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The University of Winnipeg

What Can I Do with a Film or Theatre Degree?

Our majors develop important skills that not only prepare them for careers in THEATRE or FILM, but that are also applicable to a wide variety of careers.

These skills include:

  • Performance and presentation skills
  • Strong verbal, written and visual communication skills
  • Critical thinking skills
  • Sharp analytical skills
  • Ability to work under pressure
  • Project management skills
  • Ability to respond improvisationally
  • Working within tight budgets – either time or money
  • Leadership skills
  • Ability to work individually and collaboratively
  • Creative problem-solving skills
  • Listening, clarifying, questioning and responding skills

These skills prepare graduates for non-arts careers in areas like:

  • Law
  • Teaching
  • PR
  • Business
  • Entrepreneur
  • Politics
  • Clergy
  • Agent
  • Publicist
  • Social worker
  • Management positions

 

CAREERS IN THE ARTS

Theatre and Film create a world apart from us, but one so powerful that it draws us in and makes us feel or distances us and makes us think. That world can be pleasing or provoking, funny or tragic, artificial or realistic. It takes many people to produce this world:

  • playwrights
  • screenwriters
  • actors
  • dancers
  • singers
  • costumers
  • designers
  • lighting specialists
  • production managers
  • carpenters
  • directors
  • stage managers
  • and theatre and film technicians of all stripes

The University of Winnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film offers courses covering all of these areas, and our THEATRE graduates have gone on to become directors, playwrights, actors, artisans, technicians and designers in the professional theatre locally, nationally and internationally, including:

  • The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre  
  • Prairie Theatre Exchange
  • Theatre Projects Manitoba
  • Shakespeare in the Ruins
  • Winnipeg Jewish Theatre
  • Rainbow Stage
  • Cirque de Soleil
  • Citadel Theatre
  • The Grand Theatre
  • Mirvish Productions
  • The Stratford Festival
  • The Shaw Festival
  • Soulpepper
  • and many more!!!                                                    

And our acting grads have been seen in countless Films and TV programs, including:

  • Murdoch Mysteries
  • The Republic of Doyle
  • ER
  • Saving Hope
  • Pinkertons
  • High Life
  • For the Moment
  • Passionflower
  • Channel Zero

And our FILM graduates have become everything from directors and screenwriters, to editors, art directors and grips.

  • Madison Thomas - 11 directing credits, including TV documentary series, and dramas. An independent film-maker, her first film Worlds on Fire was selected for the 2009 Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival and was nominated for "Best Youth Talent”. Madison's first feature film This Is Why We Fight, premiered at LA's Indiefest in 2013 and won an award of excellence. Madison has partnered with Cinematographer Andrew Luczenczyn (also a U of W grad) and together they work under the company "Prairie Kid Productions"
  • Danielle Sturk - as a filmmaker, her combined films have been screened at over thirty film festivals and broadcast on most major Canadian English and French networks, such as CBC, Radio Canada, APTN, UNIS, TV5, MTS TV, Vision TV and for the National Film Board of Canada. She has been commissioned by the Canada Council for several web-based video projects.
  • Wes Grycki - working in the camera and electrical department on Manitoba shoots. Over 42 credits, from Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg in 2007, through The Don Cherry Story (2012) to the Netflix series A Series of Unfortuante Events (2019). Working mainly as Best Boy or Dolly Grip (IATSE)
  • Daniel Machado - currently directing reality TV series Meghan's Menu.
  • Caley Gibson - working in camera and electrical department since 2007 - mainly as assistant camera (focus puller) Over 50 credits including A Hauting in Connecticut (2009), Don Cherry Story (2012), Curse of Chucky, (2017)The Pinkertons (2015).
  • Matt Kennedy - founding member of the Astron 6 group, has multiple writing, actor, directing, producing credits, including 2 feature, Father`s Day (2011) and The Editor (2014), as well as the on-going TV series Divorced Dad (2018-2019)
  • Sonya Ballantyne - writer and director of shorts and documentaries. Specializes in stories and films about Indigenous women and girls in non-traditional genres: superhero, fantasy and sci-fi. Worked as writer on the TV series Taken (2018-19)
  • Niall McFadyen - currently Multimedia and Technology Teacher at Seven Oaks School Division
  • Kevin Bacon - over 30 credits working in the Sound Department on Features, Documentaries and TV series since 2010, both as an on-set sound recordist and in post-production.
  • Marc Green - assistant director on TV series Meghan's Menu. Also writer, producer and director on 3 short dramas.
  • Matthew Hannam - working as a film editor in Winnipeg, Montreal and los Angeles. Has over 60 editing credits, numerous TV series and documentaries. Recently edited the American horror film It Comes at Night (2017)
  • Ryan McKenna - writer/director of 3 feature films, The First Winter (2012), Le coeur de madame Sabali (2015) winner of the Grand Prix at Montreal's FNC (Festival du Nouveau Cinema), and Cranks (2019).
  • Milos Mitrovic - independent filmmaker with numerous writing, directing, editing, acting and producing credits. His latest film is Tapeworm (2019) recently screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Currently an Instructor in the Film department at U of Wpg.
  • Ian Bawa - working in the film industry in a variety of capacities, from director, editor, grip and lighting, to sound and acting. Works primarily as producer/production manager on shorts and features and as a second unit director on TV series. Directed the short film Offline (2013), a co-production between Canada and Germany, and his most recent producer credit is the feature Tapeworm (2019).
  • Eric Neufeld - over 30 credits working in the film industry in the Sound department since 2012 as a Boom Operator and on-set sound recorder for studio and independent film & television. Member IATSE.
  • Reiner Bello-Sanchez - Writer and director of several award-winning short films including Roof Jumpers (2011) which was nationally broadcast on CBC and a finalist in the CBC Short Shots Competition. Accepted into the MFA film production program at York University.
  • B.J. Verot - over 30 credits working as a stunt performer on TV series and feature films. Has also written and directed numerous short films including Loss of Contact (2015) a finalist on the CBC Short Shots Competition.
  • Ryan Wall - Over 17 credits working in the sound department as sound recordist, boom operator and in post-production as sound editor.