Kirsten Carthew is a Canadian film director, producer and screenwriter from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. [1]
Carthew made a number of short films, most notably Fish Out of Water in 2015, [2] before releasing her debut feature film, The Sun at Midnight , in 2016. [3] Her second feature film, Polaris , went into production in 2021, [4] and was released in 2022. [5]
In 2018, she was one of eight women filmmakers selected for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Apprenticeship for Women Directors program, alongside Kathleen Hepburn, Tiffany Hsiung, Alicia K. Harris, Allison White, Asia Youngman, Halima Ouardiri, and Kristina Wagenbauer. [6]
Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about 400 km (250 mi) south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of the Yellowknife River.
The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, founded in 1976 and taking place each September. It is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Lightbox cultural centre, located in Downtown Toronto.
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and former actress. She has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), for which she has received two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Campion was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) in the 2016 New Year Honours, for services to film.
Sarah Ellen Polley is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, political activist and retired actress. She first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary's books. This subsequently led to her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea (1990–1996). She has starred in many feature films, including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Guinevere (1999), Go (1999), The Weight of Water (2000), No Such Thing (2001), My Life Without Me (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Splice (2009), and Mr. Nobody (2009).
Polaris is a star, also known as the North Star.
Deepa Mehta, is an Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005).
Dustin Wallace Milligan is a Canadian actor, known for his role as Ethan Ward on the teen drama television series 90210 from 2008 until 2009, Tom Cummings in the Canadian spy thriller television series X Company from 2015 until 2016, Ted Mullens on the Canadian television comedy series Schitt's Creek from 2015 until 2020, and Josh Carter on American television comedy series Rutherford Falls from 2021 until 2022. He has also appeared in a number of films.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a Canadian-Pakistani journalist, filmmaker and political activist known for her work in films that highlight gender inequality against women.
Kirsten Johnson is an American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer. She is mostly known for her camera work on several well-known feature-length documentaries such as Citizenfour and The Oath. In 2016, she released Cameraperson, a film which consists of various pieces of footage from her decades of work all over the world as a documentary cinematographer. Directed by Johnson herself, Cameraperson went on to be praised for its handling of themes about documentary ethics interwoven with Johnson's personal reflection on her experiences.
Zoe Leigh Hopkins is a Canadian Heiltsuk/Mohawk writer and film director who began her career in acting in 1991 and later pursued filmmaking.
Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers is a Blackfoot and Sámi filmmaker, actor, and producer from the Kainai First Nation in Canada. She has won several accolades for her film work, including multiple Canadian Screen Awards.
Kathleen Hepburn is a Canadian screenwriter and film director. She first attracted acclaim for her film Never Steady, Never Still, which premiered as a short film in 2015 before being expanded into her feature film debut in 2017. The film received eight Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, including Best Picture and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Hepburn.
Amanda Parris is a Canadian broadcaster and writer. An arts reporter and producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she hosts the CBC Television series Exhibitionists, The Filmmakers and From the Vaults, and the CBC Music radio series Marvin's Room. She was cohost with Tom Power of the 2016 Polaris Music Prize ceremony. She writes the weekly column Black Light for CBC Arts.
Tiffany Hsiung is a Canadian documentary filmmaker. She is most noted for her 2016 documentary film The Apology, which won a Peabody Award in 2019, and her 2020 short documentary film Sing Me a Lullaby, which won the Share Her Journey award at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, and the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021.
Halima Ouardiri is a Swiss-Canadian film director, screenwriter, and producer.
Alicia K. Harris is a Scarborough, Ontario, Canada-based film director and screenwriter. She attracted critical acclaim for her 2019 short film Pick, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020.
Kristina Wagenbauer is a Canadian film director and screenwriter based in Montreal, Quebec. She is most noted for her 2017 feature film Sashinka, for which she was a Prix Iris nominee for Best Casting at the 21st Quebec Cinema Awards in 2019, and her 2021 short film Babushka, which was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Short Documentary at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.
Polaris is a 2022 Canadian action film directed by Kirsten Carthew. The film stars Viva Lee as Sumi, a young girl who is trying to reunite with her mother after being kidnapped by marauders, and is lost in a frozen wasteland where her only guide is a polar bear.
Asia Youngman is a Cree-Métis filmmaker from Canada.