Justin Simms

Labrador City, Newfoundland, Canada 70 Credits

Biography

Justin Simms is a Newfoundland and Labrador filmmaker whose first feature film, Down to the Dirt, received the best Atlantic feature and best screenplay awards at the Atlantic Film Festival. His feature film adaptation Away from Everywhere (2016), based on the Chad Pelley novel of the same name, had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival as part of Telefilm Canada’s Perspectives Canada program. His non-fiction credits include Hard Light (2011), Danny (2014) and the short Hand.Line.C...

Filter by:

Complete Filmography

Sons

Sons

2024

Director

5.2
Directing

Set against the backdrop of his son’s first five years of life—from cooing infant to hurricane of a boy—filmmaker Justin Simms looks at modern masculi...

Bedlamer

Bedlamer

2024

Editor

On the shores of a small fishing village lives a lonely settlement of men - capturing and domesticating otherworldly creatures that were never meant t...

73 Seconds

73 Seconds

2024

Editor

It's 1986, Shannon Crane means to be bound for a future she cannot know, on a day filled with possibility and hope. In her 7th grade class, Shannon ha...

Ballad of North Whale

2024

Editor

After Raam, an international student, moves to Newfoundland to pursue his dreams and education, his housemate Joseph loses his job amidst the global p...

Seguridad

Seguridad

2024

Cinematography

10.0

In her feature documentary Seguridad, Newfoundland-based filmmaker Tamara Segura—once named “Cuba’s youngest soldier” in a militia publicity stunt—por...

If Not to Die

If Not to Die

2023

Editor

Phillip Early recounts the months spent investigating a cold case. A police interrogator presses him for answers while trying to decode the role of a ...

Party Pirate

Party Pirate

2023

Editor

When Tommy is fired twice in the same week and finds out his brilliant best friend and lifeline, Costa, is leaving the country for a better job, he se...

The Gaze

The Gaze

2023

Editor

Ginok Song, a South Korean artist living and painting in a small fishing village in Newfoundland, explores what home is, who she was, and where she is...

Hebron Relocation

Hebron Relocation

2023

Editor

Through a tapestry of reflection, rare footage and her own home, Inuk filmmaker Holly Andersen tells the little-known story of the forced relocation o...

Close to the Bone: The Film

2023

Producer

Producing

The film accompanying the album "Closer to the Bone" by Ian Foster.

End of the Line

2022

Editor

End of the Line, which features Jessie Montgomery's PEACE, is a visual pilgrimage of one person's journey from big city lockdown to finding solace in ...

Bounce

Bounce

2022

Editor

When a boy from Darcy's cadet corps insists she attend the Trampoline Social, she sets off for a dramatic evening of self-acceptance and sweet backfli...

Dead Wife Club

Dead Wife Club

2022

Editor

Luke has been veering between panic and numbness ever since losing his wife to Thyroid cancer. In a last-ditch effort to feel something, anything, he...

Spirit Song Festival

2022

Editor

Nearly a decade ago, the Spirit Song Festival began as one day event. It has since blossomed into a weeklong, award winning, world-class gathering of ...

Fishbowl

Fishbowl

2022

Editor

When Newfoundland locks down during the COVID-19 pandemic, a former dancer becomes further trapped in a toxic relationship with her emotionally abusiv...

Grown in Darkness

Grown in Darkness

2022

Editor

Henry lives alone growing rhubarb in the dark when his friend Emmanuel arrives to collect the harvest. Together, they tentatively explore the boundari...

Vegas

Vegas

2022

Editor

When Vegas, a disillusioned artist turned taxi driver, picks up an unassuming stranger, things take a drastic turn when it is revealed not everything ...

Nalujuk Night

Nalujuk Night

2021

Editor

Nalujuk Night is an up close look at an exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, Labrador Inuit tradition. Every January 6th from the dark of the Nunat...

Hell or Clean Water

Hell or Clean Water

2021

Editor

In what appears to be a Sisyphean task, Newfoundland diver Shawn Bath has devoted himself to cleaning up the ocean floor one rotting tire at a time. H...

The Death of Winter

The Death of Winter

2019

Editor

The Death of Winter: In 1830s Newfoundland, a woman is on trial for the murder of her husband. While innocent of the homicide, she is hanged for havin...

Ghost Artist

Ghost Artist

2019

Editor

A maverick artist is rediscovered in Paris when his taboo-busting 1967 film resurfaces in the art world. Robert Cordier’s movie about medicine and th...

Radical

Radical

2019

Editor

Deanne Foley profiles fellow Newfoundlander Mary Walsh, the Great Warrior Queen of Canadian comedy, musing on time wasted as an object of desire and t...

Becoming Labrador

Becoming Labrador

2019

Director, Director of Photography

Directing

In the stark Labrador interior, a growing number of Filipino workers have recently landed in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, travelling halfway around the wor...

Rick Mercer: 'Take Action' Figures

2019

Additional Photography

While gift shopping at an "enlightened" toy store, a mother and son are out of luck finding the latest Spider-Man and Transformers toys-because all th...

Always Going Never Gone

Always Going Never Gone

2019

Editor

A folklorist is summoned by the last living soul of a forgotten community to witness a folktale transform into a terrifying reality.

Hopeless Romantic

Hopeless Romantic

2018

Editor

Everyone has a different story to tell, especially when it comes to relationships. Lynda Boyd stars as Anna, a recently widowed cardiologist facing ro...

Crown and Anchor

Crown and Anchor

2018

First Assistant Director

6.9
Directing

When James Downey returns home to Newfoundland for his mother’s funeral, he is faced with all the haunting family issues he thought he had left behind...

C Sharp and D Suspended

2018

Producer

Producing

Margaret is a grandmother serving out a sentence in a minimum security prison. Daniel, her grandson, is a gifted classical guitar student who loves hi...

Love, Scott

Love, Scott

2018

Story Editor

6.2
Writing

One fateful night, after leaving a bar in his home town of Nova Scotia, musician Scott Jones was subjected to a vicious and targeted attack which left...

Malignant

Malignant

2018

Editor

A young women craving attention in her relationship, finds a lump in her breast.

Casey

Casey

2017

Editor

Casey's mother ensures her daughter receives the education, protection, and loving care little girls need. But an altercation with some local schoolgi...

Waste It

2017

Editor

Karen attempts to grapple with the fleeting nature of romance through filmmaking, only to run into conflict with her surrounding cast and crew. You ca...

Away from Everywhere

Away from Everywhere

2017

Director, Editor

3.7
Directing

A struggling writer emerges from rehab and reunites with his estranged brother, but soon descends into a tragic love triangle and is forced to confron...

Crocuses

Crocuses

2016

First Assistant Director

Directing

On the last day of packing up her home, a woman can't shake the regret she feels about her late husband.

HAND. LINE. COD.

HAND. LINE. COD.

2016

Writer, Editor, Additional Camera

Writing Directing

In the coldest waters surrounding Newfoundland's rugged Fogo Island, "people of the fish"—traditional fishers—catch cod live by hand, one at a time, b...

Skip

2016

Editor, First Assistant Director

Directing

In a coastal town in Newfoundland a man named Skip cares for his widowed grandfather, admires the local store clerk from afar and dreams of making som...

The Woman in White

2016

Editor

A grown man and a young girl compare sibling rivalries in a playground one snowy afternoon.

The Tour

2015

Editor

Alice, a bus tour guide in St. John's Newfoundland with a broken heart unexpectedly tells her tales of love and loss to a group of life-weary tourists...

Long Term Care

Long Term Care

2015

Assistant Director

Directing

A father and son duo, Charlie and Sam Pike, come to grips with admitting war-vet Charlie, who suffers from dementia, into a long-term care home.

Danny

Danny

2015

Director, Editor, Additional Camera

Directing

A feature documentary about the life of former Newfoundland Premier, Danny Williams

Song for Cuba

2014

Cinematography

This short experimental documentary about memory and music follows a young Cuban couple charting a new course for their lives on an island in the Nort...

Between Two Walls

Between Two Walls

2014

Editor, Assistant Director

Directing

Between Two Walls is a political thriller about an aspiring politician whose bid to secure top office is threatened when a dark secret from his past c...

Sadie

2014

Assistant Director

Directing

In 1940s outport Newfoundland, young Sadie struggles to cope with the tragic death of both her parents.

Before the War

2014

Editor

An incisive nuanced look at a family crumbling after their father returns from a war. Before the war showcases Tamara's love and understanding of the ...

Boarding

2014

Editor

A glimpse into the life of a woman who, desperate to board a plane home, deals with unlikely foes: her own shoes.

Infanticide!

Infanticide!

2013

First Assistant Director

Directing

Dan and Liz just want a perfect family; and in a world where families are allowed only one child, they want to make sure they get it right.

Hold Fast

Hold Fast

2013

Director, Additional Photography

5.4
Directing

Two teenage boys escape an unhappy home, embarking on a perilous journey of self-discovery that takes them deep into the Newfoundland wilderness.

A Life in the Days of Mary

2012

First Assistant Director

Directing

"A Life In The Days Of Mary" tells the life story of Young Mary, a Newfoundland outport girl, in seventeen-minutes. It starts with her childhood abuse...

Two Square Feet

2012

Editor, First Assistant Director

Directing

A woman looks past her insecurities in a time of change, self doubt and uncertainty.

The White Balloon

2011

Assistant Camera

The White Balloon tells the story of a young boy who comes across a white balloon while walking with his father in downtown St. John's, Newfoundland.

Hard Light

Hard Light

2011

Director, Writer, Director of Photography

Directing Writing

This feature film uses Michael Crummey's seminal piece of Newfoundland literature to examine cultural change and modern relationships.

Surprise!

2011

Cinematography

Surprise! is a dark comedy that satirizes the art world while taking a provocative look at the increasing problem of the misuse of sexual aid medicati...

Cardboard Junction

Cardboard Junction

2010

Story Editor

Writing

Young Leia is abandoned by her mother when they receive an unsettling visit from Mister, Mom's old friend and current employer.

The Magnificent Molly McBride

2009

Editor

Molly, played by Julia Kennedy(Sundance award-winning film, Grown Up Movie Star), is brutalized by her peers at Irish dance school for well, dancing b...

Crackie

Crackie

2009

First Assistant Director

5.0
Directing

Life on the Rock never seemed easy, but for Mitsy it is especially rough. The teenager has been abandoned by her mother, a particularly unfit parent p...

Sweet Pickle

2009

Editor

After 30 years of salt beef and baloney, the instinctively vegan Isabel hops a bay bus to the city supermarket. But a nosy stock boy, a cashier with h...

Down to the Dirt

Down to the Dirt

2008

Editor, Director, Producer

5.0
Directing Producing Writing

Thirty-year-old Keith Kavanagh (Joel Thomas Hynes) ekes his way through life in a small town. A hard-drinking hooligan, he keeps his ragged collection...

One of Us Cannot be Right

2008

Assistant Director, Additional Editing

Directing

A short film by Jacqueline Hynes made through Nifco's First Time Filmmaker Program.

Heartless Disappearance Into Labrador Seas

Heartless Disappearance Into Labrador Seas

2008

Producer, Director

Producing Directing

When a marriage is threatened by a long excursion for work, domestic trouble is buffeted by family and friends.

Tiger Tom

2008

Production Manager

An armless outcast is confronted by a troubled teenager.

Diamonds in a Bucket

2007

Editor

A tale of two longtime losers looking for love.

Here on In

2007

Editor

An intimate meditation on the relationship between a recently widowed husband and his young daughter.

Face Machine

Face Machine

2006

Director, Writer

Directing Writing

In a dystopian future where the air is unbreathable and all citizens must wear elaborate masks in order to live, one young scientist fights to win his...

Punch-Up At A Wedding

2006

Editor, Screenplay, Director

Writing Directing

Short film about a wedding toast that goes horribly wrong.

Pillowtalk

Pillowtalk

2005

Director of Photography, Editor

1.0
Directing

When two halves of a young couple can't get to sleep one night, a petty argument starts over nothing. As their frustration grows and the fight escalat...

Bloomsday Cabaret

Bloomsday Cabaret

2004

Assistant Camera

An exploration of music in the life, and writing, of James Joyce. Two Newfoundland actors, a Toronto opera singer and a New York Joycean scholar trave...

I Dare Not Go

2004

Director of Photography

Directing

Conceived, written and shot in Newfoundland, this study in grief and adolescent longing is a sure sign of local filmmaker Adriana Magg's huge potentia...

Behind the Red Door

Behind the Red Door

2003

Unit Publicist

5.5

Natalie, a gifted New York photographer, has a troubled past reflected in her art. When she struggles to make ends meet in the city, her agent, arrang...

Swallowed

Swallowed

2002

Production Manager

Swallowed is a fictional story that spans the life of Mike Seaward, a fisherman in outport Newfoundland, Canada. An unemployed fisherman, he reflects ...

The King Hunt

N/A

Director, Writer, Editor

Directing Writing

A world-famous chess grandmaster is led into a game of psychological cat and mouse when he accepts a challenge from an overzealous fan.