Anne Wheeler

Anne Wheeler OC
Born	Dorothy Anne Wheeler (1946-09-23) September 23, 1946 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupations	Film director Film producer Screenwriter,Short Story Writer
Years active	1975–present

Anne Wheeler, OC, (born September 23, 1946) is a Canadian film and television writer, producer, and director.

Biography

After graduating in mathematics from the University of Alberta, Wheeler was a computer programmer before traveling abroad. Her years of travels inspired her to become a storyteller and when she returned she joined a group of old friends to form a film collective. From 1975 to 1985 she worked for the NFB where she made her first feature film, A War Story (1981), which was about her father, Ben Wheeler and his time as a doctor in a P.O.W. camp during World War II. The war is a common theme in her work and she revisited it later in her films Bye Bye Blues (1989) and The War Between Us (1995). Her first non-NFB film was Loyalties in 1986.

In addition to her films, Wheeler has directed episodes of Anne with an E, Private Eyes, Strange Empire, The Romeo Section, The Guard, This Is Wonderland, Da Vinci's Inquest, and Cold Squad.

Awards and honors

Wheeler has been nominated four times for the Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction for her films Loyalties (1986), Cowboys Don't Cry (1988), Bye Bye Blues (1989), and Suddenly Naked (2001). Her 1998 television miniseries, The Sleep Room, won Gemini awards for best television movie and best direction.

In 2017 Wheeler won a Leo Award for Best Direction (Television Film) for the Hallmark movie Stop the Wedding.

Wheeler was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1995. In 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Wheeler has also been awarded seven honorary doctorates and is the first woman to be given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of Canada.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer
1986	Loyalties	Yes	Yes	No
1988	Cowboys Don't Cry	Yes	Yes	Yes
1989	Bye Bye Blues	Yes	Yes	Yes
1991	Angel Square	Yes	Yes	No
1999	Better Than Chocolate	Yes	No	No
2000	Marine Life	Yes	No	No
2001	Suddenly Naked	Yes	No	Executive
2002	Edge of Madness	Yes	Yes	No
2011	Knockout	Yes	No	No

Documentary film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer
1975	Great Grand Mother	Yes	Yes	No
1976	Augusta	Yes	Yes	No
1981	A War Story	Yes	Yes	Yes
2000	The Orkney Lad: The Story of Isabel Gunn	Yes	No	No
2013	Chi	Yes	No	No
1977	Happily Unmarried	No	No	Yes
1978	Priory: The Only Home I've Got	No	No	Yes
1979	Triangle Island	No	No	Yes
	Welfare Mothers	No	No	Yes
	Never a Dull Moment	No	No	Yes
1983	Great Days in the Rockies	No	No	Yes
	From Bears to Bartok	No	No	Yes
1984	Children Of Alcohol	No	No	Yes
	This Is Only a Test	No	No	Yes

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Writer
1977	Happily Unmarried	Yes	No
1978	Teach Me to Dance	Yes	No
2000	Legs Apart	Yes	Yes

Television

TV movies

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Writer
1984	Change of Heart	Yes	No	No	For the Record series
1993	The Diviners	Yes	No	No	3-hour special
	Other Women's Children	Yes	No	No
1995	The War Between Us	Yes	No	No
1996	Mother Trucker: The Diana Kilmury Story	No	Yes	Yes
2002	The Investigation	Yes	No	No
2003	Betrayed	Yes	Yes	No
2004	A Beachcombers Christmas	Yes	No	No
2006	Christmas on Chestnut Street	Yes	No	No
2007	Mom, Dad and Her	Yes	No	No
2008	Mail Order Bride	Yes	No	No
	Living Out Loud	Yes	No	No
	Dancing Trees (Partners in Crime)	Yes	No	No
2009	The Gambler, the Girl and the Gunslinger	Yes	No	No
2012	The Horses of McBride	Yes	No	No
2014	The Color of Rain	Yes	No	No
2015	A Country Wedding	Yes	No	No
2016	Stop the Wedding	Yes	No	No	Best Direction, 2017 Leo Awards
2023	Friends & Family Christmas	Yes	No	No

TV series

Year	Title	Notes
1984-1985	Global Playhouse	Episodes One's a Heifer and To Set Our House in Order (Also writer)
1985	The Ray Bradbury Theater	1 episode
1990	Mom P.I.	2 episodes
1992	North of 60	2 episodes
1995	Jake and the Kid	2 episodes
1996	The Adventures of Shirley Holmes	Pilot
1998	Cold Squad	3 episodes
	The Sleep Room	Miniseries
1998-2003	Da Vinci's Inquest	7 episodes
2000	Mysterious Ways	1 episode
	Beggars and Choosers	1 episode
2004-2005	This Is Wonderland	8 episodes
2005	Godiva's	2 episode
2006	Jozi-H	2 episodes
	The Guard	2 episodes
2014	Heartland	2 episodes
2021	Firefly Lane	2 episodes

See also

• List of female film and television directors
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women

External links

• Canadian Film Encyclopedia |A publication of The Film Reference Library/a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group
• Official web site
• Anne Wheeler at IMDb
• Anne Wheeler at the Canadian Women Film Directors Database
• Anne Wheeler at the National Film Board of Canada