David Winning

David Winning
Born	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Citizenship	United States, Canadian
Occupation(s)	Film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
Years active	1976 – present
Website	www.davidwinning.com

David Winning is a Canadian-American film and television director, screenwriter, producer, editor, and occasional actor. Although Winning has worked in numerous film and TV genres, his name is most commonly associated with science fiction, thrillers and drama.

Life and career

Winning was born in Calgary, Alberta. ^[1] He became a dual citizen of the US and Canada in 2003 and lives in Los Angeles. He was making films at age ten with a Super 8 camera. In 1979, he received a Canada Council grant to make the sixteen millimeter drama Sequence, ^[2] and expanded the plotline into his first feature film Storm, filmed in the summer of 1983 in Bragg Creek, Alberta. It was shot with money that his father had set aside for film school and was screened at Cannes. ^[1] It took four years to finish and was released by Golan-Globus' Cannon Films International and Warner Home Video in 1988. A December 11, 1989 Los Angeles Times review called the film "taut, ambitious and darkly comic". ^[3]

At 27, he directed episodes of Friday the 13th: The Series for Paramount and received three Gemini Award nominations. ^[4] His second feature Killer Image followed in 1992; the mystery-thriller starred Michael Ironside and M. Emmet Walsh. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s he directed 47 movies and episodes of twenty-nine series, including Stargate: Atlantis , ^[5] ABC's Dinotopia filmed in Budapest, Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? , and four seasons on Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda . ^[6] He directed Kim Cattrall, Sean Young, and Eric McCormack in the award-winning thriller Exception to the Rule. His biggest budget studio movie to date is the $29-million kids sci-fi action sequel Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie for 20th Century Fox. ^[7] He directed seven episodes of the Cannell police series Street Justice with Carl Weathers. ^{[8] [ self-published source? ]} Winning said "Episodic TV gets no respect" in a March 2000 Toronto Star interview. ^[9] He directed a 16-year-old Ryan Gosling in the Pilot and seven episodes of the Paramount UPN kid series Breaker High.

According to the February 2010 Avatar issue of Sci Fi magazine , he was slated to direct the movie Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage with Patrick Stewart. ^[10] He directed episodes of Space Channel's comedy/horror series Todd and the Book of Pure Evil and Lost Girl ^[1] for SYFY Channel and Showcase—and supervised and directed the far north webisode series YUKONIC online in 2011. He is directing XIII: The Series with Stuart Townsend, produced by Roger Avary for French Canal +, and multiple episodes of the live audience multi-camera sitcom Mr. Young for The Disney Channel. In 2017 he became one of the house directors on the Netflix / SYFY channel series Van Helsing; an explosive post-apocalyptic take on the vampire rising based on a graphic novel. He also started directing over two dozen Christmas and family films for the Hallmark Channel; including A Summer Romance, Tulips in Spring, A December Bride, and Unleashing Mr. Darcy, which broke the network record on social media with 47 Million tweets.

Awards

Winning has won the 1995 Gold Hugo Award and two Silver Plaques from the Chicago International Film Festival, and four national Gemini Award nominations for Best Director/Dramatic Series. ^[11] In 2002 he accepted the first national team award from the Directors Guild of Canada Best TV series Drama for Twice in a Lifetime and was nominated again in 2006. ^[12] His episode of Stargate: Atlantis , "Childhood’s End", won three awards for Directing; New York, Houston and Chicago in 2005. In April 2008, Winning won two Directing awards at the Houston Film Festival/WorldFest in Texas and a Special Jury Award for his work on the Lifetime Television vampire series Blood Ties .

Winning's Film Field Day won Best Ensemble Cast at the Marina del Rey Film Festival ^[13] in 2024.

2008 Hawaii Career Award and festival screenings

Winning was honored at the 2008 Big Island Film Festival in Hawaii. He received a Special Career award on May 17, 2008 with a reception in his honor in Waikōloa Village. Swamp Devil also won the Golden Honu for Best Foreign feature film. A double bill of his two monster movies was presented at the outdoor festival; Swamp Devil starring Bruce Dern and Black Swarm starring Robert Englund. The first in his trilogy was Something Beneath with Kevin Sorbo in 2007. Black Swarm also screened at the Boston Film Festival on Friday the 13th of June, 2008. Both films were produced in Montreal by Muse Entertainment for the SYFY Channel, New York City.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer	Notes
1987	Storm	Y	Y	Y
1992	Killer Image	Y	Y	Y
1996	Profile for Murder	Y
1997	Exception to the Rule	Y
1997	Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie	Y
1998	One of Our Own	Y
2009	Swamp Devil	Y
2014	The Town That Came A-Courtin’	Y
2014	Mutant World	Y

Television films and series

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Notes
1989-1990	Friday the 13th: The Series	Y		3 episodes: aka Friday's Curse
1992	Neon Rider	Y		Episode: "Straight Home"
1992-1993	Street Justice	Y		7 episodes
1993-1995	Are You Afraid of the Dark?	Y		10 Episodes
1993	Matrix	Y		Episode: "False Witness"
1995-1997	Sweet Valley High	Y		11 episodes
1996	Goosebumps	Y		Episode: "... It Came From Beneath the Sink"
1997	Dead Man's Gun	Y		Episode: "The Black Widow"
1997	Breaker High	Y		7 episodes
1998	Night Man	Y		3 episodes
1998	Merlin: The Quest Begins	Y		Television film
1999-2001	Twice in a Lifetime	Y		11 episodes
1999	Don’t Look Behind You	Y		Television film
2000	Call of The Wild	Y		Episode: "Molly Brown"
2000-2005	Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda	Y		10 episodes
2001-2002	Gene Roddenberry's Earth Final Conflict	Y		7 episodes
2002-2003	Dinotopia	Y		4 episodes
2002	Body & Soul	Y		Episode: "Saviors"
2002	He Sees You When You're Sleeping	Y		Television film
2004	Stargate: Atlantis	Y		Episode: "Childhood's End"
2006-2007	Naturally, Sadie	Y		4 episodes
2006	Past Sins	Y		Television film
2007	Blood Ties	Y		4 episodes
2007	Dinosapien	Y		4 episodes
2007	Something Beneath	Y		Television film
2008	Black Swarm	Y		Television film
2010-2012	Todd and the Book of Pure Evil	Y		4 episodes
2012	Lost Girl	Y		Episode: "Midnight Lamp"
2012	XIII: The Series	Y		Episodes: "Gauntlet"; "Pong"
2012-2013	Mr. Young	Y		3 episodes
2013	Health Nutz	Y		Episodes: "Juice, Jesus and Rock & Roll"; "Hypno Yoga"
2014-2015	The Stanley Dynamic	Y		4 episodes
2014-2015	Max and Shred	Y		Episodes: "The Boardercross Bionic Boost"; "The Goofy Tamedog Air"
2014	The Tree That Saved Christmas	Y		Television film
2014	Paper Angels	Y	Y	Television film Co-executive Producer
2015	The Magic Stocking	Y		Television film
2016	Cradle of Lies	Y		Television film: aka Where's My Baby?
2016	Under Fire	Y		Television film: aka Who Killed My Husband?
2016	Unleashing Mr. Darcy	Y		Television film
2016	The Rooftop Christmas Tree	Y	Y	Television film Executive Producer
2016	The Convenient Groom	Y		Television film
2016	Tulips In Spring	Y		Television film
2016	A December Bride	Y		Television film
2016	The Mistletoe Promise	Y	Y	Television film Executive Producer
2017	Infidelity in Suburbia	Y	Y	Television film Executive Producer
2017	While You Were Dating	Y		Television film
2017	Engaging Father Christmas	Y		Television film: aka A Family for the Holidays (Canada); Winter Wedding (UK)
2017	Falling For Vermont	Y		Television film
2017	Finding Santa	Y		Television film
2017	Van Helsing	Y		6 episodes
2018	Winter's Dream	Y		Television film
2018	Marrying Father Christmas	Y		Television film: aka. Winter Wedding (Canada) (post-production)
2018	Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas	Y		Television film
2019	A Summer Romance	Y		Television film
2019	Sense, Sensibility & Snowmen	Y		Television film
2019	A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas	Y		Television film
2020	Time For Us to Come Home for Christmas	Y		Television film
2021	Crossword Mysteries: Riddle Me Dead	Y	Y	Television film Supervising Producer
2021	The 27-Hour Day	Y		Television film
2021	You, Me and The Christmas Trees	Y		Television film
2021	The Nine Kittens of Christmas	Y		Television film
2022	Time For Him to Come Home for Christmas	Y		Television film
2023	Field Day	Y		Television film
2023	A Christmas Blessing	Y	Y	Television film Executive Producer
2024	Curious Caterer: Forbidden Fruit	Y		Television film

References

1. Volmers, Eric (2012-01-21). "Calgary director gets shot at a succubus". Calgary Herald . Archived from the original on 2014-12-10. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
2. "Calgary Magazine Freeze Frame, September 1987, by: Linda Kupecek, "The Winning Way"".
3. "LA Times review by Kevin Thomas, December 11, 1989".
4. "1989, 1990 Gemini Awards 3 nominations". Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Archived from the original on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
5. "SYFY Channel's official Stargate: Atlantis site for "Childhood's End"". Archived from the original on 2011-10-08. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
6. "The Sci Fi World.Net Interview with David Winning, June 2005".
7. Volmers, Eric (January 19, 2009). "Hollywood's Hired Gun". Calgary Herald. Retrieved April 11, 2010.
8. "Street Justice Interview, August 2000".
9. "Toronto Star, March 17, 2000, by: Jim Bawden, " Carver convincingly troubled in rare TV outing "".
10. "Pre-production Begins on Middle Eastern Fairy Tale Sinbad The Fifth Voyage". News Net Publisher. July 16, 2009. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2009.
11. "1989, 1990, 1997 Gemini Awards 4 nominations". Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Archived from the original on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
12. "2002 DGC Team Awards TV Series Drama for "Moonshine Over Harlem"". DGC. Archived from the original on November 23, 2007. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
13. "2024 Marina del Rey Film Festival Awards". MDR Film Festival. Retrieved 2024-12-09.

External links

• Official website
• David Winning at IMDb