Bio
Paula Kelly is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her films have earned recognition and screened at festivals around the world, many of them produced or co-produced through her company, Journey Films Inc.
She recently released her first dramatic feature film, Euphoria, produced and distributed by Inferno Pictures, with the support of Telefilm Canada, Superchannel and Manitoba Film and Music. CBC reviewer Alison Gillmor called the film "a beautifully shot, powerfully performed drama from Paula Kelly...seamlessly weaves together past and present." The film has received multiple awards and nominations including the top prize, Best of Show, at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto.
Kelly's projects include the public art project Souvenirs, a trio of short films which explore Winnipeg's urban identity. These films were commissioned as part of an artist-in-residency through the Winnipeg Arts Council's Public Art Program. Souvenirs was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the 2009 Yorkton Film Festival and exhibited at various festivals, conferences and symposia, including My City is Still Breathing in 2010 and the Mediated Cities symposium organized by the University of Manitoba.
Other recent documentary releases include Art and Stone, which explores the architectural vision behind the Winnipeg Art Gallery and The Trib: Story of an Underdog Newspaper, both commissioned by MTS TV.
Paula Kelly also wrote and directed the feature-length arts documentary entitled Appassionata: The Extraordinary Life and Music of Sonia Eckhardt-Gramatté, commissioned for CBC's Opening Night, and co-produced by Buffalo Gal Pictures. Appassionata premiered at the Montreal International Festival of Films on Art and screened at the Rome Music DOCFEST section of the Festival di Palazzo Venezia. The film was awarded a Chris Statue at the 2006 Columbus Film & Video Festival, as well the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Gimli Film Festival.
She also wrote and directed several episodes of the acclaimed documentary series, The Sharing Circle, produced by Eagle Vision Inc., as well as an episode of the youth action-adventure series, 2030CE, produced by Minds Eye Entertainment and Buffalo Gal Pictures.
Other independent projects include The Notorious Mrs. Armstrong, a television documentary which won three Blizzard Awards for best writing, directing and editing, a Gemini Nomination for best editing, and a Bronze Plaque from the Columbus Film & Video Festival.
Her body of work received a retrospective screening in her hometown of Winnipeg, after receiving the inaugural Manitoba Film Hothouse Award for Creative Development from the Winnipeg Film Group.
Critical writing about Paula's work includes a chapter devoted to her works in Place: 13 Essays, 13 Filmmakers, 1 City, a book publication from the Winnipeg Film Group. Kelly has also produced critical writing about films and filmmaking in Prairie Fire literary magazine and Canada's History magazine. Her essay Looking for Mrs. Armstrong was nominated for two Western Canadian Magazine Awards.
Paula Kelly is a recipient of both the WIDC BANFF Fellowship and the CTV BANFF Fellowship awards and an alumna of the Women in the Director's Chair Workshop at the Banff Centre for Media Arts and the Canadian Film Centre. She holds a Double Honours Degree in English and History from the University of Manitoba.
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