Kathleen Hepburn is a 2014 alumna of the Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) program, and the Canadian Film Centre’s Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Writers’ Lab. She is a co-founder of Experimental Forest Films. Her debut feature film Never Steady, Never Still, which was awarded the WIDC Feature Film Award and Best Screenplay at the 2014 Vancouver International Women in Film Festival, funded by Telefilm Canada, Harold Greenberg Fund and distributed by Soda Pictures, toured around the world and earned multiple awards. The film features Shirley Henderson (Meek’s Cutoff, Harry Potter), Théodore Pellerin (Les Demons), Nicholas Campbell (Da Vinci’s Inquest) and Mary Galloway (Firesong). Hepburn’s concept short of the same name was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, featured in TIFF Canada’s Top Ten, and was awarded best dramatic film at Yorkton, InsideOut and the 2015 Leo’s.
Hepbrun’s second feature, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, co-written and co-directed with Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, world premiered at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival and had its Canadian premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and won three, including Best Director.
Hepburn is in development on several dramatic features and television series including Murder In Hellcat Strait, a mystery set on a long-line halibut boat; and Little Things, an unflinching drama that digs into the messy world of parenthood, gender, friendship and love.
WIDC Award Winner
“This will be my first feature as a writer / director and getting this far has been extremely daunting, but with this generous award and the WIDC by my side, it suddenly all feels very real and very achievable and I really can’t wait to get down to work.”