Matthew Miller (filmmaker)

Matthew Miller is a Canadian screenwriter and producer. He is also a contractual university lecturer. Miller's work has been featured at international film festivals and has garnered awards at TIFF, Sundance, and Berlin International Film Festival.^[1][2][3]

Matthew Miller
Miller in 2023
Nationality	Canadian
Education	York University
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, producer, director, lecturer
Years active	2003–present
Notable work	The Dirties Operation Avalanche Nirvanna the Band the Show BlackBerry

Miller achieved widespread acclaim for the feature film BlackBerry (2023), co-written with Matt Johnson, which premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival,^[2][4][5] and won 14 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture.^[6]

Career

2003–2009: Early work

Miller's short film The School played at 25 international film festivals, was named Best Canadian Short Film at the Atlantic Film Festival, and received Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival. Produced as an undergraduate project at York University, Miller worked with a fellow, Ezra Krybus on the film.^[7][3][8][9]

In 2007, Miller released his first feature film, Surviving Crooked Lake, which later won the 2008 Kodak Vision Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival.^[10][11]

Johnson, and others, wrote and produced the low-budget web series Nirvana the Band the Show from 2007 to 2009. This is the first time Miller works with Matt Johnson, who he goes on to work closely with on other endeavors.^{[12][13][14][4]}

2013–2018: Johnson Collaboration and Zaprunder Films

In 2013, Miller produced The Dirties, feature film written and directed by Johnson, which won Best Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival.^{[15][16][17][1][18][19][20]}

The same year, Miller and Johnson, started a production company, Zaprunder Films. Three year later, in 2016, the production house released the pair's first project, Operation Avalanche. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, after Zaprunder Films declined the premiere offer from the Toronto International Film Festival.^[21][22][23]

Miller was still active at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival with the re-launch of Nirvanna the Band the Show when three episodes premiered at the festival, with Miller credited as a writer. The full television series was released on Viceland in 2017. Johnson has announced a movie project based on the series currently being shot in Italy and Toronto in June 2023. Miller has yet to confirm any participation.^[24][25][26]

2023: BlackBerry

In 2022, Miller wrote the screenplay for BlackBerry with Johnson, about the Canadian tech company formerly called Research in Motion.^[27] The film stars Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie, Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis, and co-writer and director Matt Johnson as Doug Fregin.^[28] BlackBerry premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2023,^[2] and attracted widespread critical acclaim.^[29]

The screenplay was later adapted into a limited series and released November 2023. It received positive reviews for its detailed portrayal of real-life events. Miller described the adaptation as another opportunity to broaden its audience and promote Canadian media.^{[30][31][32][33][34]}

Miller signed with CAA, alongside production partner Johnson, in 2023.^[4]

Johnson and Miller won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 12th Canadian Screen Awards in 2024 for BlackBerry.^[35]

Diversity work

In 2013, during festival screenings of Operation Avalanche, Miller noted an evident gender imbalance in the film industry was vocal about his desire to change that.^[36]

Later that year, Miller's production company Zapruder Films (which he co-founded with Johnson), launched a contest to back a first-time female screenwriter with $12,000 CAD in funding, story editor guidance, and script optioning. The company used 100% of its Telefilm financial award to support the project. Chandler Levack and her feature film Anglophone were announced as the winners of 137 entries.^[37]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
2007	Surviving Crooked Lake	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-directed with Sascha Drews, co-written with Drews and Ezra Krybus
2016	Operation Avalanche	No	No	Yes
2023	BlackBerry	No	Yes	Yes	Co-written with Matt Johnson

Television

Years	Title	Writer	Notes
2017-2018	Nirvanna the Band the Show	Yes	Co-wrote all 16 episodes with Andrew Appelle, Robert Hyland, Curt Lobb, Jay McCarrol and Jared Raab