One of Canada's most provocative and in-demand directors, Jerry
Ciccoritti has directed feature films, television movies and
mini-series, and garnered accolades in all mediums over the course of
his career. His features have consistently been invited to film
festivals throughout the world and, in television, he has been awarded
a Gemini for Best Film, seven Geminis for Best Director, three
Directors Guild of Canada Awards and a Genie nomination for Best
Adapted Screenplay.
A second-generation Italian-Canadian, Jerry has always made telling
Canadian stories--particularly ones that reflect issues of the
immigrant experience in Canada--a career priority. He has directed
biographies of some of our most influential and inspiring citizens,
including the critically acclaimed
Trudeau (2002) mini-series.
With "Trudeau", Ciccoritti made exciting and dynamic television about a
Canadian for Canadians, and changed the face of home-grown television
in the process. In the recent past he directed the adaptation of the
beloved novel
Lives of the Saints (2004),
recounting the personal story of an Italian family that immigrated to
Canada; the harrowing true story of a woman's fight for justice in
The Many Trials of One Jane Doe (2002);
a true account of the murder of Nancy Eaton,
The Death and Life of Nancy Eaton (2004);
and the emotional bio-pic of singer
Shania Twain,
Shania: A Life in Eight Albums (2005).
Jerry first began working in film in his 20s, writing and directing
low-budget indie horror films such as
Psycho Girls (1986),
Nachtschicht (1986) and
Graveyard Shift II (1989),
establishing himself as a genre cult figure. Jerry turned his hand to
television in the early 1990s, where he quickly earned critical acclaim
and awards working on projects including
Hitchhiker - Unglaubliche Geschichten (1983),
Nikita (1997),
Catwalk - Eine Band will nach oben (1992),
Ein Mountie in Chicago (1994) and the
groundbreaking mini-series
Straight Up (1996) I and II. It
was his work on television movies, however, that brought him the
greatest degree of recognition. He was awarded Gemini Awards for Best
Direction for
Net Worth (1995),
Chasing Cain (2001).
While honing his distinctive style in television, Ciccoritti continued
making feature films such as the controversial
Paris, France (1993), a box-office
hit and included in the collection "The 50 Most Erotic Films of All
Time". His 1999 feature
The Life Before This (1999)
was selected for the Toronto and Berlin film festivals and earned
Catherine O'Hara a Genie Award as Best
Supporting Actress.
Boy Meets Girl - Liebe wirkt Wunder (1998), which
also premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, was named Best Film at the
Cologne Film Festival.
In 2004 Jerry brought a very personal film,
Blood (2004), adapted from the stage play
of the same name, to the Toronto International Film Festival. A highly
experimental work that challenges notions of singular perception and
truth, "Blood" became a festival favorite, won him a Genie nomination
for Best Adapted Screenplay and, most recently, a Directors Guild of
Canada award nomination for Best Achievement in Direction for a feature
film.
Alongside his nomination for "Blood", Jerry has also been nominated by
the Directors Guild for Best Achievement in Direction in the TV
movie/mini-series category, for "Lives of the Saints". It is the first
time he has been nominated for television and feature film
simultaneously - a very fitting acknowledgment for a man who has worked
so fluidly in both mediums.
