Biography
Sarah Ellen Polley OC (born January 8, 1979) is a Canadian filmmaker, political activist and retired actress. She first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary's books. This subsequently led to her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea (1990–1996). She has starred in many feature films, including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter (1997...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Beethoven's Nine: Ode to Humanity
2024
Executive Producer
Can a work of art remain relevant 200 years after its creation? Ludwig van Beethoven’s last completed symphony proves it’s possible.

Women Talking
2022
Screenplay, Director
A group of women in an isolated religious colony struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony's men.

Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power
2019
as Self - Filmmaker
The views and thoughts of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood have never been more relevant than today. Readers turn to her work for answers as they confr...
The Secret Path
2016
Executive Producer
The Secret Path is an animated film adaptation of Gord Downie's album and Jeff Lemire's graphic novel. Working with Downie's poetry and music, Lemire ...

Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women
2014
as Self
Using rare footage and exclusive interviews with filmmakers from all over the globe, "Reel Herstory" corrects the historic notion that women behind th...

Stories We Tell
2012
as Self (uncredited)
Canadian actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley investigates certain secrets related to her mother, interviewing a group of family members and friends who...

Stories We Tell
2012
Director, Writer
Canadian actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley investigates certain secrets related to her mother, interviewing a group of family members and friends who...

Take This Waltz
2011
Producer, Director, Writer
Twenty-eight-year-old Margot is happily married to Lou, a good-natured cookbook author. But when Margot meets Daniel, a handsome artist who lives acro...

Trigger
2010
as Hillary
Ten years after ending their partnership as rock musicians, two women become re-acquainted in the course of one night.

Splice
2010
as Elsa
Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together huma...

Mr. Nobody
2009
as Adult Elise
Nemo Nobody leads an ordinary existence with his wife and 3 children; one day, he wakes up as a mortal centenarian in the year 2092.

The Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen
2008
as Self - 'Sally Salt'
This is an all new feature length documentary, with interviews from almost everyone involved with the production of the film. Gilliam never shies away...

Wrath of Gods
2007
as Self
When Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson set upon Iceland to film Beowulf & Grendel starring Gerard Butler and Stellan Skarsgard in 2004, they expecte...

Away from Her
2007
Director, Writer
Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. ...

The Secret Life of Words
2005
as Hanna
A solitary nurse bonds with a badly burned patient who survived an accident on an oil rig.

Beowulf & Grendel
2005
as Selma
The blood-soaked tale of a Norse warrior's battle against the great and murderous troll, Grendel. Heads will roll. Out of allegiance to the King Hroth...

Don't Come Knocking
2005
as Sky
Howard Spence has seen better days. Once a big Western movie star, he now drowns his disgust for his selfish and failed life with alcohol, drugs and y...

Siblings
2004
as Tabby
Joe and his siblings have a couple of problems. First off, their stepparents are despicably evil. Secondly, they seemed to have killed them. Now this ...

Sugar
2004
as Pregnant Girl
Cliff receives an unusual 18th birthday gift from his younger sister — marijuana, alcohol, a subway token and the mission to lose his virginity. This ...

Luck
2004
as Margaret
Shane Bradley, who is fixated on ideas of luck and destiny, tries to win the girl of his dreams. After their relationship falters, Shane begins to thi...

The I Inside
2004
as Clair
When Simon awakens in the hospital after surviving a near-fatal accident, amnesia has erased the last two years from his memory. He learns that his br...

Dawn of the Dead
2004
as Ana
A group of survivors take refuge in a shopping mall after the world is taken over by aggressive, flesh-eating zombies.

My Life Without Me
2003
as Ann
A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.
Dermott's Quest
2003
as Gwen
A man stuck in a rut takes his girlfriend to a medieval festival.

The Event
2003
as Dana Shapiro
Manhattan prosecutor Nick is charged with looking into the untimely death of city resident Matt, a musician who had AIDS. As she questions Matt's loya...

No Such Thing
2002
as Beatrice
A young journalist journeys to Iceland to find her missing fiancé only to encounter a mythical creature who longs to die.

I Shout Love
2002
Director, Writer
Bobby is about to abandon Tessa, but in a suicidal panic she persuades him to stay one last night and reenact the good old times in front of a video c...

The Claim
2000
as Hope Burn
A prospector sells his wife and daughter to another gold miner for the rights to a gold mine. Twenty years later, the prospector is a wealthy man who ...

Preludes
2000
Commissioned by the Toronto International Film Festival to mark the event's 25th anniversary in September 2000, the "Preludes" program consisted of te...

The Law of Enclosures
2000
as Beatty 'Beatrice'
Story of the same couple, first in their teenage years and then in their twilight years, paradoxically set in the same time during the backdrop of the...

The Weight of Water
2000
as Maren Hontvedt
A newspaper photographer researches an 1873 double homicide and finds her own life paralleling that of a witness who survived the tragic ordeal.

This Might Be Good
2000
A festival is a concentration of hope. Audiences hungering for something startingly new, famously familiar or just plain "good". Actors hoping their w...

Love Come Down
2000
as Sister Sarah
Two brothers in their early 20s, one black, one white, each the other's keeper since their family was torn apart by a decade old tragedy. Neville is a...
Don't Think Twice
1999
Director, Producer, Writer
A black comedy, Don't Think Twice is a disturbing and profound examination of the morals of a man forced to choose between lover and family.

The Life Before This
1999
as Connie
Several innocent persons are hurt after two robbers, fleeing from the police, run into a neighborhood cafe.

Guinevere
1999
as Harper Sloane
A young girl from an affluent family rebels and becomes involved with a much older photographer.

eXistenZ
1999
as Merle
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been dam...

Go
1999
as Ronna Martin
A supermarket clerk decides to step in for an absent drug dealer, setting off an explosive, comedic chain of events.

The Best Day of My Life
1999
Screenplay, Director
Short drama by Sarah Polley. The film was made for the "On the Fly 4" film festival. The film was shot and edited in one day.

Jerry and Tom
1998
as Deb
Tom and Jerry are two hit men, they work by day at a third-rate second-hand car dealership. Tom is a veteran and Jerry is a novice in their business, ...

Last Night
1998
as Jennifer Wheeler
Various citizens of Toronto anxiously await the end of the world, which is occurring at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day.

White Lies
1998
as Catherine
How can a smart middle class girl suddenly turn into a devoted right wing debater? That's what happens with Catherine when she meets the charismatic l...

The Sweet Hereafter
1997
as Nicole Burnell
A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives...

The Planet of Junior Brown
1997
as Butter
Powerful story about love, struggle and passion of an over protective mother and her piano prodigy.

The Hanging Garden
1997
as Teen Rosemary
William, a once obese and troubled teen, goes back to his family's home after being gone, without word, for ten years and finds it (and his family) ha...

Joe's So Mean to Josephine
1997
as Josephine
Josephine has her eye on Joe, a hot-headed, petty criminal who taps phones for a living. When she finally worms her way into his heart she realises it...
Children First!
1996
as Host
A collection of 7 animation short films inspired by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Each NFB award-winning film, in their pe...

Exotica
1994
as Tracey
In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, th...

Johann's Gift to Christmas
1992
as The Angel
A mouse from the streets and a church mouse try to help a priest and an organist save Christmas by composing a Christmas carol.
Road to Avonlea: The Movie
1990
After her father is accused of embezzlement, wealthy Sara Stanley is sent to live with her deceased mother's relatives on Prince Edward Island. While ...

Lantern Hill
1989
as Jody Turner
In 1935 Toronto, Jane Stuart's mother has taken ill, and the two of them have temporarily moved in with her rich, snobbish grandmother, where Jane is ...

Babar: The Movie
1989
as Young Celeste
Children's book authors Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff's most beloved elephant comes to the big screen in this animated family tale. Elephant monarch Ki...

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
1988
as Sally Salt
An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.

Blue Monkey
1987
as Ellen
While working in a greenhouse, a man receives an insect bite after touching an exotic plant. Immediately, he falls ill and is taken to an emergency ro...

The Big Town
1987
as Christy Donaldson
It is 1957. J.C. Cullen is a young man from a small town, with a talent for winning at craps, who leaves for the big city to work as a professional ga...

Hands of a Stranger
1987
as Suzie Hearn
A New York cop becomes obsessed with finding his wife's rapist.

Pretty Kill
1987
as Karla
A detective tries to track down a serial killer who is murdering prostitutes while at the same time having to deal with his girlfriend's mental proble...

Heaven On Earth
1987
as Becky Hawthorne
An armful of destitute orphans transported to the New World at the turn of the century. This is the turbulent and moving story of four British 'bricks...

The Incredible Time-Travels of Henry Osgood
1986
A college professor wishes he could live in Victorian England. Through a scientific experiment that goes wrong, he is able to make his dream come true...

Confidential
1986
as Emma (child)
The year is 1949 and reporter Hugh Jameson is looking for a story. He focuses on Emma Porter, a woman who was accused of the axe murder of her father ...

One Magic Christmas
1985
as Molly Monaghan
Ginny Grainger, a young mother, rediscovers the joy and beauty of Christmas, thanks to the unshakable faith of her six-year-old daughter Abbie and Gid...
& Sons
N/A
Writer
Andrew is a novelist best known to the world as A.N. Dyer. He wrote his first book when he was 27, and it became an instant classic, selling 45 millio...
The Best Kind of People
N/A
Screenplay, Director, Producer
A community turns against a respected prep school teacher and his family after he is arrested for a sex crime.