Matthew Rankin is a Canadian experimental filmmaker.[1] His feature-length debut, The Twentieth Century, premiered in 2019 and was nominated for eight Canadian Screen Awards, winning three.[2]
His second feature film, Universal Language (Une langue universelle), premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival,[3][4] The film was longlisted for the 2024 Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award,[5] and was selected as the Canadian entry for the Academy Award for the Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.[6][7]
He has also received accolades for his 2014 film Mynarski Death Plummet, which was a shortlisted Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards[8] and a shortlisted Jutra Award nominee for Best Short Film at the 17th Jutra Awards,[9] and his 2017 film The Tesla World Light, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Animated Short at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards and received an Honourable Mention for the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.[10]
Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, he studied history at McGill University and Université Laval.
He has also had occasional small acting roles in other directors' films, most recently the 2022 films This House (Cette maison) and Before I Change My Mind.