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Undertow Entertainment was founded in 2011 by Jim Donovan, multiple award-winning writer, director and producer with over 30 years experience in television and film.  With a focus on emerging talent, Undertow Entertainment is developing world-class content for all media platforms. Through creative and strategic alliances, Undertow seeks to nurture uniquely creative projects from inception to production and beyond.

Jim Donovan
A short intro...

Jim loves telling stories. He shot his first short film at age 13 on his mother’s Argus-Cosina Super-8 camera in Los Angeles (of course…). At 18 he managed to score a 12k grant and made a 16 minute short on nuclear armageddon, Ahimsa, which he submitted to festivals including in Moscow where he received an honorable mention. Film school followed, then cutting his teeth making music videos, commercials and independent films.

Making magic on the screen has shaped his entire life. After learning his craft in the Montreal scene he relocated to Toronto to explore further afield. He has shot award-winning scripted series, docs and films for producers in Canada and internationally in both English and French.  His work has been broadcast on CTV, CBC, CBS, Universal TV, MTV, LMN, NatGeo, Gaumont, Discovery, Fox Family, Nickelodeon, TVA, SRC, Showcase, Netflix and TV5 Monde.

3 Seasons, his second feature, won multiple international awards, including the Borsos for Best Canadian Feature at the 2008 Whistler Film Festival, and multiple nominations at the 2010 Genies including for Best Picture.  He won the 2013 Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction in a TV series for Flashpoint.  In 2014, his episode of CBC’s Cracked, Ghost Dance, was nominated for Best TV Drama at the DGC Awards. His limited series Le Clan aired on SRC in 2016 to rave reviews, and was nominated in the international competition at the Manneheim-Heidelberg International Film festival. in 2018 he directed the true-crime television movie Believe Me, The Abduction of Lisa McVey for Cineflix and Lifetime which received 6 nominations at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards, winning for Best TV Movie. Believe Me was released worldwide on Netflix in 2021 and went viral, with user-generated clips on TikTok numbering over 500M, and went on to be the #1 film on Netflix for the week of June 1st in several major markets including the UK, Ireland, Australia, Columbia and New Zealand.

Currently, Jim is supporting the release of a feature documentary for the NFB titled Koromousso, premiering at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in Toronto, London and New York. He is also in active development with CMF support for his scripted series Paradise Lost, in co-production with Byron A. Martin Productions, Toronto and  AAA Entertainment, South Africa.

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