In addition to Brian De Palma's Redacted, the Film Farm has produced such critically acclaimed films as Away From Her, In Between Days, Luck, and Soul Cages.
Partners Simone Urdl and Jennifer Weiss formed The Film Farm in 1998 after first producing together on the feature film Jack & Jill. After the success they had with the film, which was released theatrically in Canada by then Alliance Releasing and received two Genie (Canadian Oscar) nominations, Urdl and Weiss began a partnership and have now been producing together for over 10 years.
Their films include: Soul Cages, which screened at numerous prestigious festivals, was the winner of the CSC Award for best cinematography in a short film and received a Genie nomination for Best Dramatic Short Film; Luck, which won the Best Narrative Feature Film award at the 2004 South By Southwest Film Festival, toured the UK as part of the prestigious UK Canadian Screenings in association with The Toronto International Film Festival and the Edinburgh Film Festival, was nominated for a Best Screenplay Genie and was released theatrically by Odeon Films to four-star reviews; Shorts In Motion together with Foundry Films, for the National Film Board of Canada and Bravo!FACT is series of short films directed by Sook-Yin Lee, Don McKellar, Sudz Sutherland and Mark McKinney, which premiered at the Banff festival and has won awards at digital festivals worldwide.
Their two most recent feature films, the co-production In Between Days, directed by So Yong Kim, and Away From Her directed by Sarah Polley and starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent, have been exceptional successes for The Film Farm. In Between Days premiered in Official Competition at Sundance (2006) where it won the Special Jury Prize for Independent Vision and then went on to win the FIRPRESCI Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival where it screened in the Forum. The film has gone on to screen at numerous international film festivals including Karlovy Vary, Toronto International and Pusan. Most recently, the film received two Gotham Award nominations and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.
Away From Her premiered at The Toronto International Film Festival 2006 to unanimously rave reviews. Within 24 hours of the premiere, the film had sold in 27 territories including a significant U.S. sale to Liongate. The film had its American premiere to rave response as the gala opening film at Sundance 2007 and it's European premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film was released simultaneously in Canada and the United States on May 4th, 2007 and has earned over a million dollars in Canada and almost 4 million in North America.
Simone and Jennifer are currently in pre-production on Adoration, which is written and directed by Atom Egoyan. Their other projects include Imaginary Lovers, a multi-media project with Don McKellar; and feature film projects in development with Susan Shipton, and So Yong Kim. They are in post production on Night Vision a short film from artist Phillip Barker; and their short Double Bill was part of an international project to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival directed by Atom Egoyan.
Simone and Jennifer were the consultants and producers of the Toronto International Film Festival's Talent Lab, for its first three years to 2006. As the producers of the Lab, they have worked with Michael Ondaatje, Gus Van Sant, Sally Potter, Jan Chapman, Don McKellar, Bingham Ray, Terry Gilliam, Mary Harron, Jem Cohen, Carlos Reygadas, Neil Jordan, Phillip Noyce, Kevin Spacey, Guy Maddin, Peter Mettler, Paul Cox, Clara Law, Ziad Douieri, Jonathan Caouette; Paul Haggis, Anne Coates, Dede Allen; Christopher Doyle; Mary Jane Skalski, Roger Frappier, Stephen Wooley, Lee Daniels, Robert Lantos and Ted Hope, among others.
