Ron Kelly (born June 11, 1929 in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

) is a Canadian

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. He began his career with the CBC film unit, directing many

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

and

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

s between 1952 and 1964. He traveled to France, Spain and Mexico producing and directing documentaries independently from 1956 to 1958. From 1959 to 1962 he studied at

Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...

, England, on a Canadian Arts Council fellowship and while there produced and directed documentaries for the

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, CBC and National Office of Film, UK. In 1967 he co-wrote and directed the feature film

Waiting for Caroline ''Waiting for Caroline'' is a 1967 Canadian drama film directed by Ron Kelly (filmmaker), Ron Kelly and starring Alexandra Stewart, François Tassé, and William Needles.Gerald Pratley, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 233 ...

, as a commemoration of Canada's centennial year. ''Waiting for Caroline'' was distributed internationally by United Artists, Hollywood. In Hollywood in 1968, Kelly directed for Twentieth Century Fox Studios and Disney Studio. In 1970 he returned to Canada, writing, directing and producing dramas and documentaries for the NFB and CBC. His most recent film is ''Victims of Victims'' (2004), a documentary exploration of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Awards and recognition

Ron Kelly received the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

for England at the

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 ...

, 1962 for ''The Tearaways''. In 1965 he received a

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

for Best Direction for his film The Gift, a documentary on

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

, and again in 1967 for an episode of the TV Series

Wojeck ''Wojeck'' is a Canadian dramatic television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1966 to 1968. It was arguably the first successful drama series on English Canadian television. Plot Steve Wojeck is a crusading big city coroner who regul ...

entitled ''The Last Man in the World''. The latter also received the

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

at Monte Carlo. Kelly's television productions of ''The Open Grave'' (a 1964 episode of the TV series

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

) and

The Megantic Outlaw ''The Megantic Outlaw'' is a Canadian historical drama television film, directed by Ron Kelly and broadcast by CBC Television in 1971.

(1970) were also winners of Canadian Film Awards, and ''The Open Grave'' won the

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...

in Genoa. ''The Irish'' received 1st prize for documentaries at the New York Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival and the Chicago Film Festival's Gold Bear Award in 1975.

Partial filmography

*'' The Open Grave'' (1964) *'' Centennial Travellers'' (Documentary, 1965) *'' Quo Vadis, Mrs. Lumb?'' (Documentary, 1965) *'' The Gift'' (1965) *'' Valley in a River'' (Documentary, 1966) *'' The Last Man in the World'' (1966) *''

'' (1967) *''

King of the Grizzlies ''King of the Grizzlies'' is a 1970 adventure film directed by Ron Kelly and written by Jack Speirs, Rod Peterson and Norman Wright as a loose adaptation of Ernest Thompson Seton's 1900 novel ''Biography Of A Grizzly''. The film stars John Yesn ...

'' (1970) *''

The Megantic Outlaw ''The Megantic Outlaw'' is a Canadian historical drama television film, directed by Ron Kelly and broadcast by CBC Television in 1971.

'' (1971) *'' Springhill'' (1972)

References

External links

*
Complete Ron Kelly Filmography at CITWF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Ron 1929 births Living people Film directors from Vancouver Canadian male screenwriters Canadian documentary film directors National Film Board of Canada people Canadian television directors Disney people Canadian Broadcasting Corporation people Writers from Vancouver Best Director Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners