Sarah Polley

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B: January 8, 1979 in Toronto, Ontario

Sarah Polley had the odds stacked against her if she wanted to grow up to be anything else other than an actor, or filmmaker. Her dad was an actor and her mom was a casting agent. So it should come as no surprise that she began her career at the tender age of just 4 in One Magic Christmas. She liked the process enough to keep pushing her parents into letting her do more. She has gone on to accomplish so much that in January of 2006 it was announced that Polley would receive ACTRA Toronto’s Award of Excellence. The announcement said, in part, “Sarah Polley is one of Canada’s treasures. She is a commanding actor who has taken on varied and challenging roles while becoming one of our most recognizable Canadian stars.” Sarah Polley was honoured for her work with the Order of Canada in 2014. She is pictured with a 2018 Canadian Screen Award shared with Noreen Halpern, Mary Harron and D.J. Carson for Best Limited Series or Program for Alias Grace.

Sarah Polley’s 2022 film, Women Talking, is based on the book by Miriam Toews. Polley, in a statement, said in part, “In Women Talking, a group of women, many of whom disagree on essential things, have a conversation to figure out how they might move forward together to build a better world for themselves and their children. Though the backstory behind the events in Women Talking is violent, the film is not. We never see the violence that the women have experienced. We see only short glimpses of the aftermath. Instead, we watch a community of women come together as they must decide, in a very short space of time, what their collective response will be.” Women Talking screened at TIFF 2022 and Sarah Polley won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar® for Women Talking at the 95th annual Academy Awards.

Also see: Flashback: Sarah Polley in 2006.
Also see: TIFF 2022 – Day Six.
Learn more about Sarah Polley
Also see: Sarah Polley talks to Northernstars about the making of Take This Waltz.

Features & TV Movies:
VR indicates Direct-to-Video Release

One Magic Christmas (1985)
The Big Town (1987)
Hands of a Stranger (TV-1987)
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Babar The Movie (voice, 1989)

Lantern Hill (TV-1990)
Johann`s Gift to Christmas (TV-1991)
Exotica (1994)
Joe’s So Mean to Josephine (1996)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
The Planet of Junior Brown (1997)
The Hanging Garden (1997)
Last Night (1998)
Jerry & Tom (1998)
White Lies (TV-1998)
The Life Before This (1999)
eXistenZ (1999)
Guinevere (1999)
Go (1999)

The Weight of Water (2000)
Love Come Down (2000)
The Claim (2000)
The Law of Enclosures (2000)
This Might Be Good (2000)
No Such Thing (2001)
The I Inside (2003)
The Event (2003)
My Life Without Me (2003)
Dermott’s Quest (2003)
Luck (2003)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Sugar (2004)
Siblings (2004)
Don’t Come Knocking (2005)
The Secret Life of Words (2005)
3 Needles (2005)
Beowulf & Grendel (2005)
Cock & Bull (2006)
Splice (2009)
Mr. Nobody (2009)