Norman Frederick Jewison was a Canadian filmmaker. He was known for directing films which addressed topical social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences. Among numerous other accolades, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades, for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and Moonstruck (1987). He was nominated for an additional four Oscars, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, and won a BAFTA Award. He received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999.
The following is an overview of events in 1987 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. Paramount Pictures celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1987.
Atom Egoyan is a Canadian filmmaker. Emerging in the 1980s as part of the Toronto New Wave, he made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), a film set in a strip club. Egoyan's most critically acclaimed film is the drama The Sweet Hereafter (1997), for which he received two Academy Award nominations. His biggest commercial success is the erotic thriller Chloe (2009).
Roger Lindsey Donaldson is an Australian and New Zealand film director, screenwriter, and producer. His 1977 debut film, Sleeping Dogs, is considered landmark work of New Zealand cinema, as one of the country’s first films to attract large-scale critical and commercial success. He has subsequently directed 17 feature films, working in Hollywood and the United Kingdom, as well as his native country.
Martin Faranan McDonagh is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his absurdist dark humour which often challenges the modern theatre aesthetic. He has won numerous accolades including an Academy Award, six BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and three Olivier Awards in addition to five nominations for Tony Awards.
Patricia Rozema is a Canadian film director, writer and producer. She was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave.
The Winnipeg Film Group (WFG) is an artist-run film education, production, distribution, and exhibition centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, committed to promoting the art of Canadian cinema, especially independent cinema.
Neverwas is a 2005 Canadian-American fantasy drama film, written and directed by Joshua Michael Stern in his directorial debut. It stars Ian McKellen, Aaron Eckhart, Brittany Murphy, Nick Nolte, William Hurt, and Jessica Lange. It was first shown at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. However, the film was never given a full theatrical release, eventually being released straight to DVD in 2007.
Dusty Mancinelli is a Canadian independent filmmaker from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mancinelli is primarily a director of short films. Several of his films have been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and other notable film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards. Since 2017, he has collaborated with Madeleine Sims-Fewer. Their debut feature film Violation was shown at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.
Louie Edward Lawless is a Canadian film actor, documentary director, and Academy Award-nominated producer. Born in British Columbia, he traveled to California at the age of 18 and found work as an actor in Hollywood. He eventually became involved in the production of films and worked for over two decades in film production before returning to Canada in 1994. Since then, he has been involved with Kevin Annett in producing films that raise public awareness of the abuses of the Canadian Indian residential school system. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1973 for his work on Manson and he won the Best Director award for a documentary at the 2006 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival for his film Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide.
The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) is an annual film festival held in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 2001, the festival is held the first weekend of December and includes juried competitive sections, the Borsos Awards, and the Pandora Audience Award. A conference for the Canadian film industry, known as the Whistler Summit, is organised in connection with the film festival.
Angam is a documentary film made in 2010 about Sri Lankan history and the survival of its traditional martial art, angampora. It was produced and directed by Rasanga Weerasinghe. The film explores the origins of Sri Lankan civilization, and the vital role Angampora has played in its history, up to the present day. The film was released in 2011 at Goethe Institute, Colombo, as a private screening organized by the filmmakers.
The Grocer's Wife is a 1991 Canadian drama film written, produced and directed by John Pozer. It won the inaugural Claude Jutra Award for best feature film by a first-time director.
Brent Hodge is a Canadian-New Zealander documentary filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known for his documentaries I Am Chris Farley, A Brony Tale, The Pistol Shrimps, Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary, Chris Farley: Anything for a Laugh, Who Let the Dogs Out and Pharma Bro. He has been nominated for six Leo Awards for his documentary movies Winning America, What Happens Next? and A Brony Tale, winning one for A Brony Tale in 2015. He was nominated for two Shorty Awards under the "director" category in 2014 and 2015 for his work on The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions and A Brony Tale. Hodge also won a Canadian Screen Award in 2014 for directing The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions with Grant Lawrence.
Michael Carson Lennox is a Northern Irish film director.
Jennifer Phang is an American filmmaker, most known for her feature films Advantageous (2015) and Half-Life (2008). Advantageous premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, winning a Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision, and was based on her award-winning short film of the same name. Half-Life premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and won "Best Film" awards at a number of film festivals including the Gen Art Film Festival, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival as well an "Emerging Director Award" at the Asian American International Film Festival.
Mo Bradley is a Canadian film director, producer, screenwriter, media artist, professor, and curator. They have produced over fifty short films and their work has been recognized internationally. Through their work, Bradley challenges traditional gender norms and opposes the heteronormativity that dominates the television and film industry. Bradley's focus is to bring nontraditional representations of sex, gender, and sexuality to the forefront of film. Bradley's work predominantly features queer characters and themes, including their first feature film, Two 4 One. In 2017, Bradley became a professor at the University of Victoria in the Writing Department.
Cody Westman is a Canadian filmmaker/musician from Smithers, British Columbia now residing in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. He is known for his filmmaking as well as his solo music career and his work with rock band, Man The Animal. He owns and operates his production company Cats Eye Cinema INC which focuses on documentaries, commercials, corporate video, music videos and short films.
Smoking Guns is a 2016 British crime comedy film written and directed by Savvas D. Michael. The film is produced by John Pavlakos, Andrew Neophytou and executive produced by Hollywood Producer Steven Paul, Lara Minassian and Andrew Downer. It stars Dexter Fletcher, Daniel Caltagirone, Count Prince Miller, Ewen MacIntosh, Paul Anastasi, Andreas Karras, Jamie Crew, Tommy O'Neil and Mem Ferda.
Never Steady, Never Still is a Canadian drama film, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
