John Penhall

John Penhall graduated from the University of British Columbia majoring in Film, Television and Theatre Arts. His student short "For the Next 60 Seconds…" was invited to a number of festivals, including Lille, Montreal and Leipzig; won several prizes including Special Jury Prize at the Local Heroes Film Festival, Alberta; Honorable Mention at the 1984 Hiroshima Film Festival; and a Canada Council award.

The film was also short-listed by the 1983 Academy Awards for consideration in the Short Film category.

In 2002 John Penhall made another short film, entitled The Bed, which has been invited to over 20 festivals, including Vancouver, Montreal, Palm Springs, Newport Beach, Portland, Melbourne, Lisbon, and Oxford, where it won Best Short. The Bed was nominated for 6 Leo awards and has been sold to the CBC.

John Penhall works as an Assistant Director in the Vancouver film industry and is currently working on a feature-length screenplay he plans to direct. He has recently finished 2 more short films:

InConvenience had its world premiere at the 2005 Vancouver International Film Festival, won Honorable Mention at the Northwest Film and Video Festival, Portland and received 8 nominations at the 2006 Leos Awards, winning for best Male Lead – Chang Tseng.

Insider Trading has been touring the film circuit and was also nominated for Best Male Lead at the 2006 Leo Awards.