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Justin Simms

Directing

Biography

Justin Simms is a Newfoundland and Labrador filmmaker whose first feature film, Down to the Dirt, received the best Atlantic feature and best screenplay awards at the Atlantic Film Festival. His feature film adaptation Away from Everywhere (2016), based on the Chad Pelley novel of the same name, had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival as part of Telefilm Canada’s Perspectives Canada program. His non-fiction credits include Hard Light (2011), Danny (2014) and the short Hand.Line.Cod (2016), which premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

Known For

Behind the Red Door
5.4

Natalie, a gifted New York photographer, has a troubled past reflected in her art. When she struggles to make ends meet in the city, her agent, arranges an assignment in Boston for a considerable sum of money. Unable to turn it down in her dire straits, Natalie takes the job -- only to find that her estranged gay brother, Roy, is the employer. Roy wants to mend their broken past, but must convince her to stay long enough to do so.

Behind the Red Door

2003
Crown and Anchor
7.2

When James Downey returns home to Newfoundland for his mother’s funeral, he is faced with all the haunting family issues he thought he had left behind. He channeled his own inner demons from an abusive father into being a police officer but his cousin Danny’s childhood trauma has exploded into a cycle of drugs, crime and violence. James must confront his tortured past, decide who he really is, and deal with his cousin before it’s too late.

Crown and Anchor

2018
Vegas
N/A

When Vegas, a disillusioned artist turned taxi driver, picks up an unassuming stranger, things take a drastic turn when it is revealed not everything is as it appears. Bold and electric, Vegas is a film about the beauty of living ones most expansive and authentic self.

Vegas

2022
Crackie
5.0

Life on the Rock never seemed easy, but for Mitsy it is especially rough. The teenager has been abandoned by her mother, a particularly unfit parent prone to both the bottle and the sex trade. She is left to be brought up by her mercurial grandmother Bride, who is well-meaning but oppressively suffocating. Mitsy's dreams for the future hinge on her desire to be a hairdresser, but her current emotional well-being revolves around a wee dog named Sparky, an unwanted canine misfit to whom she becomes hopelessly attached. After Bride agrees to let Mitsy take the dog in as a pet, the teen tries desperately to create a happy, safe place for Sparky to thrive.

Crackie

2009
Hold Fast
5.4

Two teenage boys escape an unhappy home, embarking on a perilous journey of self-discovery that takes them deep into the Newfoundland wilderness.

Hold Fast

2013
Away from Everywhere
3.2

A struggling writer emerges from rehab and reunites with his estranged brother, but soon descends into a tragic love triangle and is forced to confront a devastating reality.

Away from Everywhere

2017
Heartless Disappearance Into Labrador Seas
N/A

When a marriage is threatened by a long excursion for work, domestic trouble is buffeted by family and friends.

Heartless Disappearance Into Labrador Seas

2008
Face Machine
N/A

In a dystopian future where the air is unbreathable and all citizens must wear elaborate masks in order to live, one young scientist fights to win his lover by defying the state and seeing her face.

Face Machine

2006
Down to the Dirt
4.2

Thirty-year-old Keith Kavanagh (Joel Thomas Hynes) ekes his way through life in a small town. A hard-drinking hooligan, he keeps his ragged collection of poetry a closely guarded secret... as secret as his regret for the shattered relationship with his father. When Keith meets the darkly exotic Natasha (Mylène Savoie), his life is changed forever.

Down to the Dirt

2008
Sweetland
6.0

The story of an endangered Newfoundland community and the struggles of one man determined to resist its extinction.

Sweetland

2023
Bloomsday Cabaret
N/A

An exploration of music in the life, and writing, of James Joyce. Two Newfoundland actors, a Toronto opera singer and a New York Joycean scholar travel to Dublin and join forces with a group of Irish musicians to tell the story of music in the life, and writing, of the great Irish writer James Joyce.

Bloomsday Cabaret

2004
No image
N/A

After Raam, an international student, moves to Newfoundland to pursue his dreams and education, his housemate Joseph loses his job amidst the global pandemic. As they set out on a whale watching trip together, tragedy strikes leaving Raam questioning everything he knows.

Ballad of North Whale

2024
The Muse
N/A

When 74-year-old Robert Tilley agreed to take photographer Ting Ting Chen on a road trip across Newfoundland, neither could have predicted the deep, cross-generational friendship that would blossom between them, nor how Robert's role in Ting Ting's art would challenge traditional ideas of the artist-muse relationship. This touching short film explores the concepts of aging, memory and identity while demonstrating the power of creative connection.

The Muse

2025
Seguridad
10.0

In her feature documentary Seguridad, Newfoundland-based filmmaker Tamara Segura—once named “Cuba’s youngest soldier” in a militia publicity stunt—portrays her troubled relationship with her father in the context of the Cuban Revolution. When Segura accepts a scholarship to study film in Canada, the move offers crucial distance from her alcoholic father. After four years, she returns to Cuba hoping to make amends. But her father’s sudden death just days after her arrival forces Segura to explore his troubled past and the role Cuba’s highly militarized system played in his downfall. Through a series of deeply personal on-camera interviews with her immediate family, Segura unearths long-held secrets that ultimately tell a story of resilience and profound love between family members. Seguridad artfully weaves a lifetime’s worth of still photographs into its intimate narrative, which offers a rare glimpse into the inner lives of Cubans in the post-revolutionary era.

Seguridad

2024
HAND. LINE. COD.
N/A

In the coldest waters surrounding Newfoundland's rugged Fogo Island, "people of the fish"—traditional fishers—catch cod live by hand, one at a time, by hook and line. After a 20-year moratorium on North Atlantic cod, the stocks are returning. These fishers are leading a revolution in sustainability, taking their premium product directly to the commercial market for the first time. Travel with them from the early morning hours, spend time on the ocean, and witness the intricacies of a 500-year-old tradition that's making a comeback.

HAND. LINE. COD.

2016
No image
N/A

A tale of two longtime losers looking for love.

Diamonds in a Bucket

2007
Rick Mercer: 'Take Action' Figures
N/A

While gift shopping at an "enlightened" toy store, a mother and son are out of luck finding the latest Spider-Man and Transformers toys-because all this eccentric shopkeeper proudly sells are Rick Mercer-themed toys that are meant to inspire the next generation of Canadian youth.

Rick Mercer: 'Take Action' Figures

2019
Always Going Never Gone
N/A

A folklorist is summoned by the last living soul of a forgotten community to witness a folktale transform into a terrifying reality.

Always Going Never Gone

2019
Party Pirate
N/A

When Tommy is fired twice in the same week and finds out his brilliant best friend and lifeline, Costa, is leaving the country for a better job, he seizes an opportunity to prove his worth by taking his friends on a trip - in a stolen boat.

Party Pirate

2023
C Sharp and D Suspended
N/A

Margaret is a grandmother serving out a sentence in a minimum security prison. Daniel, her grandson, is a gifted classical guitar student who loves his nan very much. They've always had a deep connection, rooted in music. The day before his graduation, Margaret gets authorization to attend Daniel's concert ceremony. During the next 24 hours, they play music together, discuss the nature of family, and freedom, and get reacquainted after a long time apart. On the day of the ceremony, Daniel reveals a hidden intention - to help Margaret regain her freedom.

C Sharp and D Suspended

2018