Christian Sparkes

Christian Sparkes
Born
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Occupations

Christian Sparkes is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.[1] He is most noted for his film Cast No Shadow, which was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Picture at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015.[2]

An alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre, Sparkes directed a number of short films before releasing Cast No Shadow as his feature debut in 2014. The film premiered at the 2014 Atlantic Film Festival, where it received awards from the festival for Best Atlantic Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Cinematography.[3]

His second feature film, Hammer, premiered at the 2019 Whistler Film Festival before going into commercial release in 2020.[4] His third feature film, The King Tide, was shot in 2022,[5] and premiered in the Platform Prize program at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.[6]

In 2020 he was announced as the director of a film adaptation of Michael Crummey's novel Sweetland.[7] The completed film, Sweetland, premiered at the 2023 Atlantic International Film Festival.[8]

  1. ^ "Local filmmakers hope to lure weekend audiences to Cast No Shadow". CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador, April 5, 2015.
  2. ^ Simon Houpt, "Mommy, Maps to the Stars set for showdown at Canadian Screen Awards". The Globe and Mail, January 14, 2015.
  3. ^ "Newfoundland film casts big shadow at festival". The Chronicle-Herald, September 14, 2014.
  4. ^ Barry Hertz, "Slick Canadian thriller Hammer pounds away with the intensity of a thousand mallets". The Globe and Mail, June 23, 2020.
  5. ^ Etan Vlessing, "Frances Fisher, Lara Jean Chorostecki Topline ‘The King Tide’ Thriller". The Hollywood Reporter, December 1, 2022.
  6. ^ John Hazelton, "Toronto unveils 2023 Platform line-up; ‘Dream Scenario’ with Nicolas Cage to open". Screen Daily, August 2, 2023.
  7. ^ Kelly Townsend, "Telefilm invests $7M across 20 English-language features". Playback, August 26, 2020.
  8. ^ "Atlantic International Film Festival returns to Halifax Sept. 14-21". SaltWire Network, August 16, 2023.