Writer/Director/Producer/Actor, Shelley Thompson is based in Wolfville, in Mi’kma’ki. She trained at RADA (London, UK); Canadian Film Centre (Toronto,ON); Women In the Directors Chair (Vancouver, BC); the Writers Lab (NYC,NY); and most recently the Whistler Film Festival’s Producer’s Lab. Her award-winning short films include DUCK DUCK GOOSE, about the impact of school lockdowns on children, which won Best Atlantic Short at Halifax Int FF, was selected by Telefilm Canada’s Not Short on Talent for Clermont-Ferrand, and was a finalist in CBC’s Short Film Faceoff. Her first feature, Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor was released in 2021, selling out at InsideOut, FIN, and the UK’s BFI Flare Festival. It played at festivals and in cinemas across Canada, settling on CRAVE Canada, while continuing festival play outside Canada. In November 2022, DAWN won the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award, Nova Scotia’s largest arts award, and won or was nominated for numerous festival awards including a nomination for Whistler’s Borsos prize.
Presently, Thompson is working on the features Bouquet (a finalist in the 2022 TIFF Screenwriters award); Everybody Hates Randy an ensemble comedy; and her first documentary series Rescued by Love with producer John Galway. Her first novel ROAR (Nimbus/Vantage press) will be published in the fall of 2023.
Also a highly respected performer, Thompson is an ACTRA/Gemini winner for her roles in Trailer Park Boys, and feature films Splinters (Thom Fitzgerald) and The Child Remains (Michael Melski). Recent screen credits include CBC TV’s Moonshine, CTV’s Sullivan’s Crossing.
A committed LGBTQ+2SP ally, Shelley Thompson is proud parent to singer/songwriter T. Thomason.
Awards & Nominations
Dawn, Her Dad, & the Tractor (feature film)
2022, Nova Scotia Masterworks Award
2021, Borsos Prize Nomination, Whistler Film Festival
Duck, Duck, Goose (short film)
2018, Atlantic Canadian Award (Best Short Film), Atlantic Film Festival
2018, Short Film Face-off Finalist, CBC
WIDC Award Winner
“With the incredible support of the WIDC and the award sponsors, my hope is that this story will encourage what I’ve been privy to in my family: the coming together of family and community to value, advocate for and celebrate trans individuals as they journey to their most authentic selves.”