriter, director, and producer." She is also a recipient of the province of Ontario's highest honour, the Order of Ontario.- Producer
- Director
- Animation Department
Norman McLaren is one of the most awarded filmmakers in the history of Canadian cinema, and a pioneer in both animation and filmmaking. Born in Scotland, he entered the Glasgow School of Fine Arts in 1932 to study set design. His early experiments in animation included actually scratching and painting the film stock itself, as he did not have ready access to a camera. In the early 30s he worked as a cameraman in Scotland and England, and in 1936 went to Spain to film the Civil War. He emigrated to the US in 1939, aware that war was imminent, and in 1941, at the invitation of John Grierson, he moved to Canada to work for the National Film Board.
McLaren made several propaganda films for the NFB, but continued develop his experimental work in his spare time. He later founded the animation department at the NFB, where he was at his most prolific. His most famous work, Neighbours (1952), utilized a style of animation known as pixilation, where the camera films moving people and objects a few frames at a time, giving the action a frantic, unearthly look. The short film won McLaren an Oscar. He continued to use a variety of styles and techniques on his animated shorts, including the optical editor to film _Pas de Deux (1968)_, filming through a prism for _Line: Horizontal (1962)_ and also using live action featuring himself in Opening Speech (1960).
In addition to film, McLaren worked with UNESCO in the 50s and 60s on programs to teach film and animation techniques in China and India. His five part "Animated Motion" shorts, produced in the late 70s, are an excellent example of instruction on the basics of film animation.
McLaren died in 1987, leaving behind a lasting legacy to the film and animation world. The Canadian Film Board recognized this in 1989 by naming the CFB head office building the Norman McLaren Building.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Jean Beaudin was born on 6 February 1939 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was a director and writer, known for J.A. Martin photographe (1977), Souvenirs intimes (1999) and Le matou (1985). He was married to Domini Blythe and Manon Béatrice. He died on 18 May 2019 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.- Director
- Producer
- Art Director
Daniel Grou was born on 19 August 1967 in Québec, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for 10½ (2010), Cardinal (2017) and Minuit, le soir (2005).- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Advertising studies at the Ecole des Beaux-arts de Montreal. Start the book edition company 'Les Editions de l'hexagone' with the poet Gaston Miron where he wrote litterature and cinema's reviews. In 1955, he began working in graphic arts at Radio-Canada still writing reviews in some newspaper. He is engaged as a researcher at the Office national du film du Canada in 1960. It's not long before he becane a director (1961) in documentaries. He create his first fiction film in 1964 with a short film Solange dans nos campagnes. He likes working with his consort as his leading actress; ex. Carole Laure or Chloé Sainte-Marie- Art Department
- Animation Department
- Director
Frédéric Back was born on 8 April 1924 in Saarbrücken, Germany. He was a director, known for The Man Who Planted Trees (1987), Crac (1980) and The Mighty River (1993). He was married to Ghylaine Paquin. He died on 24 December 2013 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.- Art Department
- Director
- Producer
Vincenzo Natali was born on 6 January 1969 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Cube (1997), In the Tall Grass (2019) and Cypher (2002).- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Louis Bélanger was born in 1964 in Beauport, Quebec, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for Post Mortem (1999), Gaz Bar Blues (2003) and Vivre à 100 milles à l'heure (2019).- Editor
- Director
- Writer
Gilles Groulx was born on 30 May 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an editor and director, known for Où êtes-vous donc? (1969), Entre tu et vous (1970) and Au pays de Zom (1983). He died on 22 August 1994 in Longueuil, Québec, Canada.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Robert Morin was born on 20 May 1949 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for The 4 Soldiers (2013), 3 histoires d'Indiens (2014) and Requiem for a Handsome Bastard (1992).- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Léa Pool was born on 8 September 1950 in Genève, Switzerland. She is a director and writer, known for Set Me Free (1999), The Passion of Augustine (2015) and La femme de l'hôtel (1984).- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Christian Duguay was born in 1957 in Outremont, Québec, Canada. He is a director and assistant director, known for Human Trafficking (2005), A Bag of Marbles (2017) and The Art of War (2000).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Yves Simoneau was born on 28 October 1955 in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for Dans le ventre du dragon (1989), Napoléon (2002) and The 4400 (2004).- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Pierre Falardeau was born on 28 December 1946 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was a director and actor, known for Elvis Gratton (1981), February 15, 1839 (2001) and Le party (1990). He was married to Manon Leriche. He died on 25 September 2009 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Xavier Dolan was born on 20 March 1989 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for I Killed My Mother (2009), Tom at the Farm (2013) and Heartbeats (2010).- Director
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After studying Canadian politics and international relations, Philippe Falardeau was chosen in 1993 as a contestant for the popular TV series La course destination monde (1988) (a contest were the participants tour the world making short films). There, he shot 20 films and ended up winning the race as well as the IDRC Award.
In 1995, he collaborated with director Jacques Godbout to co-write Le sort de l'Amérique (1997) a National Film Board of Canada documentary.
Two years later, he returned to the NBF to direct a medium length documentary on Chinese immigration in Canada, called Pâté chinois (1997). The film was presented at the Montreal World Film Festival and won Best Screenplay Award at the Yorkton Film Festival.
In 2000, he directed his first theatrical feature film, La moitié gauche du frigo (2000) (The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge). The film was a big success in Canada, and screened in numerous festivals around the world including Rotterdam, London, Paris, Seattle, Vancouver and Montreal. At the Toronto Film Festival, La Moitie gauche du frigo won the City TV Award for Best Canadian First Feature and at the Canadian Genie, the Claude Jutra Award. In France, the film was distributed theatrically by Pierre Grise Distribution.
With Congorama (2006), released in 2006, Falardeau made his second feature length film, a Canada/Belgium/France coproduction. Distributed theatrically in Quebec as in Europe, the film rapidly won audience's and critique's hearts, and remarkably distinguished itself at the numerous festivals at which it was presented. After being premiered at the Director's Fortnight in Cannes, as the closing night film, "Congorama" made its way to San Francisco, Toronto, Pusan, Goteborg and to New Directors / New Films at New York Moma. In addition to earning 5 Jutra's Awards, including Best Film, Best Direction and Best Screenplay, it also won the Best Screenplay Award at the Genies in 2007.
In September 2008, his third feature It's Not Me, I Swear! (2008) (English title: It's Not Me, I Swear!) premiered at the TIFF. It won the Best Film Award and the International Jury Award in the Generation section at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival.- Director
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Francis Leclerc was born in 1971 in Québec City, Québec, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for Mémoires affectives (2004), Le plongeur (2023) and Les beaux malaises (2014).- Director
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Ricardo Trogi was born in 1971. He is a director and actor, known for Québec-Montréal (2002), The Year I Became a Liar (2009) and 1991 (2018). He is married to Anne-Karine Gauthier.- Director
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Roger Spottiswoode was born on 5 January 1945 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for 48 Hrs. (1982), The 6th Day (2000) and Shoot to Kill (1988). He was previously married to Holly Palance.- Director
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Arthur Hiller was born on 22 November 1923 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was a director and producer, known for Love Story (1970), The Hospital (1971) and See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989). He was married to Gwen Hiller. He died on 17 August 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
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Guy Maddin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Herdis Maddin (a hair-dresser) and Charles "Chas" Maddin (grain clerk and general manager of the Maroons, a Winnipeg hockey team). Maddin studied economics at the University of Winnipeg, working as a bank manager, house painter, and photographic archivist before becoming a film-maker. Maddin produced his first film in 1985, and since then his distinctive style of recreating and renovating silent film conventions and international critical acclaim have made him one of Canada's most celebrated directors. In 2003, Maddin also expanded his career to become an author and an installation artist.- Director
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Bruce McDonald was born on 28 May 1959 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for Pontypool (2008), Dance Me Outside (1994) and Highway 61 (1991).- Actress
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Sarah Polley is an actress and director renowned in her native Canada for her political activism. Blessed with an extremely expressive face that enables directors to minimize dialog due to her uncanny ability to suggest a character's thoughts, Polley has become a favorite of critics for her sensitive portraits of wounded and conflicted young women in independent films.
She was born into a show business family: her stepfather, Michael Polley, appeared with her in the movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) and on the television series Avonlea (1990); and her mother, Diane Polley, was an actress and casting director. It was her mother's connections that launched Sarah, at her own insistence, on an acting career at the age of four, following in the footsteps of her older half-brother Mark Polley. A second half-brother, John Buchan, is a casting director and producer.
Her career as a child actress shifted into high gear when she was cast as the Cockney waif Jody Turner in Lantern Hill (1989), for which she won a Gemini Award, the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy, in 1992. Produced by Kevin Sullivan, the film was based on the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables (1985). When Sullivan created a television series based on Montgomery's work, he cast Polley in the lead role of Sara Stanley in Avonlea (1990). The series propelled Polley into the first rank of Canadian TV stars and made her independently wealthy by the age of fourteen.
Her personal life was deeply affected by the death of her mother Diane from cancer shortly after her 11th birthday, a development that ironically paralleled the fictional life of her character Sara. Highly intelligent and politically progressive at a young age, Polley eventually rebelled against what she felt was the Americanization of the series after it was picked up by the Disney Channel for distribution in the US, eventually dropping out of the show. Though she does not blame her parents, she remains publicly disenchanted over the loss of her childhood and, in October 2003, said she is working on a script about a twelve-year-old girl on a TV show.
Polley, who picked up a second Gemini Award for her performance in the TV series Straight Up (1996), subsequently quit acting and high school to turn her attention to politics, positioning herself on the extreme left of Canada's left-of-center New Democratic Party. The publicity ensuing from her losing some teeth after being slugged by an Ontario policeman during a protest against the Conservative provincial government, plus the stinging cynicism from some other activists unimpressed by her celebrity, led her to lower her political profile temporarily and return to acting in Atom Egoyan's film The Sweet Hereafter (1997). It was her appearance as Nicole, the teenage girl injured in a school bus accident who serves as the conscience of the small town rent by the tragedy, that first brought her to the attention of critics in the US. In Canada, the role was heralded by critics as her successful breakthrough to adult roles. It was her second film with Egoyan, who wrote the part with her in mind when he adapted the novel by Russell Banks, who, ironically, is American. Predictions of an Academy Award nomination and future stardom were part of the critical consensus, and she received her first Best Actress Genie nomination from Canada's Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and the Best Supporting Actress award from the Boston Society of Film Critics. It was the buzz created at the Sundance Festival, where her starring role in the film Guinevere (1999) was showcased, when the entertainment media crowned her the it-girl of 1999.
Intensely private and extremely ambivalent about the personal cost of celebrity and the Hollywood ethos Fame is the Name of the Game, Polley could be seen as rebelling against the expectations of mainstream cinema when she embarked on a career path that took her out of the spotlight thrown by the harsh lights of the Hollywood hype/publicity machine after shooting the film Go (1999). She dropped out of Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000), the US$60 million mega-hyped vehicle that was supposed to make her a mainstream star in the US, choosing to return to Canada to make the CDN$1.5 million The Law of Enclosures (2000) for Genie Award-winner John Greyson, a director she admires greatly. The film grossed poorly in Canada and was not released in the US, but it did garner Polley her second Genie nomination for Best Actress. While her replacement in Almost Famous (2000) went on to win an Oscar nomination and a career above the title in glossy Hollywood films, she took a wide variety of parts, large and small, in independent films, including significant roles in the ensemble pieces The Claim (2000) and The Weight of Water (2000); bit parts in eXistenZ (1999) and Love Come Down (2000); and the lead in No Such Thing (2001). Her choice of projects showed her to be a questing spirit more focused on learning the art of her craft than on stardom.
She has said that her choice of film roles, eschewing mainstream Hollywood movies for chancier, non-commercial independent fare, was the result of an ethical decision on her part to make films with social importance. A less-observant viewer might think that the rebel Polley played in her political life that had previously manifested itself in her profession was now driving her to the verge of career suicide in terms of popularity, marketability, and choice of future roles. However, that interpretation does not recognize the extraordinary talent that will always keep her in demand by directors, if not casting agents, with an eye on the opening weekend box office. One must understand Polley's career progression in light of her attendance at the Canadian Film Centre's directors program and her production of short films, including Don't Think Twice (1999) and the highly praised I Shout Love (2001). Polley is a cinema artist. This woman wants to make, and will make films. Thus, we can understand her career choices as a desire to work with and understand the technique of some of the best directors in film, including David Cronenberg, Michael Winterbottom, and Hal Hartley.
Polley is as renowned for her intelligence as for her remarkable talent. The problem of the intelligent person in the acting field is that the actor, as artist, in not ultimately in control of their medium, and it is artistic control that is the hallmark of the great artist. The controlling intelligence on a movie set is the director, and her attendance at the Canadian Film Centre has given her a new perspective on acting. The actor, she says, should not try to give a complete performance for the camera (that is, control the representation on film) but must remember that the function of the actor is to give the director as much coverage as possible as a film, as well as a performance, is made in the editing room. According to Polley, this realization, that the film actor exists to serve the director, has given her new enthusiasm for acting. Thus, her career, and her career choices, can be seen as a quest for knowledge about the art of cinema, a journey whose fruition we will see in her future feature work as both actor and director.- Director
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William Theodore Kotcheff was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Bulgarian parents from Plovdiv. He graduated with a degree in English Literature from the University of Toronto. He began his professional career directing TV drama at age 24 at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, at the time becoming the youngest director in the CBC. After two years there he went to live and work in England, directing in television and the theatre.
He twice won the British Emmy for Best Director, the second time for an extraordinary docudrama about a female derelict entitled, "Edna, the Inebriate Woman" episode of Play for Today (1970). The film also won the Best Actress and Best Script Award. Kotcheff's television work in Great Britain was part of the new wave of working-class actors and drama that changed British theatre and television in the late 1950s. His stage successes include the long-running Lionel Bart musical, "Maggie May." His film career started in England: Tiara Tahiti (1962), a social comedy starring James Mason and John Mills; Life at the Top (1965), starring Laurence Harvey and Jean Simmons; Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969), starring Robin Phillips, a film set in the West Indian community of London and dealing with relationships between blacks and whites which was the official British entry at the Venice Film Festival. His next film, Wake in Fright (1971), was made in Australia. It was the Australian entry in the Cannes Film Festival and many Australians still think it is the finest Australian film ever made and the beginning of the renaissance of the Australian cinema. Kotcheff returned to Canada in 1972 to make a film of a novel written by his best friend, Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974). This film, thought to be one of the best Canadian films ever made, won the Golden Bear First Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and numerous other awards including an Academy Award nomination for best script. Kotcheff also directed Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), starring Jane Fonda and George Segal; Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), starring Jacqueline Bisset and George Segal; North Dallas Forty (1979)--which he also wrote--starring 'Nick Nolte' (a film considered by many in the sport to be one of the best ever made about professional football); First Blood (1982), starring Sylvester Stallone--one of the biggest box-office winners of all time--Uncommon Valor (1983), starring Gene Hackman; and Weekend at Bernie's (1989). In the mid-'80s Kotcheff made a film of another Mordecai Richler novel, Joshua Then and Now (1985). This film, starring James Woods and Alan Arkin, was the official Canadian entry in the Cannes Film Festival, and together with "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz", is one of the most widely known and acclaimed Canadian films in the United States. Kotcheff is married to Laifun Chung and has two children, Thomas age 7 and Alexandra age 9. Laifun Chung is President of their film company, Panoptica Productions, Inc. He has homes in Toronto and Los Angeles.- Producer
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Mack Sennett was born Michael Sinnott on January 17, 1880 in Danville, Quebec, Canada, to Irish immigrant farmers. When he was 17, his parents moved the family to East Berlin, Connecticut, and he became a laborer at American Iron Works, a job he continued when they moved to Northampton, Massachusetts. He happened to meet Marie Dressler in 1902, and through her went to New York City to attempt for a career on the stage. He managed some burlesque and chorus-boy parts. In 1908, he began acting in Biograph films. His work there lasted until 1911; it included being directed by D.W. Griffith and acting with Mary Pickford and Mabel Normand. By 1910, he was directing.
In 1912, he and two bookies-turned-producers--Adam Kessel and Charles Bauman--formed the Keystone Film Company. Sennett brought Mabel Normand with him and soon added Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Chester Conklin Al St. John, Slim Summerville, Minta Durfee and Charles Chaplin (who was directed by Sennett in 35 comedies during 1914). He told Chaplin, "We have no scenario--we get an idea, then follow the natural sequence of events until it leads up to a chase, which is the essence of our comedy." To the slapstick chase gags of the Keystone Kops were gradually added the Bathing Beauties and the Kid Komedies. In 1915 he, Griffith and Thomas H. Ince formed Triangle Films.
Comedy moved from improvisational slapstick to scripted situations. Stars like Bobby Vernon and Gloria Swanson joined him. In 1917, he formed Mack Sennett Comedies, distributing through Paramount--and later Pathe--and launching another star, Harry Langdon. When Sennett returned to Paramount in 1932, he produced shorts featuring W.C. Fields and musical ones with Bing Crosby. After directing his only Buster Keaton film, The Timid Young Man (1935), he returned to Canada a pauper. In 1937, he was awarded a special Oscar--"to the master of fun, discoverer of stars... for his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen."
Mack Sennett died at age 80 on November 5, 1960 in Woodland Hills, California, and was interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. For his contributions to the motion picture industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.- Director
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Toronto-born Sidney J. Furie has enjoyed an incredibly distinguished career that has spanned more than five decades. Having dabbled in every genre, Furie has directed films starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Rodney Dangerfield, Barbara Hershey, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland, 'Laurence Olivier' (qav) and countless others.
He directed the first two feature-length fiction films ever made in English Canada, A Dangerous Age (1957) and A Cool Sound from Hell (1959), both independently financed, before emigrating to London in 1960. In 1961 he directed five feature films in a single year, before finally scoring his first box-office success with Wonderful to Be Young! (1961), starring the "British Elvis Presley", Cliff Richard. The critical and commercial success of Furie's 1963 British New Wave film The Leather Boys (1964), a kitchen-sink drama starring Rita Tushingham and Dudley Sutton, delivered him to the attention of high-powered producer Harry Saltzman, who hired him to direct the groundbreaking film The Ipcress File (1965), which won the BAFTA award for Best Picture. Michael Caine became an overnight star because of the film's success. The film also screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Furie then emigrated to Hollywood to direct Marlon Brando in The Appaloosa (1966) and Frank Sinatra in The Naked Runner (1967) for Universal and Warner Brothers, respectively. Paramount Pictures, then under the aegis of the new Gulf+Western management regime, hired Furie in 1967. He would work as a Paramount filmmaker for the next eight years. Beginning in 1968, he directed five films for the studio. His box-office hit Lady Sings the Blues (1972) was nominated for five Academy Awards and was Paramount's second biggest money-maker that year, behind only The Godfather (1972).
In 1981 he directed The Entity (1982), a cult classic that was named by Martin Scorsese as the fourth best horror film ever made, ranking ahead of both The Shining (1980) and Psycho (1960). Furie was assigned to direct Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), but was challenged by substantial last-minute budget cuts and a script he could not change (engineered personally by Christopher Reeve).
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s he returned to his native Canada to helm a series of films, often direct-to-video pictures, ranging from the war drama Going Back (2001) to the Canadian-British co-production Rock My World (2002), a comedy starring Peter O'Toole and Joan Plowright. Other career highlights include The Boys in Company C (1978) (one of the first Vietnam War pictures about combat soldiers, later to provide the basis for Full Metal Jacket (1987)), the underrated action epic Hit! (1973), and the "Iron Eagle" series. He has also maintained dual citizenship between the U.S. and Canada. In 2010, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of Canada.- Director
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Mary Harron (born January 12, 1953) is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter. She gained recognition for her role in writing and directing several independent films, including I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), American Psycho (2000), and The Notorious Bettie Page (2005). She co-wrote American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page with Guinevere Turner. Although Harron has denied this title, she has been thought to be feminist filmmaker due to her film on lesbian feminist Valerie Solanas, in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), and a queer story-line within her teenage Gothic horror, The Moth Diaries (2011).- Producer
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Shawn Levy was born on July 23, 1968 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a producer and director, known for Stranger Things (2016), Real Steel (2011), and the Night at the Museum franchise. He is the founder and principal of 21 Laps Entertainment. He is married to Serena Levy and they have four daughters.- Director
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Edward Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After his mother died when he was 6, his strict disciplinarian father beat the boy frequently, and the child began running away while in his early teens. Eventually, juvenile authorities allowed him to live alone at the age of 15 and helped him find part-time work as a film studio messenger. Dmytryk was an outstanding student in physics and mathematics and gained a scholarship to the California Institute of Technology. However, he dropped out after one year to return to movies, eventually working his way up from film editor to director. By the late 1940s, he was considered one of Hollywood's rising young directing talents, but his career was interrupted by the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a congressional committee that employed ruthless tactics aimed at rooting out and destroying what it saw as Communist influence in Hollywood. A lifelong political leftist who had been a Communist Party member briefly during World War II, Dmytryk was one of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" who refused to cooperate with HUAC and had their careers disrupted or ruined as a result. The committee threw him in prison for refusing to cooperate, and after having spent several months behind bars, Dmytryk decided to cooperate after all, and testified again before the committee, this time giving the names of people he said were Communists. He claimed to believe he had done the right thing, but many in the Hollywood community--even those who came along long after the committee was finally disbanded--never forgave him, and that action overshadowed his career the rest of his life. In the 1970s, as his directing career ground to a halt, Dmytryk recalled some advice once given him by Garson Kanin, and returned to academic life, this time as a teacher. From 1976 to 1981 he was a professor of film theory and production at the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1981, was appointed to a chair in filmmaking at the University of Southern California, a position he held until about two years before his death. During his teaching career, he also authored several books on various aspects of filmmaking, as well as two volumes of memoirs.- Director
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Allan Dwan was born on 3 April 1885 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a director and writer, known for Bound in Morocco (1918), A Perfect Crime (1921) and Panthea (1917). He was married to Marie Shelton and Pauline Bush. He died on 28 December 1981 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
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Daniel Petrie was born on 26 November 1920 in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was a director and producer, known for The Bay Boy (1984), A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and The Assistant (1997). He was married to Dorothea G. Petrie. He died on 22 August 2004 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Producer
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Richard J. Lewis was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is known for Barney's Version (2010), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000) and Westworld (2016).- Director
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Michael McGowan was born on 14 April 1966 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for Still Mine (2012), Saint Ralph (2004) and Score: A Hockey Musical (2010).- Director
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Unconventional filmmaker who moved from independent cinema into the Hollywood mainstream. Moyle became a sought-after writer-director after the surprising success of Pump Up the Volume (1990), a sleeper hit about teen angst starring Christian Slater. His previous directorial outing occurred a full decade earlier: the critically lambasted Times Square (1980), a flop which concerned the surprisingly tame adventures of two runaway teenage girls in the Big Apple. This film--Moyle's first studio directing assignment--was such an unpleasant experience for the neophyte filmmaker that he succumbed to a stress-related disorder that caused all his hair to fall out.
Moyle began his career as an actor and screenwriter working in close collaboration with Frank Vitale, a Canada-based independent filmmaker. Their film Montreal Main (1974) was a loosely structured quasi-documentary about gay life in Montreal. Moyle made his directorial debut with The Rubber Gun (1977), an exploration of the city's drug culture. In addition to acting in his own films, Moyle appeared in David Cronenberg's Rabid (1977) and had a major supporting role in Richard Benner's cult favorite, Outrageous! (1977). After the failure of TIMES SQUARE he left the industry for a ten-year period during which he wrote a novel and several screenplays, before PUMP UP THE VOLUME restored his commercial credibility.- Director
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Michael Dowse was born on 19 April 1973 in London, Ontario, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004), What If (2013) and Stuber (2019).- Actor
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Jacob Daniel Tierney (Born On September 26, 1979 In Montréal Québec, Canada) Is a Canadian-American Actor, Voice Actor, Voice Casting, Voice Director, Singer, Loop Group Actor, Producer And Director. He Was Born On September 26, 1979 In Montréal Québec, Canada. To The Family Terry Tierney And His Dad Kevin Tierney And His Sister Bridget.
in 1970's and 1980's, Jacob Also Attended To a High School In Little Rock Arkansas, Montréal Québec, Canada And New York City, New York, USA. Jacob Tierney Also Quickly Started To Do An Auditions When He Was 1 and 8 Years Old in 1970's and 1980's.
Jacob Tierney Provided A Notable Characters As Eric From the Award Winner or Nominated TV Anthology Children Series Masterpiece, Cinar's Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990) Along With All The Canadian And American Actors And Actress Back in 1990's. In Many Years In 1980's, 1990's and 2000's, His recent animation And Live Action Credits include All Movies, TV Shows And Video Games and He Provided A Character As Max (Max, Please. Just Max.) From Dracula: The Series (1990) And Especially A Producer And Director And Each Characters And Guest Star On Kids Like You (1984).
Jacob's Voice Work can be heard in films as He Especially Provided The Loop Group For The Movies, TV Shows And Video Games as Long As Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) Along With His Current Friend Cathie Dorsch (Actress, Voice Casting, Singer, Producer, Director, Miss Cathie The Current Host , Penelope Turtle, The Puppet Characters Daisy And All Puppet Characters And Dixie From Kids Like You (Since 1983 or 1984) And All Actors And Actress and his Current Friend Nathaniel Moreau (David From Cinar's Are You Afraid Of The Dark?) And More. The Upcoming Movie Gran Turismo (2023) And More Film, TV Show And Video Games Including PlayStation Games, Rockstar Games And Nintendo Games.
Jacob began his career with His first commercial in the first, second, third, fourth and fifth grade and has been hooked ever since Including PBS, PBS Kids, Warner Bros Pictures, Nintendo Games, Bandai Company, Bandai Namco Games And PlayStation Games. Especially HBO, HBO Family, Columbia Pictures, Cinar, Agape Church, The Christian Children's Movies, TV Shows And Video Games Company And Much More.
Jacob performed professionally with a School And House And Apartment in Canada And USA. Also Jacob performs with The Family And Kids, a professional child and teen troop. Jacob's passions also include singing, dancing, guitar, and writing and Directing music. He studies acting, directing and musical theater at a performing arts high school in Little Rock Arkansas, Montréal Québec, Canada And New York City, New York, USA. Just Before 1980's, 1990's, 2000's, 2010's and 2020's, He Also Wanted To Get Along With Canadian and American Kids And Family And Actors And Actress. Including All Canadian and American Actors And Actress.- Director
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Jean-François Pouliot (Director) was born in Montreal in 1957. After earning a B.A. in Communication Arts from Concordia University and a minor in Philosophy, Pouliot began working in Montreal as an assistant cameraman on local films as well as international ones like Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" and Tony Richardson's "Hotel New Hampshire". During this time, teaming with Robert Belisle, he co-wrote and co-directed a number of short animated films for the National Film Board of Canada, including "The Egg".
In 1982, Pouliot became a writer-designer at Cossette Communication Marketing, Canada's largest advertising agency. Quickly promoted to creative director of French-speaking advertising for McDonald's restaurants, he twice won the Grand Prize of the Mundial de la Publicite Francophone.
In 1988, he decided to return to filmmaking, with the logical path being through advertising. Pouliot began directing for Fabrique d'Images, one of the country's largest production houses for television advertising. He made commercials mainly for Canadian clients, but also for American and European ones, and won a Silver Lion at Cannes for a Loto-Quebec ad.
As a successful director for fifteen years and nearly 500 commercials, Pouliot was often approached with feature film projects, but never found anything that he wanted to do until he read Ken Scott's screenplay for "Seducing Doctor Lewis".
Ironically, he was just about to launch a software company called Eloda, which tracks TV advertising and digitizes ads for clients. Pouliot had to get permission from his investors to put the company aside while he made the film.
Now, as "Seducing Doctor Lewis" is winning hearts and international honors, Eloda (www.eloda.com) is finally open for business.- Director
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André Forcier was born on 19 July 1947. He is a director and writer, known for A Wind from Wyoming (1994), Une histoire inventée (1990) and Coteau rouge (2011).- Writer
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Marcel Carrière was born on 16 April 1935. He is a director and writer, known for O.K. ... Laliberté (1973), The Battle of St-Denis... Yesterday, Today (1970) and Bois-Francs (1966).- Director
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Jeremy Podeswa is an award winning feature film and television director who has been nominated four times for the Best Director Emmy, for HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and "Game of Thrones" (twice), and for the Tom Hanks/ Steven Spielberg produced "The Pacific". He has also been nominated four times for the Directors Guild of America Award.
He has also recently directed episodes of "3 Body Problem" (Netflix), from the creators of GoT, and "The New Look" (Apple) starring Juliette Binoche. And he was Executive Producer and Director on the HBOMax limited series "Station Eleven" earning a Directors Guild of America nomination. The show was nominated for 7 Emmy Awards.
He has directed for many of the most ground breaking cable television series and mini-series, including for HULU "The Handmaid's Tale"; for HBO, "Game of Thrones", "True Detective", "The Newsroom", "Here and Now", "Boardwalk Empire", "True Blood", "Rome", "Six Feet Under", "Carnivale" and "The Pacific"; for Apple "The Mosquito Coast" and "The New Look"; for Showtime, "The Loudest Voice", "On Becoming a God in Central Florida", "Homeland", "Ray Donovan", "The Borgias", "The Tudors", "Dexter", "Weeds", "Queer as Folk", "The L Word"; for AMC "The Walking Dead"; for F/X "American Horror Story: Asylum and Coven"; and for TNT the mini-series "Into the West" (produced by Steven Spielberg and nominated for 16 Emmy Awards).
Other credits include the television movie "After the Harvest", starring Sam Shepard, winner of the Directors Guild of Canada Award for Best Direction.
He has also written and directed three award winning feature films: Fugitive Pieces (Samuel Goldwyn Films, Opening Night, Toronto International Film Festival) starring Stephen Dillane and Rosamund Pike; The Five Senses (Fine Line Distribution, Directors' Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival) starring Mary Louise Parker; and Eclipse (Berlin and Sundance Festivals).- Director
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Patricia Rozema was born on 20 August 1958 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She is a director and writer, known for Into the Forest (2015), Mansfield Park (1999) and Grey Gardens (2009).- Director
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John N. Smith was born on 31 July 1943 in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for Sitting in Limbo (1986), Revolution's Orphans (1979) and The Boys of St. Vincent (1992).- Director
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Zacharias Kunuk was born on 27 November 1957 in Kapuivik, Nunavut, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), The Shaman's Apprentice (2021) and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006).- Producer
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Born in Montreal. Study first in Law but turn to the Conservatoire d'art dramatique. She works on TV at the Societe Radio-Canada as an actress, an interviewer, a writer. Enters the Office du film du Canada in 1960 in the Translation's Office. From edition to production then direction, she becomes a director engaged on women issues. She made her first long features De mere en fille in 1967. But it is really in 1979 with A Scream from Silence (1979) that she really punches her way through a large public, presenting the rape problem from the victim point-de-vue.- Director
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Robert Favreau was born on 9 July 1948 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for Portion d'éternité (1988), A Sunday in Kigali (2006) and Les muses orphelines (2000).- Director
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Fernand Dansereau was born in 1928 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for La brunante (2007), Doux aveux (1982) and Les Porteurs d'espoir (2010).- Writer
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Bernard Émond was born in 1951 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a writer and director, known for La donation (2009), The Novena (2005) and Contre toute espérance (2007).- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Benoit Pilon is a director and screenwriter born in Montreal, Quebec. He has directed awarded fictions and documentaries, including The Necessities of Life (2008), Iqaluit (2016), Le club Vinland (2020) and Roger Toupin, épicier variété (2003). He has studied film at Concordia University. In 2009, The Necessities of Life made the 9 films short list for the Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category.- Editor
- Director
- Writer
Stéphane Lafleur is known for Continental, a Film Without Guns (2007), Familiar Grounds (2011) and Viking (2022).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Michel Jetté is known for Riders (2000), Bumrush (2011) and Burn Out or The Voluntary Servitude (2018).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Erik Canuel was born in 1961 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for Bon Cop Bad Cop (2006), Barrymore (2011) and Lac Mystère (2013).- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Émile Gaudreault was born in 1964 in Jonquière, Québec, Canada. He is a writer and director, known for Mambo Italiano (2003), Father and Guns (2009) and De père en flic 2 (2017).- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Born in Australia, received his M.A. in Communication Arts at Stanford University in 1965 and then joined the National Film Board of Canada. He spent over 25 years at the Film Board, making many prizewinning films, including Sad song of yellow Skin which won the Flaherty award in 1971 and Waiting For Fidel, his most famous documentary. In the eighties and nineties, he wrote and directed four feature films, of which Vincent and Me won a daytime Emmy, a Parent's choice gold medal, as did Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler. He returned to his native Australia in 1995 and continued making documentaries, notably, Much ado About Something (2000) which proposed that Christopher Marlowe was the real author of Shakespeare's plays. He also made in 2005, All about Olive, the story of Olive Riley going back to her native Broken hill where she was born in 1899.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
André Melançon was born on 18 February 1942 in Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, Canada. He was a director and actor, known for Des armes et les hommes (1973), Summer of the Colt (1989) and Rafales (1990). He was married to Andrée Lachapelle. He died on 23 August 2016 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Roger Cantin was born on 29 December 1949 in St.-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for Un cargo pour l'Afrique (2009), La vengeance de la femme en noir (1997) and Matusalem (1993).- Director
- Script and Continuity Department
- Writer
Jean-Claude Lord was born on 6 June 1943. He was a director and writer, known for Éclair au chocolat (1979), Bingo (1974) and The Vindicator (1986). He was married to Lise Thouin. He died on 15 January 2022 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Kim Nguyen was born in 1974 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for War Witch (2012).- Actor
- Director
- Animation Department
Luc Picard was born on 24 September 1961 in Lachine, Québec, Canada. He is an actor and director, known for Audition (2005), Babine (2008) and Cross My Heart (2017).- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Agent of Influence (2002) stands as a landmark in director Michel Poulette's already interesting career. It is the story of a Canadian Ambassador to Moscow, John Watkins, whose accusation of being an agent for the USSR resulted in a political scandal in Canada a few years ago when the truth about his death was revealed... 18 years later. Michel's direction of Oscar nominated actor Christopher Plummer and renowned Quebecoise actress Marina Orsini brought him accolades. His unique treatment of this Graham Greene like spy story enriched the film. Although the story takes place in the 60s, the film resonates today. It is a Canadian co-production between Alberta Filmworks (Randy Bradshaw) and Gala Film (Francine Allaire) for the CTV network.
Previously, Michel directed Bonanno: A Godfather's Story (1999). Starring Oscar winner actor Martin Landau, J.E. Olmos Costas Mandylor, Patti Lupone, Robert Loggia, Philippe Bosco, Toni Nardi. Onanno is a five-hour epic mini-series produced for Showtime/Hallmark . It chronicles the life and times of Joseph Bonanno - believed to be the inspiration for Mario Puzo's Corleone character in The Godfather. The story spans Bonanno's early beginnings in Italy, to his conquests in America. It was produced by Kevin Tierney (Canada) and Dan Paulson (US). Although it was his first project in English, it earned Showtime's Best Ratings In 1999.
Michel's work isn't new to the English market. His first feature was a comedy titled King of the Airways (1994) (Louis 19 King Of The Airwaves), the story of an everyday Joe whose life is broadcast 24 hours a day for 3 months. Sound familiar? After many awards around the world, the rights were bought by director Ron Howard and became the first American remake of a Canadian film as Edtv (1999). In Canada, Louis 19 earned Michel both First Time Director Award and the Golden Reel for the biggest box office of the year.
His second feature, La conciergerie (1997), was produced by Cinepix (a member of the Lion's Gate family). This film noir won the People's Award at the Montreal World Film Festival, at the Festival du Film Noir de Cognac, and the International Award at the Atlanta Film Festival. Michel co-wrote, directed and co-produced the film. Directing in English was a natural segue in Michel's journey to new challenges after a unique and gratifying career in Quebec. His start came from Quebec French television where he made his mark. He worked freelance for all of Quebec's Major Broadcast networks, earning 20 Gemeaux Awards for programs, which have consistently been among the highest rated.
One of his most memorable achievements was Rock et belles oreilles (1986), a hilariously irreverent weekly comedy series. In style, a combination of Saturday Night Live and Monty Python. It was THE success of the 80's in Quebec. This cult series has just been successfully re-released on DVD. Switching easily from comedy to drama, his last series in French was Urgence. This Quebecois equivalent of ER is one of Radio-Canada's greatest success stories, with ratings that exceeded its closest rivals by 25.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Luc Dionne was born on 29 July 1960. He is a writer and producer, known for Aurore (2005), Monica la mitraille (2004) and Omertà (2012).