Julia Kwan

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Julia Kwan is a Vancouver-based filmmaker who studied film and minored in psychology at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto. She was also a director resident at Norman Jewison's prestigious Canadian Film Centre, where she made her award-winning short, Three Sisters on Moon Lake. Kwan's short films have traveled extensively and have received many awards, including best film awards in Montreal, New Orleans and Houston, and audience awards in Toronto, Arkansas and Sao Paulo. In 2005, Kwan made her feature film debut with Eve & the Fire Horse, based on her Writers Guild of Canada award-winning script. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the coveted Special Jury Prize for World Cinema. The film picked up awards at festivals in Vancouver, Calgary, San Diego, Oregon and New York, where it also screened at the MoMA. In 2007, Kwan won the prestigious Claude Jutra Award for Best Direction for a First Feature Film and received five nominations, including Best Supporting Actor and Actress, at the Genie Awards (Canadian Oscars).