One of the most compelling and versatile filmmakers working in Canada today, Madison Thomas was named one of Playback Magazine’s “Five Filmmakers to Watch” in 2019. A storyteller of mixed ancestry (Ojibwe/Saulteux & Russian/Ukrainian settler), Thomas is based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba in Treaty 1 territory. She has a rapidly growing number of credits as a writer, director and editor across several genres, formats and platforms. Her nuanced and unique work has played festivals and won awards worldwide.

Thomas’s artistic voice first emerged from within Winnipeg’s independent film scene, with her short narrative and documentary work quickly garnering her national attention. She was selected as a finalist in the 2014 CBC Short Film Face-off with her short drama “Out of Reach.”

Thomas is an alumni of Prague Film School, the 2016 Women in the Director’s Chair Program and the 2019 Canadian Academy Program for Female Directors. She is a member of the Director’s Guild of Canada.

Thomas was a key director, editor, and researcher for the award-winning APTN/CBC factual series Taken, which shared the stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada for four seasons. Thomas and the Taken research team were honoured with a Canadian Screen Award nomination for their work on the series.

In addition to her vast short film filmography, Thomas has led two Telefilm-supported feature films. Her first feature “Ruthless Souls” created with producer Darcy Waite, was part of the inaugural “Talent to Watch” program in 2018. Ruthless Souls premiered at the 20th Imaginative Film Festival, was selected for the 2020 Mill Valley Film Festival, and was chosen to be part of the “Perspective Canada” program at the 2019 Berlinale Film Festival. The film also played the 2020 Gimli Film Festival and Thomas won that year’s “Best Manitoba Director Award.”

Thomas went to camera with her second feature film, post-apocalyptic drama “Finality of Dusk” in the spring of 2021. She co-wrote the film with Deaf filmmaker Katarina Ziervogel with Eagle Vision producing.

Recent TV credits include writing and directing on season 4 of the CBC/CW hit legal drama “Burden of Truth”, writing and voice-directing for the TVO animated pre-school series “Wolf Joe”, directing on season 2 of CBC/IMDBTV/Netflix comedy “Pretty Hard Cases” as well as the hit new CBC/Paramount + series “Skymed.” Thomas’ feature documentary on legendary songwriter and activist Buffy Sainte Marie premiered on the opening night of TIFF 2022, and garnered Thomas a recognition for Best Feature from an Emerging BIPOC Filmmaker in the Amplify Voices Awards. Thomas is also nominated for a Directors Guild of Canada’s Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary. The film will premiere on television in Canada on Crave, and in the States on PBS’s American Masters. Among the other recent and upcoming festivals include DOCNYC, Calgary International Film Festival, and Whistler Film Festival.

Thomas is also a committed youth mentor. She’s taught filmmaking and leadership skills to youth with various organizations and programs both in Winnipeg and internationally since 2013. In 2016 Thomas gave a TedX talk called “Arts in the Hood” on her journey as an artist and the importance of art programming for inner-city and low-income youth.