Devin Shears

Writer/Director/Producer from St. John’s, Newfoundland currently based in Toronto.

For all inquiries please email:

devins@nl.rogers.com

Feature Films

Cherub (2024. Writer & Director)
Coming soon.

A gentle character study of Harvey (Benjamin Turnbull) – a straight, fat man who decides to submit a photograph of himself to a gay magazine for ‘big men and their admirers’.

A small movie with a huge empathetic core.
        -Journey into Cinema
Shears’ big-hearted, small-scale tale of self-actualization and body positivity takes an expansive attitude toward queerness.
        -Toronto Film Critics Association
If art is an act of love, then Cherub is a piece of art of the highest order.
        -Taylor Bishop

Produced by Mithila Majithia and Devin Shears, Cinematography by Nick Tiringer, Production Design by Annette Wanjiku Wanjiru, Editing by Devin Shears, 1st AD Rebeca Ortiz, Sound Design by Michelle Lacour, Score by Anastasia Westcott

Made at York University’s Film MFA program with Supervisor John Greyson and Reader Mary Bunch and supported by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Notable Screenings:

Vancouver International Film Festival

Festival du Nouveau Cinema

Internationaal Filmfestival Assen

BFI Flare

Short Films

Grown in Darkness (2022. Writer & Director)

Watch here.

Henry (Andy Jones) lives alone on his farm growing rhubarb in a dark cellar when his friend Emmanuel (Lawrence Barry) arrives to collect the harvest. Together the two spend a few days tentatively exploring the boundaries of their relationship in this short film about loneliness and longing in the later years of life.

Produced by Anna Wheeler, Cinematography by Duncan De Young, Production Design by Hilary Thomson, Editing by Justin Simms, 1st AD Jackie Hynes, Score by Anastasia Westcott

Made through NIFCO and Telefilm’s Picture Start Program. Supported by Canada Council for the Arts, The Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, ArtsNL, The City of St. John’s.

Notable Screenings:
FIN Atlantic Film Festival (Joan Orenstein & David Renton Award for Outstanding Performance in Acting - Andy Jones)

Vancouver International Film Festival

Charlottetown Film Festival (Best Screenplay, Best Emerging Screenwriter)

GAZE

Iris Prize

A Dreaming House (2018. Director & Editor)

Watch here.

A field recordist listens in on the dreams and nightmares of an old house.

Sound Design by Anastasia Westcott, Cinematography by Meaghan Gable, performance and field recordings by Alex Hennessey

Supported by ArtsNL.

Notable Screenings:

Vancouver International Film Festival

Anti-Matter

FIN Atlantic Film Festival

The Nickel Independent Film Festival

The Inn of Olde (2016. Writer, Director & Editor)

Watch here.

Sadie (Mary Walsh) is an aging downtown girl trying to make her way across the oldest city in North America so that she can see her Niece perform on television. However, on her journey she is haunted by visions of her past. "The Inn of Olde" is an exploration of memory, place, and how easily a life of hardship can manifest itself outwardly.

Cinematography by Kevin Coffey

Notable Screenings:

The Nickel Independent Film Festival

Hiraeth (2016. Writer & Director)

A woman whose life is built around a poisonous forest is plagued by visions of her partner until she encounters a mythical creature that is said to grant wishes.

Produced by Mithila Majithia, Cinematography by Meaghan Gable, Production Design by Kaitlyn Leewing, Editing by Graham Brunt, Starring Alison Edwards-Crewe and Erica Anderson

Made at Toronto Metropolitan University

Notable Screenings:

FIN Atlantic Film Festival

The Nickel Independent Film Festival