Francis Damberger is a Canadian film and television director, producer and screenwriter. [1] He is most noted for his 1991 film Solitaire , for which he was a Genie Award nominee for Best Original Screenplay at the 13th Genie Awards, [2] and as a producer of Passchendaele , which won the Genie for Best Picture at the 29th Genie Awards. [3]
Damberger studied acting at the University of Alberta, where he won second prize in a local playwriting competition in 1983 for his play Rat Tails. [4] He made the short films On the Edge, The Road to Yorkton and Age Is No Barrier before releasing Solitaire, his debut feature film, in 1991. [5] He subsequently directed the feature films Road to Saddle River (1994) [6] and Heart of the Sun (1998). [7] He has also directed episodes of television series, including North of 60 , Due South , Jake and the Kid , So Weird , Mentors , Tom Stone , Caitlin's Way , Mixed Blessings , Heartland and Tiny Plastic Men .
He has also continued to appear in supporting or guest roles as an actor.
Brad Fraser is a Canadian playwright. He is one of the most widely produced Canadian playwrights both in Canada and internationally. His plays typically feature a harsh yet comical view of contemporary life in Canada, including frank depictions of sexuality, drug use and violence.
Passchendaele is a 2008 Canadian war film, written, co-produced, directed by, and starring Paul Gross. The film, which was shot in Calgary, Alberta, Fort Macleod, Alberta, and in Belgium, focuses on the experiences of a Canadian soldier, Michael Dunne, at the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, inspired by stories that Gross heard from his grandfather, a First World War soldier.
Paul Michael Gross is a Canadian actor, director, writer, and producer born in Calgary, Alberta.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television presents one or more annual awards for the Best Screenplay for a Canadian film. Originally presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, from 1980 until 2012 the award continued as part of the Genie Awards ceremony. As of 2013, it is presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
Carl Bessai is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. Bessai studied at OCAD University and at York University in Toronto graduating with a Master of Fine Arts Degree. He got his start directing documentary films before moving to Vancouver and directing his debut feature film Johnny in 1999.
Wild Life is a 2011 Canadian animated short film by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis. The film debuted at the 2011 Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto in June 2011 and online on January 6, 2012. The film was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 84th Academy Awards, and Best Animated Short Subject at the 39th Annie Awards as well as a Genie Award for Best Animated Short at the 32nd Genie Awards.
David Christensen is an Alberta film director and producer who since October 2007 has been an executive producer with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) at its Northwest Centre, based in Edmonton.
Lyne Charlebois is a Canadian film and television director, most noted as the director and cowriter of the 2008 film Borderline.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Feature Length Documentary. First presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, it became part of the Genie Awards in 1980 and the contemporary Canadian Screen Awards in 2013.
In the Gutter and Other Good Places is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Cristine Richey and released in 1993. The film profiles three homeless men in Calgary, Alberta who support themselves dumpster diving and bottle picking for recyclable items.
Shaun Johnston is a Canadian movie and theater actor best known for his role as Jack Bartlett on the CBC drama Heartland, which debuted in October 2007. He co-founded the Shadow Theatre in Edmonton and made his first professional forays in Alberta's thriving theatre scene.
Heart of the Sun is a Canadian drama film, directed by Francis Damberger and released in 1998. Based on the play Jennie's Story by Betty Lambert, the film explores the controversial Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta through the story of Jennie, a woman trying to have a baby with her husband Harry who learns that she was forcibly sterilized as a teenager.
Solitaire is a Canadian drama film, directed by Francis Damberger and released in 1991. The film stars Paul Coeur and Valerie Pearson as Burt and Maggie, smalltown residents whose friendship is tested when Al, Burt's high school best friend and Maggie's ex-fiancé, returns home for a visit on Christmas Eve for the first time since his enlistment in the Vietnam War.
Almost America is a Canadian-Italian drama film, directed by Antonio and Andrea Frazzi and released in 2001.
Road to Saddle River is a Canadian comedy film, directed by Francis Damberger and released in 1994. The film stars Paul Jarrett as "The Cowboy Kid", an Eastern European immigrant to Canada who settles in Alberta and undertakes a road trip in search of Saddle River, his idealized vision of the perfect place to establish his desired cowboy lifestyle. His travelling companions are Sam, an unhappy salesman afflicted with ringworm; Dieter, a German tourist; and Norman Manyheads, a young First Nations man who idolizes Elvis Presley.
Fred Keating is a Canadian-American actor based in Greater Vancouver, Canada.
George Blondheim was a Canadian jazz musician and composer from Edmonton, Alberta. He is most noted for his work composing music for the films Angel Square, for which he won the Genie Award for Best Original Song at the 12th Genie Awards in 1991, and Whale Music, for which he was nominated for Best Original Score at the 15th Genie Awards in 1994.
Valerie Pearson is a Canadian actress from Calgary, Alberta. She is most noted for her performance in the 1991 film Solitaire, for which she received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actress at the 13th Genie Awards in 1992.
Jasmine Road is a Canadian drama film, directed by Warren Sulatycky and released in 2020. The film stars Greg Ellwand as Mac Bagley, a rancher in rural southern Alberta who has been emotionally closed off since the death of his wife; after his schoolteacher daughter Loretta learns that her student Heba, a Syrian refugee who came to Canada with her mother Layla and uncle Salem, needs to find a new place to live, she invites the family to stay at the ranch, with Mac's initial resistance to the idea giving way to acceptance and a new lease on life as he gets to know them.
Fred Diehl was a Canadian radio and television actor and writer, most noted as the recipient of the John Drainie Award for lifetime achievement in Canadian broadcasting at the 14th ACTRA Awards in 1985.