Biography

Nelson MacDonald is a Nova Scotian producer and programmer. His short films have screened across Canada and internationally at festivals including TIFF, VIFF, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Whistler Film Festival, Atlantic Film Festival, and Stockholm International Film Festival. His first short film, Rhonda's Party won CBC's Short Film Faceoff and was named to TIFF's Top Ten Canadian Shorts. Nelson was also an associate producer of the Claude Jutra award winning feature film Blackbird. In 2013, he joined the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival where he championed the work of emerging local filmmakers and urged them to create work outside the industry norms. Some of the visiting artists he hosted in Halifax are Denis Cote, Stephanie Spray, Jem Cohen, Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal, Kazik Radwanksi, Laura Israel and Yosef Baraki. During his tenure at HIFF he created the HIFF Talent Lab to connect established visiting filmmakers with local filmmakers and the [re]Program Initiative to bring programmers from major festivals to meet local filmmakers. Nelson's first feature with longtime collaborator Ashley McKenzie is due out in Fall 2016.
- IMDb mini biography by: grassfire films