Bretten Hannam

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Bretten Hannam is a Canadian screenwriter and film director. [1]

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A Two-Spirit, non-binary Mi'kmaq person, Hannam was born and raised in Nova Scotia. [1] Educated at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and Dalhousie University, they made a number of short films in their early career; the most noted of these, Deep End, premiered at the Atlantic Film Festival in 2011 [2] and was included in the short film compilation Boys on Film 9: Youth in Trouble . [3]

Their 2015 feature film, North Mountain , premiered at the Atlantic Film Festival in 2015 before going into limited commercial release in 2018. [4]

In 2018, they participated in Now and Then, an exhibition of works by LGBTQ artists in conjunction with the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. [5] Their contribution was the short film Elmiteskuatl, an interrogation of the complex relationship between First Nations peoples and colonialist conceptions of archives and museums. [5]

Their most recent short film, Wildfire, was produced with the assistance of the Whistler Film Festival's Aboriginal Filmmaker Fellowship, [6] and premiered at BFI Flare in 2019. A feature film expansion of Wildfire, titled Wildhood , was funded by Telefilm Canada in June 2019, [7] and premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. [8] The film received six Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022, including nods for Hannam in both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. [9]

In 2020, Hannam received a grant from the Inside Out Film and Video Festival's Re:Focus Emergency Relief Fund for the completion of a short documentary film titled Walqwin, about two-spirit culture in the Wabanaki Confederacy. [10]

Hannam was named the winner of the $10,000 Toronto Film Critics Association's Jay Scott Prize for emerging filmmakers in February 2022. [11]

Hannam's film At the Place of Ghosts (Sk+te’kmujue’katik) premiered in the Platform Prize program at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. [12] It was subsequently screened at the 2025 Atlantic International Film Festival, where it won the Gordon Parsons Award for Best Atlantic Canadian Feature. [13]

Filmography

References

  1. 1 2 Jordan Parker, "Two-Spirit filmmaker puts queer representation first in films". Halifax Today, June 12, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Dal filmmakers take to the big screen". Dalhousie Gazette , September 6, 2011.
  3. ↑ "BOYS ON FILM 9: Youth in Trouble – DVD Review". Front Row Reviews, May 1, 2013.
  4. ↑ Rhiannon Johnson, "Two-spirit thriller North Mountain to have theatrical premiere in Toronto". CBC News Indigenous, June 29, 2018.
  5. 1 2 Peter Knegt, "What is queer identity in 2018? These artists are looking to the past to understand the present". CBC Arts, March 21, 2018.
  6. ↑ Regan Reid, "Whistler '17: Feature Project, Doc, Screenwriter Lab finalists named". Playback , October 26, 2017.
  7. ↑ Jeremy Kay, "Telefilm Canada unveils eight indigenous filmmakers to receive backing". Screen Daily , June 27, 2019.
  8. ↑ Rebecca Rubin, "Toronto Film Festival Unveils Contemporary World Cinema and Discovery Lineup ". Variety , July 28, 2021.
  9. ↑ Brent Furdyk, "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, 'Sort Of' & 'Scarborough' Lead The Pack". ET Canada , February 15, 2022.
  10. ↑ Dino-Ray Ramos, "Inside Out LGBTQ Film Festival Unveils Recipients For Re:Focus Emergency Relief Fund". Deadline Hollywood , July 9, 2020.
  11. ↑ "David Cronenberg wins Toronto film critics' Clyde Gilmour Award". Toronto Star . February 23, 2022. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
  12. ↑ Kate Erbland, "TIFF 2025’s Auteur-Focused Platform Competition Will Be Juried by Two Rising Filmmakers and Oscar Nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste". IndieWire , July 22, 2025.
  13. ↑ Andrew Tracy, "Sk+te’kmujue’katik, Little Lorraine top award winners at AIFF". Playback , September 15, 2025.
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