Bretten Hannam

Canadian screenwriter and film director

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

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]

## Filmography[edit]

* New Skin (2008)
* Puppy (2010)
* Deep End (2011)
* North Mountain (2015)
* Elmiteskuatl (2018)
* Wildfire (2019)
* Wildhood (2021)

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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.

## External links[edit]

* Bretten Hannam at IMDb

* v
* t
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Toronto Film Critics Association's Jay Scott Prize

* Xavier Dolan (2009)
* Daniel Cockburn (2010)
* Ingrid Veninger (2011)
* Nicolás Pereda (2012)
* Matt Johnson (2013)
* Albert Shin (2014)
* Anne Émond (2015)
* Ashley McKenzie (2016)
* Sofia Bohdanowicz (2017)
* Molly McGlynn (2018)
* Deragh Campbell (2019)
* Kelly Fyffe-Marshall (2020)
* Bretten Hannam (2021)
* Carol Nguyen (2022)
* Ariane Louis-Seize (2023)

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* United States

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