Jordan Canning, photo by Shlomi Amiga
Jordan Canning and Jeremy Lalonde won a Canadian Screen Award for Directing Baronessvon Sketch Show on March 27th. Also they won for Best Sketch Comedy Show & Ensemble Performance, Best Direction and Best Writing, Variety or Sketch Comedy, and Best Comedy Picture Editing.
Jordan Canning was born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She has been exposed to the world of
filmmaking from a very young age through her mother who worked as a production designer. Jordan would
go on to attend Concordia University where she majored in creative writing and sociology. It wasn’t until
after university when she made her first short film through the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers
Cooperative (NIFCO) in St. John’s that she truly fell in love with directing. Jordan is a 2010 graduate of the Director’s Lab at the Norman Jewison Canadian Film Centre and an alumnus of TIFF Talent Lab, TIFF Pitch This, and Women in the Director’s Chair.
In her career so far, Jordan has directed more than a dozen short films that have played at festivals all
over the world, including Tribeca, the Toronto International Film Festival and Interfilm Berlin. Among them, COUNTDOWN won a number of awards including a Golden Sheaf for Best Director; NOT OVER EASY swept all three awards at the National Screen Institute Film Festival; SECONDS won the 2012 TIFF RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition and the Shaw Fearless Female Director Award; and THE TUNNEL premiered at Cannes as part of Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent program.
Jordan Canning, photo by
Shlomi Amiga
Her television credits include directing all twenty-three episodes of the CTV digital series SPACE RIDERS:DIVISION EARTH. The show won the 2014 Canadian Screen Award for Best Digital Series and four Canadian Comedy Awards, including Best Director. She has also directed on multiple TV series, including hour-long dramas – SAVING HOPE (CTV/NBC), THE DETAIL (CTV), BURDEN OF TRUTH (CBC/CW) – and half-hour comedies BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW (CBC/IFC), SCHITT’S CREEK (CBC/POPTV/NETFLIX), THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES (CBC) and LITTLE DOG (CBC).
Jordan Canning Working On the set of Little Dog season 2. Photo by Duncan De Young
Her first feature, WE WERE WOLVES, premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Her second feature, SUCK IT UP, premiered at Slamdance 2017 and won Best Feature Film at the 2017 B3 Frankfurt Biennale. Her third feature, an omnibus film called ORDINARY DAYS, won Best Director at the 2018 Canadian Film Festival.
Coming up next, Jordan’s work can be seen in season four of BARONESS VON SKETCH (CBC/IFC), the brand-new show NURSES (GLOBAL) and the upcoming season of the hit comedy television series SCHITT’S CREEK. (CBC/POVTV/NETFLIX).
Most recently, she was awarded the inaugural round of funding for the Prism prize MVP Project grant for
a music video with Tim Baker titled DANCE. She is also collaborating on an animated short film for the
National Film Board, with award-winning artist Howie Shia, called FOUR NORTH A. Her latest feature film, ODDLY FLOWERS, is moving towards production in late 2019.
Jordan Canning, photo by Shlomi Amiga
Outside of film making, Jordan enjoys spending time with friends, cooking, gardening, yoga, photography,
and traveling.