Sarah

Polley

Biography

SARAH POLLEY is a Governor General’s Award-winning writer-director-producer whose dramatic features include Away from Her (nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction) and Take This Waltz. Her autobiographical Stories We Tell was awarded Best Documentary by the Toronto Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The film was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Polley’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace for Netflix and CBC, which she Executive Produced, garnered six Canadian Screen Awards including Best Screenplay, Director, Actress and Limited Series.  Sarah served as Executive Producer on Attiya Khan’s A Better Man and co-directed and executive produced the web series Hey Lady!.

Polley wrote and directed the film Women Talking, based on the novel by Miriam Toews, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Her first published work, a collection of essays entitled Run Towards the Danger, published by Penguin Random House, won the Toronto Book Award.

Assets

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Resume

SELECTED WORK

Women Talking Writer/Director Plan B Entertainment
Alias Grace Writer/ Executive Producer Netflix/CBC
A Better Man Executive Producer Intervention Productions
Stories We Tell Writer/ Director/Executive Producer National Film Board of Canada
Take This Waltz Writer/ Director/Executive Producer National Film Board of Canada
Away From Her Writer/ Director/Executive Producer Foundry Films/Lions Gate
I Shout Love Writer/ Director/Executive Producer Independent/Lions Gate
The Harp: The Shield Stories Writer CBC TV
Don’t Think Twice Writer/ Director/Executive Producer Canadian Film Centre
The Best Day of My Life Writer/ Director/Executive Producer On the Fly 4 Film Festival

AWARDS:

Canadian Screen Award, Best Adapted Screenplay, Alias Grace
Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Best Documentary Film, Stories We Tell
New York Film Critics Circle Award, Best Documentary Film, Stories We Tell
National Board of Review, Best Documentary Film, Stories We Tell
Writers Guild of American, Best Documentary Screenplay, Stories We Tell
Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Best Documentary, Stories We Tell
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, Best Documentary Film, Stories We Tell
Genie Awards (Canadian Film), Claude Jutra Award for Best First Feature, Director, Away From Her
Genie Award, Best Adapted Screenplay, Away From Her
Genie Award, Best Director, Away From Her
Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Best Female Director, Away From Her
Genie Awards, Best Live Action Short Drama, I Shout Love
Academy Awards Nomination, Best Adapted Screenplay, Away From Her