Andrew Cividino (born 1983) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter."Big buzz at Cannes for Canadian auteur's coming-of-age yarn". ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', May 22, 2015. He is best known for his feature film

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 ...

'' Sleeping Giant'', which premiered at the

2015 Cannes Film Festival The 68th Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 May 2015. Joel and Ethan Coen were the Presidents of the Jury for the main competition. It was the first time that two people chaired the jury. Since the Coen brothers each received a separate ...

, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy ''

Schitt's Creek ''Schitt's Creek'' (stylized as ''Schitt$ Creek'') is a Canadian television sitcom created by Dan Levy and his father, Eugene Levy, that aired on CBC Television from 2015 to 2020. It consists of 80 episodes spread over six seasons. Produced by ...

'', for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the

72nd Primetime Emmy Awards The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2019, until May 31, 2020, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was originally to be held at the Microso ...

Early life

Originally from

Dundas Dundas may refer to: Places Australia * Dundas, New South Wales * Dundas, Queensland, a locality in the Somerset Region * Dundas, Tasmania * Dundas, Western Australia * Fort Dundas, a settlement in the Northern Territory 1824–1828 * Shire of ...

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 ...

, Cividino frequently spent childhood summers in the

Sibley Peninsula The Sibley Peninsula is a long and wide peninsula in Ontario, Canada, on Lake Superior. It projects into the lake from Superior's north shore, and separates Thunder Bay to the west from Black Bay to the east.''Sleeping Giant Background Informat ...

region near

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

Career

After studying film at

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

, Cividino made several

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s, including ''Norbert'' (2007), '' We Ate the Children Last'' (2011) and ''Yellow Fish'' (2012). In 2006, he won the

Ontario Film Review Board The Ontario Film Review Board (french: Commission de contrôle cinématographique de l’Ontario) is an inactive agency of the government of the Canadian province of Ontario that was formerly responsible for that province's motion picture rating sy ...

's student film competition. In 2011,

Telefilm A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

included him on its annual Talent to Watch panel, and his short ''We Ate the Children Last'' made

TIFF Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processin ...

's Top 10 Shorts list.

''Sleeping Giant''

When all of the funding fell through for his feature film

, '' Sleeping Giant'', Cividino proceeded with a pared down short film version, which was released in 2014. The short went on to win an award at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

, and received a

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 ...

nomination for Best Live Action Short Drama 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.Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in 2015. It later screened at the

Munich Film Festival Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, where it won the CineVision Award for Best Film By An Emerging Director, and at the

2015 Toronto International Film Festival The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's ''Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naom ...

, where it won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film. At the 2015

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Fest ...

, ''Sleeping Giant'' won the juried Best Canadian Film Award. At the

4th Canadian Screen Awards Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

in 2016, Cividino was a nominee for

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 ...

for ''Sleeping Giant'', which also garnered three other nominations including

Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, though it did not win; Cividino lost the Best Director award to

Lenny Abrahamson Leonard Ian Abrahamson (born 30 November 1966) is an Irish film and television director. He is known for directing such praised independent films as ''Adam & Paul'' (2004), ''Garage'' (2007), ''What Richard Did'' (2012), and ''Frank'' (2014), an ...

for ''

Room In a building or large vehicle, like a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure that connects it to either a passage (architecture), passageway, another roo ...

''.

''Schitt's Creek''

In 2017 Cividino directed an episode of ''

'' titled "Merry Christmas, Johnny Rose", alongside co-director Dan Levy. The following year he co-directed the season finale "Life is a Cabaret" with Levy. In the show's final season, Cividino directed seven episodes of the show, including the series finale "Happy Ending", which he co-directed with Levy, and for which they won a Primetime Emmy. The show received a total of 15 Emmy nominations in its final season, including for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Awards and recognition

In 2016, the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

announced they had selected Cividino as their annual Len Blum resident, where he will develop his short film ''We Ate the Children Last'' into a feature film. Cividino has since participated in Berlinale Talents and was selected as one of eleven filmmakers to participate in the prestigious Sundance Institute's FilmTwo Program. He is a recurring director on ''

'', and was nominated for a

for Best Direction in a Comedy Series for the Christmas special "Merry Christmas, Johnny Rose" alongside co-director Dan Levy.Kelly Townsend
"CSAs ’19: Anne, Schitt’s Creek, Cardinal lead TV nominations"
'' Playback'', February 7, 2019. In July 2020, Cividino and co-director Dan Levy were nominated for achievement in direction at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, and won at the ceremony that took place on September 20, 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cividino, Andrew Film directors from Ontario Canadian male screenwriters People from Dundas, Ontario Writers from Hamilton, Ontario Toronto Metropolitan University alumni Living people 1984 births 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Screenwriters from Ontario Canadian television directors