Madeleine Sims-Fewer

Born in Kawartha Lakes, Madeleine Sims-Fewer is a British-Canadian actress and independent filmmaker who began with short films before making her feature debut in Operation Avalanche (2016). In 2015 she met Dusty Mancinelli at the TIFF Talent Lab, and from 2017 they have co-directed shorts through their DM Films venture. Their collaborations include Slap Happy, selected for the BFI London Film Festival, Woman in Stall, which took the short film grand jury prize at Slamdance, and Chubby, shown at Telluride in 2019. Their first feature, Violation (2020), premiered in the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto International Film Festival, was chosen for the Fantastic 7 genre initiative, and became a New York Times Critic's Pick. Sims-Fewer earned two Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards, for Best Actress and Best Film, and was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, for Best Actress and for the John Dunning Best First Feature Award.