Vanya Rose
Vanya Rose studied theatre and visual arts from an early age. After acting in and creating theatre productions with the Garrick Players, Vanya began formal theatre training at 15 with Stanislavsky disciple Polina Klimovitskaya. She went on to train at NYU, however, soon changed her attention to directing, completing her degree at McGill University with first class honours, receiving numerous prizes for her directing and stage adaptations. After spending a number of years living in Europe, where she created several theatre productions, she returned to Montreal in order to complete a master's degree in theatre directing with an FRSC grant for excellence. It was while creating her thesis production that her thesis director recommended she explore filmmaking and she has continued to do so ever since. In MONTREAL STORIES, Vanya explored her native city with three poetic portraits that cross the 20th century, starring Lise Roy, Gabriel Gascon, Kaniehtiio Horn and Rebecca Windheim. Vanya was selected as one of five directors to attend the competitive CFC's Directors' Lab. She then completed IMPOSSIBLE starring Tyler Hynes and Charlotte Le Bon. Her short film AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL, stars Hélène Joy and was produced with Vanya's production company, time's thievish progress to eternity FILMS. WOMAN IN CAR. also starring Ms Joy, along with Liane Balaban, Gabrielle Lazure, Aidan Ritchie and Anthony Lemke, was screened in numerous film festivals and was recently released in theatres and digitally. The final track of the score written and performed by Thus Owls, "Lovers are falling", has been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award 2022 for Best Original Song.