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THOMAS WALLNER – NATP 1991-92
"The hands-on collaboration that I experienced as a result of the NATP was invaluable and instrumental in solidifying my craft as documentary filmmaker. In short, I can honestly say that the programme launched my career. It’s been a wonderful relationship made possible by the ACCT, the best match-making service in town!”
Thomas Selim Wallner
Producer / Writer/ Director
Thomas is an Emmy award winning producer and writer with a long background in both interactive, as well as documentary film and television production. He founded Xenophile Media with Patrick Crowe in 2001, and has co-produced all the company’s award-winning productions.
Among recent credits, Thomas developed the story concept and framework for an interactive feature film Late Fragment co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada and Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre. Thomas also brought his expertise to the creation of the online documentary Beethoven’s Hair, which accompanied the feature film of the same title for which Thomas won a Gemini Award for “Best Writing in a Documentary”. Currently Thomas is directing an HD feature documentary on the Tropicana Cabaret in Havana commissioned by the Sundance Channel, ARTE France and the Canadian Documentary Channel.
For the past sixteen years Thomas has had an ongoing creative partnership with Rhombus Media’s Larry Weinstein. Together they have made a number of internationally acclaimed films that have been broadcast in more than 30 countries - among them My War Years: Arnold Schoenberg, Solidarity Song: The Hanns Eisler Story, Beethoven's Hair and Mozartballs. Currently Larry and Thomas are collaborating on a theatrical feature documentary Inside Hana’s Suitcase based on an internationally best-selling children’s book and to be released in Canadian and international cinemas in 2008/9.
AWARDS/TRIVIA
- Thomas is a recipient of numerous honours including five Gemini nominations, two Gemini awards and two International Emmys
- Thomas' NATP placement was with Larry Weinstein at Rhombus Media. By the time the film was done, Larry generously gave Thomas a co-writer and associate director credit on the film for which Thomas received his first Gemini nomination. Since then, Thomas has hired his former mentor for the occasional project, and their production companies, Xenophile Media and Rhombus Media, have co-produced a number of projects.
