Film fever is in full swing in Toronto as TIFF has moved past its first weekend, all the while celebrities continue to flood into the city promoting their new films. One such celebrity is Toronto’s own Sarah Polley, but she is here not only to promote the latest feature she has written, & Sons, but to also receive the prestigious key to the city from Mayor of Toronto Olivia Chow, and given the scope of her career, Polley is entirely deserving of the award, and then some.
Polley began her career as a child actress, with her first onscreen appearance being in an episode of Night Heat in 1985 when she was 6 years old. A mere three years later, she had a major role in the Terry Gilliam fantasy adventure film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. That same year, 1988, she would play the titular character in the short-lived TV show Ramona, a Canadian adaptation of the book series of the same name by Beverly Cleary, before landing the lead role in another Canadian TV show, Road to Avonlea, which ran from 1990 to 1996.
During this time, Polley would gain the attention of none other than Atom Egoyan, one of most revered Canadian filmmakers of his generation. Egoyan first cast Polley in his 1994 erotic thriller Exotica, and then again 1997’s The Sweet Hereafter, which is not just Egoyan’s magnum opus, but also one of the greatest Canadian films ever made.
As Polley’s career progressed, she established herself as a talented, dependable actress who secured numerous major roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including Last Night (1998), Guinevere (1999), The Weight of Water (2000), No Such Thing (2001), My Life Without Me (2003), and Zach Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (2004). In addition to Atom Egoyan, Polley has acted for a bevy of notable Canadian filmmakers, including Bruce McDonald, Don McKellar, David Cronenberg, and Vincenzo Natali.
Despite Polley’s thriving acting career, her last significant acting role (at least until 2025, but more on that later) was in Bruce McDonald’s 2010 comedy-drama Trigger, but for very good reason. Polley had written and directed the 2006 drama Away from Her, a devastatingly human tale about an elderly couple whose lives are drastically altered when the wife is moved to a nursing home following her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. It is a truly staggering and deeply empathetic film, and yet Polley made this masterpiece of Canadian cinema at the tender age of 27, consequently earning herself an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. I personally consider Away from Her to be one of the very best Canadian films ever made.
Thus, from 2011 onwards Polley fully dedicated herself to the art of filmmaking rather than performance, dare I say having found her true calling. That same year, she would release Take This Waltz, which starred Michelle Williams, her friend Seth Rogen, and future Emmy winner Luke Kirby. Take This Waltz is arguably the weakest of her films, but it’s still an emotionally dynamic drama worthy of your attention, especially if you are a fan of Polley’s work. However, she would then follow this with the 2012 documentary Stories We Tell, which is a refreshing but surprisingly intimate exploration of her own family, but it is cleverly framed like an unravelling mystery that delivers some shocking revelations to the audience, and indeed Polley herself. This, too, ranks amongst my favourite Canadian films ever, and is certainly the best documentary film I have ever seen come from The Great White North.
Curiously, it would be another ten years before Polley’s next feature film, though in the meantime she did create, write, and produce the 2017 TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, to much acclaim. Then, 2022 saw the release of Women Talking, which Polley wrote and directed, based on the 2018 novel of the same name from Miriam Toews, which deals with the real-life gas-facilitated rapes of American Mennonite women on a Bolivian colony. The film was widely praised by critics and audiences, particularly for its writing, direction, and performances, earning nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards, with Polley ultimately earning her first Oscar in the latter category.
As mentioned, Polley’s latest film, & Sons, has premiered at TIFF, though she only wrote the screenplay, leaving directing duties to Argentine filmmaker Pablo Trapero. In the meantime, she has joined Seth Rogen’s outstanding satire The Studio as part of the writing staff for its second season, having already come out of her acting hiatus to play a fictional version of herself in the first season.
Suffice to say, Sarah Polley is an incredibly talented artist who is a great actor, but an even better filmmaker. She has produced some truly incredible cinematic pieces despite lacking an extensive filmography, making her more than worthy of one of the city of Toronto’s highest honours, and I simply cannot wait to see where her career will continue to go in the coming years.