Albert Shin is a Canadian filmmaker, best known for his critically acclaimed

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...

-nominated films ''

In Her Place ''In Her Place'' ( ko, 인 허 플레이스) is a 2014 Canadian- South Korean film directed and written by Albert Shin. The film follows a wealthy woman who moves in to the countryside home of a pregnant teenage girl and her mother and waits to ...

'' (2014) and ''

Disappearance at Clifton Hill ''Disappearance at Clifton Hill'' (initially known as ''Clifton Hill'') is a 2019 Canadian thriller film, directed by Albert Shin. The film stars Tuppence Middleton as Abby, a young woman who returns home to Niagara Falls, Ontario, when she inhe ...

'' (2019). He works frequently with collaborator

Igor Drljaca Igor Drljaca (born 1983) is a Bosnian Canadian film writer, producer and director.

Early life

Shin was born in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and raised in Newmarket,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. His parents are of South Korean descent. Shin later studied film production at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

, where he created several short films.

Career

Before making the leap into features, Shin directed the short film ''Kai's Place'', and the short-run television series ''In Counseling''. His feature

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

, ''Point Traverse'', was released in 2009. The

microbudget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...

film screened at several film festivals, including the

Wisconsin Film Festival The Wisconsin Film Festival is an annual film festival, founded in 1999. The festival is held every April in Madison, Wisconsin, and has recently been expanded from five days to eights days. The Festival presents a broad range of independent Ameri ...

''In Her Place''

His second feature film was released in 2014; it was acclaimed by critics and screened at festivals around the world. For his work on ''In Her Place'', Shin won several awards, and garnered several

nominations at the

3rd Canadian Screen Awards The 3rd Canadian Screen Awards were held on March 1, 2015, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2014.Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

and

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

. The film received positive reviews from critics upon release and holds an 80% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Jay Weissberg wrote, in his ''Variety'' review, "an acutely observed psychodrama from sophomore helmer Albert Shin, powered by three sterling performances." ''NOW Magazine'' called it "an expertly plotted drama that packs a paralyzing emotional gut punch." ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' praised it as "thematically ambitious, and blunt in its portrayal of the bloody-minded demands of domestic bliss."

''Disappearance at Clifton Hill''

Five years later, Shin co-wrote and directed the 2019 thriller ''Disappearance at Clifton Hill'', starring

Tuppence Middleton Tuppence Middleton (born 21 February 1987) is an English actress known for her performances in film, television and theatre. In 2010, she was nominated for the ''London Evening Standard'' Film Awards for Most Promising Newcomer. Middleton appea ...

Hannah Gross Hannah Gross (born ) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Debbie Mitford in the Netflix drama '' Mindhunter''. Early life Gross grew up in Toronto. She is the daughter of actors Martha Burns and Paul Gross. She attended New ...

Marie-Josée Croze Marie-Josée Croze (; born February 23, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She also holds French citizenship, which she obtained in December 2012. Early life Croze was born in Montreal, Quebec, was adopted, and grew up in Longueuil with four other ch ...

Eric Johnson Eric Johnson may refer to: Music *Eric Johnson (guitarist) (born 1954) an American guitarist and recording artist * Eric D. Johnson (born 1976), member of multiple indie-rock bands including Fruit Bats, The Shins and Califone Politics * Eric Joh ...

and the Canadian filmmaker

David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation ...

. The film, originally titled ''Clifton Hill'', was partially inspired by the motel Shin's parents owned in

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

. It premiered at the

2019 Toronto International Film Festival The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film '' Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band'', directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a ...

and was released theatrically in the U.S. and Canada on February 28, 2020.

Timelapse Pictures

Shin founded the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

-based production company Timelapse Pictures with producing partner

Igor Drljaca Igor Drljaca (born 1983) is a Bosnian Canadian film writer, producer and director.

Filmography

Shin has also edited his first two features, as well as Drljaca's ''Krivina'' (2012) and Jessup's ''Boy'' (2015).

Awards

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shin, Albert 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Film directors from Ontario Canadian film producers Canadian writers of Asian descent Canadian people of South Korean descent People from Newmarket, Ontario York University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Asian-Canadian filmmakers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male screenwriters