Our Company


The Film Works is an independent production company founded by partners Paul Stephens and Eric Jordan. The company has earned an outstanding reputation for entertaining, innovative, premium drama in both feature film and television.


The Film Works' feature film Beowulf & Grendel, is a powerful historical epic based on the poem, Beowulf, starring Gerard Butler and Stellan Skarsgard (See www.beowulfandgrendel.com). This Canada-UK-Iceland co-production was released across Canada and the U.S. in 2006. The Film Works produced Julie Walking Home (Miranda Otto, William Fichtner), an international co-production from acclaimed writer-director Agnieszka Holland, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. The Film Works worked with Canadian director David Sutherland's to produce Love, Sex and Eating The Bones (Hill Harper) which won Best First Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival. Earlier features include the film adaptation of Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey ( Roshan Seth, Om Puri, Ranjit Chowdry), a Canada-UK co-production and multiple Genie Award winner, and two features by acclaimed writer-director Clement Virgo, Love Come Down (Larenz Tate, Sarah Polley, Deborah Cox) and The Planet of Junior Brown (Lynn Whitfield, Margot Kidder, Sarah Polley), which won the Grand Prize at the Urban World Film Festival in New York. Our first feature was Ganesh: Ordinary Magic, directed by Giles Walker, winner of the Grand Prize at the Frankfurt Kinderfest.


The Film Works started production in 1980 with Spirit Bay, the first North American television series with an all Native cast, starring Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal and Gary Farmer. Spirit Bay was broadcast on networks around the world. The Film Works' first television movie, Where the Spirit Lives, produced for CBC and PBS American Playhouse, was also broadcast worldwide, winning more than twenty international awards, including the Gemini Award for Best Television Movie. Life With Billy captured the TV Movie Prize at the San Francisco Film Festival. The Arrow, a mini-series starring Dan Aykroyd, won the Chrysler Award for the Most Popular Canadian TV Program, and six Gemini awards. Cowboys and Indians: The Killing of JJ Harper, starring Adam Beach, premiered on the CBC and Starz. Other outstanding TV credits include Lyddie, a family film for CBC and BBC, On My Mind, a children's series for international television, and the documentary series, Working Animals, for Discovery Channel.


The Film Works continues to work with outstanding writers, directors and international partners to develop and produce remarkable feature films.

Gerry Butler in Beowulf and Grendel

Gerard Butler filming Beowulf and Grendel

Miranda Ott, William Fichtner in Julie Walking Home

Miranda Otto, William Fichtner in Julie Walking Home

Dan Aykroyd in The Arrow

Dan Aykroyd in The Arrow

Adam Beach in Cowboys and Indians

Adam Beach in Cowboys and Indians: The
Killing of JJ Harper